290 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June 



1903. 



I HE BOOM IN SMALL MOLD WORK. 



[ T was estimated ten years ago that the number of 

 steam presses used in the manufacture of small 

 molded articles in rubber in the United States was about 

 700 ; to day there are more than 2000. As a rule the 

 business attaches itself to those factories that make me- 

 chanical rubber goods, but it also grows up gradually in 

 plants that are devoted primarily to the manufacture of 

 tires, druggists' sundries, etc. It is a very rare occur- 

 rence, however, when any of the producers of dry heat 

 goods, such as boots and shoes, mackintoshes, or insulated 

 wire, create such a department. 



The remarkable growth of this line points to many con- 

 ditions favorable both to the rubber business and to gen- 

 eral industrial conditions. There is hardly a line of 

 manufactured goods, of machines, of tools, or of artisans' 

 creation, that does not call for some supplementary part 

 made of rubber and for which there is no practical substi- 

 tute. To a very large extent these supplementary articles 

 of rubber are molded. Furthermore, every day adds to 

 the list of such articles and the business grows quietly, 

 but none the less vigorously. 



It is by and large a very satisfactory business, for it 

 means the development of a special knowledge of fitness 

 in compounding and cure, as well as much experience and 

 accuracy in the planning of molds, estimating of shrink- 

 ages, and economy in waste and handling. Nor is it a 

 bad class of customers to have on one's books, for risks 

 are distributed over a large territory, covering such a 

 multitude that it would take a financial cyclone to involve 

 the manufacturer in serious loss. 



SURFACE CLOTHING AGAIN IN FAVOR. 



T^ HERE are not wanting those who predict that the gos- 

 *■ samer garment for both sexes will one day come 

 back to favor and be as popular as it was a score of years 

 ago. However this may t be, it is certain that regula- 

 tion surface clothing that for a time almost disappeared as 

 a trade factor, has taken on a new lease of life, and if con- 

 ditions continue will in a brief time be in as healthy a con- 

 dition as ever. A potent reason for its decline lies, beyond 

 the question of a doubt, in the fact that under the spur of 

 fierce competition certain manufacturers burdened the 

 rubber with a larger percentage of compound than it could 

 stand and still retain its wearing and rain-resisting qual- 

 ities. After a time such of the public as could find a sub- 

 stitute for rubber garments either in oil clothing, mackin- 

 toshes, shower proof goods, etc., forsook rubber entirely. 

 The poor goods soon disappeared from the market, that is 

 to a degree, while of better goods there was a fair and 

 steady demand. Each one of these good garments has dur- 

 ing the past few years been acting as a trade missionary to 

 bring its type back into favor. Apparently the work has 

 been in a measure successful, and there is no reason why 

 sales cannot be constantly increased and the line remain 

 in permanent favor if only good goods at fair prices are 

 furnished. 



ONE MAN AND A GOING CONCERN. 



ALL trades have him ; yea, all professions. He may in a 

 manufacturing proposition be manager, superintendent, 

 or valued foreman, or even a skilled workman in charge of 

 some special process. Whatever place he fills it is his belief 

 and often that of his associates that he is absolutely indispen- 

 sable, that if he were to leave all would go wrong, that dry rot 

 would begin and the business shrink and shrink until it per- 

 ished or he came back. 



As a matter of fact, such an individual does not exist except 

 in the imagination. No individual is necessary to the world's 

 progress, happiness, or stability. Death teaches that daily by 

 removing the human props to all sorts of enterprises, which if 

 worthy stand just the same, nay, often are more firmly placed, 

 more ready to expand along natural lines. 



One has but to look back at the brilliant minds that once 

 dominated the rubber trade, now passed beyond, to feel how 

 futile it is for any one to arrogate to himself a position that 

 cannot be filled by another. 



Nor do the real leaders indulge in such self deception. It is 

 the man of moderate attainment, of huge vanity, who believes 

 that his resignation will stop the wheels of progress, that the 

 house for which he has labored and helped to establish will fall 

 unless his shoulder be under it. The chances are it will take a 

 new lease of life, and the falling will come within his province. 



This is not penned as a discourager to ambition, orto any who 

 do not deserve it, but is simply a bit of thinking done on paper 

 following the visit of one who is going to leave his old concern 

 and carry his knowledge to a rival. The bet is that the former 

 profits and the latter loses. Any takers? 



THE RUSH FOR GARDEN HOSE. 



THREE weeks ago — in fact, ever since the hose season 

 opened — it looked as if sales were to be light, and in 

 consequence manufacturers did not stock up as they have been 

 wont to do. With the advent of the sudden warm weather, 

 however, and the drouth that extends over a very large area of 

 the L'nited States, has come a flood of hurry orders that have 

 started every hose machine to running at its full capacity. 

 This condition of affairs is both satisfactory and provoking. It 

 means to the jobber and manufacturer a greater output, to be 

 sure, but it also involves for the former a vexatious wait for 

 goods, and to the latter greater cost in manufacture on account 

 of extra pay for " overtime " workers, a higher price for cotton 

 duck, and hindrance in other departments. As no weather 

 prophet has yet qualified who has the confidence of this por- 

 tion of the trade, is not the next best thing to strike an average 

 of hose consumption for say ten years back, allow for increase 

 of populations having waterworks, and both buyer and maker 

 base the output on such estimates? 



CEYLON RUBBER AT THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 



THE report that a government chemist in New York has 

 discovered traces of sulphur in Ceylon rubber, and thus 

 classed it among manufactured products, and therefore subject 

 to a duty of 30 per cent, ad valorem, would be amusing, were it 

 not that it may prove troublesome to both importers and rub- 

 ber manufacturers. Many people of course will be doubtful as 

 to whether any trace of sulphur was found in the rubber, in 

 spite of the care with which the analysis was probably con- 

 ducted. It is perfectly possible, however, that a certain 

 amount of sulphur was found there, as Collins, in -his work on 



