342 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July 



1903. 



ADULTERATION OF RUBBER. 



TI I F compounding or adulteration of crude Indiarubber at 

 first hands — in other words, by the gatherers— is an evil 

 which both importers and manufacturers strenuously resent. 

 Every importer and almost every manufacturer at times has 

 been surprised and annoyed to find lumps or balls of rubber, 

 the interior of which developed billets of wood, stones, bricks, 

 cast off clothing, and a variety of worthless " make weights." 

 In order to guard against this, when rubber is accepted from 

 the gatherers it usually is cut open for an examination of the 

 interior. This method being generally followed, serves to check 

 this sort of dishonesty. Many lots of rubber, however, are 



causes ; exhaustion of the rubber trees, the admixture of milks 

 other than those coming from the Htvea, the addition of 

 earthy substances and finally its mixture with farinaceous sub- 

 stances, such as fecula, starches, etc., and in proportions such 

 as could not have occurred by accident. What has brought 

 about these results? At any rate this fraud should not be al- 

 lowed to continue; it should be arraigned, stopped, and de- 

 stroyed. Such a destructive state of things to our industries 

 must be brought to a stop, or it will in the future become dis- 

 astrous if obstacles are not placed in its progress. Action 

 should be taken at the earliest possible moment by giving the 

 greatest publicity to the proof of this state of things. Insist 

 on the merchants furnishing pure material, and that they in 

 their turn demand pure material from the importers and those 

 who gather the material, so that the milk from the Htvea may 

 be pure, that there may be no mixtures with other milks, that 

 there may be no mixture with earthy matter, and above all 

 that there may be no addition of farinaceous substances in the 

 milk before hardening or coagulation and finally that the pro- 

 duct may be no longer suspected and that it become what it 

 was in former years." 



OUTWARD APPEARANCE OF RUBBER. 



passed which contain such adulterants. In the illustrations 

 shown herewith, cut No. 1 shows a lump of "Central Strip" 

 which to the outward view was all right. Upon cutting it open, 

 however, almost the whole of the interior was found to be made 

 up of a lot of old rope, which, to say the least, was not worth 

 60 cents a pound. 



This sort of dishonesty is easy to detect, but there are adul- 

 terations of both Para rubber and Gutta-percha which so far 

 are discovered only when the gums are used in manufacture. 

 Whether or not the general value of Pard rubber is less to-day 

 than it was thirty years ago is a question, and those experts in 

 the trade who have been interviewed seem to be about evenly 



COIL OF ROPE FOUND IN RUBBER. 



divided on the subject. Apropos of this is an extract from a 

 letter received by The India Rubber World from G. Lamy- 

 Torrilhon, of Paris, in which he speaks of the experiences of 

 French manufacturers as follows: 



" I would be interested in knowing if the American manufac- 

 turers, like the French manufacturers, have observed, that the 

 original material (Para rubber) has been made fraudulent, or 

 at least that the original material is no longer what it formerly 

 was. It is evident that Para is no longer now what it once 

 was, and when we consider during a period of thirty years, and 

 even less, the difference between a piece of Para of to day and 

 previous to that time, we will find an enormous difference. 

 What produces this difference? It is the result of different 



VALUE TO GERMANY OF EXPORT TRADE. 



AN improving tendency in German business conditions is 

 noted in a recent report by the United States consul gen- 

 eral at Berlin, Mr. Frank H. Mason, who has been stationed in 

 Germany for many years and has become widely recognized as 

 competent to deal with the subject to which this report re- 

 lates. His report concludes : 



" The most striking fact which is suggested by the record of 

 1902 is the priceless value to Germany of the export trade which 

 her manufacturers and merchants had, with the aid of thegreat 

 and growing German mercantile marine, built up and organized 

 on a secure basis during the prosperous years since 1893. 

 Whatever divided counsels may have since prevailed in respect 

 to the fiscal policy of the empire, every broad minded econo- 

 mist knows that the material progress and greatness of Ger- 

 many have been due to her industries and commerce, and that 

 her sheet anchor in the stormy weather of the past two years 

 has been her foreign trade." 



The new German tariff act, which passed the reichstagon 

 December 13. 1902, has been designed with a view to more 

 strongly protecting home industries of every class. While its 

 enactment has been announced by imperial decree, the new 

 aw will not become operative until Germany has concluded 

 new commercial treaties with several nations, in negotiating 

 which the attempt will be made to secure more favorable terms 

 for the introduction of German products into the different 

 countries. In other words, the German import duties will be 

 levied with a view to discriminating against countries which 

 decline to grant reciprocal favors. The ratification of the new 

 treaties, however, rests with the new reichstag elected in June, 

 for which reason the result of the elections was looked (or with 

 interest in many countries. 



The report 1902 of The Straits Settlements botanic gardens, 

 mentions the distribution of 126,210 young plants of Heven 

 Brasilliensis (Pard rubber). The demand for seeds has fallen 

 off, because so many of the trees now growing on plantations 

 are fruiting. Mr. C. Curtis, at the Waterfall garden, in Penang, 

 reports the seventh yearly tapping of a large Pard rubber tree, 

 with a yield of 2 pounds 13J4 ounces, which brings the average 

 for seven years up to 2 pounds 10 ounces. Mr. Curtis will write 

 a report on the forest department in the Malay states. 



