March 



1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^VORLD 



207 



THE EDITOR'S BOOK TABLE. 



TEN THOUSAND MILKS IN A VACHT ROUND THE WEST INDIES AND 

 Up the Amazon. By Richard Arthur, Introduction by William M. Ivins, 

 New Vork : E. P. Dutton & Co [Cloth, la mo. Pp. J53. Price $2 ] 



A BOOK on the Amazon region, by a competent obser- 

 ver, is so rare that the appearance of a new one de- 

 serves notice for this reason alone, but when it posesses the 

 exceptional charm of Mr. Arthur's little work, the reviewer 

 is teniptetl to linger long over it. Its raison d' etre is to 

 chroniclf the history of a yacht cruise which Mr. Ivins, in 

 his introdnction — and one may be pardoned for referring to 

 his riper experience in the regions described than almost any 

 other writer who has visited the Great River — calls " one ol 

 the rarest incidents in the lives of several of a party of close 

 friends, with some of whom the shadows are already begin- 

 ning to grow long." Tlie delights of the cruise of the Vir- 

 ginia, with Commodore Benedict as host, necessarily were 

 confined to verj' few, but they will now be shared by all who 

 may be so fortunate as to read the impressionist sketches in 

 which our author has word-pictured, not merely the wonder- 

 ful Amazon country, but the lands and islands at which the 

 Virginia touched in going and coming between ManS.os and 

 New York. The book gives no impression of being intended 

 to afford information, but most readers will finish its 

 perusal with a sense of having become aware of a hith- 

 erto undiscovered country. The Virginia's cruise was 

 not without a commercial side, for everybody in the party 

 was interested in rubber, which, as i\Ir. Arthur puts it, "is 

 the material basis of practically the whole human life of the 

 Amazon valley." But the author's written descriptions, 

 and the wealth of pictorial illustrations bring out strikingly 

 the many beauties and wouders of the greatest of rivers, and 

 of the South American land, " where it seemed%riways after- 

 noon." To quote Mr. Ivins again, those who have known 

 the tropics can ever after feel the South a-calling, as Kip- 

 ling did the East. As for Mr. Arthur, The India Rubber 

 Wqri,d hopes that the success of his first book will serve to 

 keep him long in the field of authorship. 



MODERN MACHINE SHOP CONSTRUCTION. EQUIPMENT AND 

 Management. By Oscar E, Perrigo, M. E., New York; The Norman W. 

 Henley Publishing Co. 1906. ] Cloth. Quarto. Pp.343. Price $j] 



While this is a comprehensive and practical treatise on 

 the economical building, efEcient equipment, and successful 

 management of a machine shop, it is just as applicable to 

 rubber factories or any other manufacturing establishments. 

 It describes and illustrates a most simple and efficient time 

 and cost system and treats at length of other details that 

 are equally important to all those concerned in the erection, 

 equipment or management of any large manufacturing or 

 industrial plant and is of equal value and interest to the 

 employes of such establishments. The book is illustrated 

 with 200 drawings made especialh' for this work by the 

 author. 



MATERIALIENKUNDE FUR DEN KAUTSCHUK-TECHNIKER EIN 

 Hand- und Nachschlagebuch. Bearbeitet von Richird Marzahn, dipl. Hut- 

 leningenieur-Chemiker. Dresden : Steinkopff& Springer. 1906. [Clotli, 

 8 vo. Pp. [6] + 416 Price 13.50 marks.] 



This volume consists of a series of notes intended to be of 

 practical value in the rubber and allied industries, prepared by 

 a technical e.xpert and presented under an alphabetical ar- 

 rangement of topics. This material has been appearing for 

 some time past in the periodical issues of Ginnmi- Zeitting , 

 and it now appears that the author is Mr. Richard Marzahn, 

 a chemical engineer of standing in Dresden. In a measure 



the nature and the arrangement of the material in this book 

 suggests Mr. Pearson's " Crude Rubber and Compounding 

 Ingredients." One difierence however, is that fewer ma- 

 terials are treated and these at greater length, and some- 

 what in more technical style, so far as chemistrj' is con- 

 cerned. Another point which distinguishes Marzahn 's 

 book is its inclusion of various materials which, while they 

 may be called for in connection with rubber goods, have not . 

 hitherto usually been treated in technical works on rubber. 

 For instance, 6 pages are devoted to asbestos, 3 to asphalt, 

 2 to aluminum, 3 to camphor, 2 to cotton, and zyz to silk. 

 The style in which the book is got up is attractive and it 

 appears well adapted for a ready reference book. 



REPORT ON RUBBER IN THE GOLD COAST. BY W. H JOHNSON 

 F. L. s., dire, tor of agriculture. lAccra] Gold Coast ; Government Ptiniing 

 Press. 1905. [8 vo. Pp 15) 



REPORT UPON THE BOTANICAL AND Ai;RICULTURAL DEPARTMENT 

 [Gold Coast Colony I for the Year 1904, by W. H. Johnson, director of agricul- 

 ture. London: Waterlow & Sons, Limited. 1905. [Folio Pp. 25.] 



Mr. Johnson, whose interest in promoting the culture of 

 rubber led him to prepare a book on "The Cultivation and 

 Preparation of Para Rubber ", which was reviewed in these 

 columns a few months ago, continues to devote no small 

 part of his energies to stimulating the interest in rubber cul- 

 ture in theGold Coast Colony (West Africa), and theencour- 

 aging results, with Hevca and /^uritumia species, are detailed 

 in his official reports. 



IN CURRENT PERIODICALS. 



KauTSCHUKKUI,Tur in Deli. By Kurt Basse [A studyof prog- 

 ress in rubber planting in northeastern Sumatra, particularly of 

 Ficus elastica ~\=Der Tropcnflanzer, Berlin, X-2 (February, 1906). 

 Pp. 88 106 



Einiges user ZaK(/o//>Aia. By John Booth. [A sum mar v oiiTitAsxt- 



garding this genus.] =ZP^'' 7"rtf/<r»/»/?3nzf>-, Berlin. IX-ia (December, 



1905). Ph. 712-716. 



* « » 



The London India- Rubber Journal has issued its sixth an- 

 nual " Diary and Year Book." containing pages for memor- 

 anda for each business day during 1906, together with a printed 

 section containing much trade and statistical data of use to the 

 rubber branch in Great Britain, conveniently arranged for 

 reference. The yearly editions of -this work have shown con- 

 tinuous improvement and the publishers express their pleasure, 

 at the steady growth in the appreciation shown by their patrons. 



FRENCH BUY ENGLISH OILCLOTH. 



CONSUL MURPHY, of Bordeaux, responds to a letter 

 from .South Carolina requesting information in regard 

 to the manufacture of table oilcloth and the extent of its use 

 in the Bordeaux district. He replies ; 



" There is not a single manufactory of table oilcloth in 

 the ten departments of France within the jurisdiction of this 

 consulate. The only oilcloth factory in France of any im- 

 portance is in the Department of Seine-Inferieure. The use 

 of table oilcloth is, however, almost universal throughout 

 the south of France, but whether American manufacturers 

 would be able to compete successfully with the English firms 

 who largely control the market is a question I am unable to 

 answer in the absence of full information respecting prices 

 and grades. In my inquiries respecting this matter among 

 the leading houses in Bordeaux selling this particular line 

 of goods I find that thefirmof James Williamson & Sons, of 

 Lancaster, England, seems to be able to control the French 

 market for table oilcloths and to establish prices." 



