ArKri, 



1906 ] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



213 



TENDENCIES IN INSULATION WORK. 



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Wf^ 



Foblished on the let of each Month b; 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



EDiroK. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 34. 



APRIL 1, 1906. 



No 



•40B8CKIPTIONB: ta.OOperyear, $1.75 for six months, postpaltl. fertile Uiutfd 

 States and Canada. Foreign countries, same price. Special Kates for 

 Ciubs of live, ten or more Biil)8crii)ers. 



IDVKKTI8IN(): Kates wlli be made l«nown on application. 



Hkmittanckh: Sluiuiil always be made l)y liarilt draft. Post Ofllce Order or 

 Express Money orders on New Vork, payable toTHR India Kubbkk 

 PuBl.I»niN(i('iiMFANY liemlttances for forelRn subscriptions should 

 be sent by International Post order, payable as above. 



COPYRIGHT. 190'.. BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Rntered at New York Post Office as mail matter of the second^clans. 



T*BLE OF CONTENTS. 



F^uli. 



Editorial : 



TeiideiK-ies in Insulation Work 213 



Rubber Day in C"nt;ress 214 



Minor l-Mitori.il 215 



Fifty Years in the Rubber Trade 216 



I Willi I'ortiaii of Theodore E. Studley.] 



Notes on the '' Castilloa " Rubber Tree AFnne»<er 2n 



[Followed "liy Notes on Kiibher Plaiiling in Ceylon, the Malay States, 

 Mexico, and I'.lsewhere.] 



Jubilee of Dr. H. Trauti & Sons 219 



[W illi Portrait of Dr. Heinrich Tiauii ] 



Coloradi Rubber Oitdone 220 



New Trade Publicitions 220 



New Uuited Stites Rubber Shares 221 



The Editor's Book Table 221 



The Original Atomizer. I Ulu'lraled) 222 



Rubber FactoryJAppliances .. 223 



[With 3 Illustrations.] 



The Obituary Record 224 



[With Portrait of Eugene Doherty.] 



A St Louis Fair Souvenir 224 



[With 2 llluslralions.l 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. Our llcwlar Corrcujiondi 11/ 225 

 [Cultivated Rubber. Libeii.in Rubber. Notlhwestern Rubber Co., 

 Limited. The Seddon Tvre Co. Rubber Heels. Cab Tires. Asbes- 

 tos Weavine in England.! 



Th- Rubber Trade in Europe 227 



German Submarine Cable Enterprise 228 



Recent Rubber Patents 229 



[Tnitel States. Great Britain. France.] 



New Goods and Specialties in Bnbber 231 



[The ■ Matcel " Cmih New M.irket for Rubber Hnse. Spalding Rub- 

 lier I'oveied Indoor Shot. Rubber I'''orms (or Candy Making. ,'\ New 

 I'unctiire Proof 'I'ire Automatic Air B'ake Coupling. The" Kant- 

 leek" Walef Bags. The \'oorhees Conveyinc Belt. T he " C"at*s 

 Paw " Cushion Heel An English Vacuum Dust Extractor. Novel 

 Pneumatic Tire "Gibraltar 'Packing. Roedding Repair Sole and 

 Heel.] 



tWith 14 Illustrations.] 

 Hiscellaneotis : 



]5ra/.ilian Imports of Ruljber Goods 215 



AiKitlier Guayule Company 219 



Still Hunting Rubber in .•\rgentina 219 



A Report on Rubber Tapping 222 



Golfing on tlie Legal Links. (/llustraUd) 222 



Cable Laying on the Pacific 22 > 



Interest in Ceara Rubber in India 22S 



News of the American Rubber Trade 234 



The New Jersey Rtibber Industry Our Co'-respondenl 239 



The Textile Goods JIarkel 240 



Beview of the Crade Rubber Market ....240 



TV'RING the past few years the scarcity of crude 

 rubber has been so keenly felt in every class of 

 manufacture involving its use, that sub.stitutes for it 

 have been sought more actively than ever before. The 

 immense growth of the automobile industry has rendered 

 the shortage of material more serious than in past years, 

 ami the wire manufacturers have been hard pressed. 

 Now, truth to tell, there is no genuine substitute for 

 rubber. That wonderful material has qualities, mechan- 

 ical, chemical, and electrical, which cannot be dupli- 

 cated. For some special ])urpt)ses fairly successful sub- 

 stilules have been introduced, but speaking broadly, 

 ruljber still defies imitation. 



The electrical industry requires immense amounts of 

 insulating material and it has been hard hit by the 

 rapidly rising cost of the raw material. Half a do/.tn 

 years ago the result of scarcity of rubber, and keen 

 competition, appeared in rather disastrous form. A 

 great deal of very poor rubber compound was used on 

 insulated wire, producing a covering positively inade- 

 quate and unsafe. There are of course rubber com- 

 pounds which for all ordinary insulating purposes are 

 entirely adetinate, but a great deal of "cheap and nasty" 

 wire was put out. Within the later years the fire under- 

 writers have taken active steps to prevent the u.se of the 

 wretched stnll referred to and have encouraged the 

 adoption of substantially fireproof insulations contain- 

 ing uo rubber at all. 



The fact is that a bad rubber compound is less safe 

 and reliable than a rubber-free covering, provided the 

 latter is intelligently used. Tiie strongest present ten- 

 dency in insulated wire manufacture is toward the u.se, 

 not of rubber substitutes in the ordinary sense of that 

 term, but of substitutes for rubber making no pretense to- 

 ward similarity to rublier in general properties. Thus 

 for general wiring the influence of the fire underwriters 

 has tended to produce two sharply defined classes of in- 

 sulation, each with its appropriate field of usefulness — 

 first, high grade rubber insulated wire; second, "slow- 

 burning" or similar wire; and has weighed heavily 

 against the use of inferior rubber compounds. In cables 

 for underground u.se, too, the tendency is to use either 

 high grade rubber or none at all. To a very great ex- 

 tent the lower grades of rubber cable have been replaced 

 by paper and oiled linen insulated cables, which withiu 

 certain restructious are even more successful than rub- 

 ber, reserving high grade rubber for u.ses to which it is 

 especially fitted. This tendency we think is a healthy 

 one. It relieves rubber of the odium that attaches to 

 cheap and bad imitations, and sets free the rubber that 

 would be thus mi.sused for purposes of general value. 



For certain electrical work there is nothing anywhere 

 nearly as good as a first class thick rubber insulation and 

 there will be a steadily increasing demand for this grade 

 of goods. The less rubber wasted on inferior and dis- 



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