228 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1906. 



GERMAN SUBMARINE CABLE ENTERPRISE. 



[from "the electrical review," LONDON, KEHRUARV 23.] 



THE article which we publi.sh elsewlicre on the above 

 subject should, we venture to think, be read with inter- 

 est, and possibly advantage, b\- any Enjjlishman who con- 

 siders that submarine telegraph is a field in which British 

 manufacturers and engineers have a monopoly which can be 

 comfortably relied on as a permanency. As happened in the 

 case of Italy and France, the need for submarine cables led to 

 the establishment of a German factory and to the building 

 of Ci€rman ships, with a result, at least in this case, which 

 must be admitted as most creditable to all connected with 

 the undertaking. 



There has never been any need up to now [for Great Brit- 

 ain] to fear foreign competition in the manufacture of subma- 

 rine cables, and all the British manufacturer has asked has 

 been a fair field and no favor. ]5ut Ibis latest German enter- 

 prise suggests at least that we should be on the qui vive lest, 

 thanks to many advantages they possess, and to the support 

 which is given them by their government, our neighbors 

 succeed in stealing a march on us. 



There appears to be ever3- reason why cables should be as 

 cheaply manufactured in Germany as in England. Iron or 

 steel wire, which is the chief item in most cables, at least as 

 regards weight, is mostly manufactured in Germanj-, and, 

 indeed a large proportion of that used in the construction of 

 English cables is supplied by the verj' firm mentioned as hav- 

 ing started the Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke. Copper wire 

 is cheaper in Germany than in England, Gutta-percha and 

 India-rubber are as much in the hands of German merchants 

 as any others, and the other minor component parts are 

 hardly worth considering. 



As everyone knows, the Thames, on whose banks are the 

 works of all the English companies, is a very unfavorable 

 lr)cality, and these companies are heavily handicapped by an 

 amount of taxation which is imposed nowhere else, and which 

 is well nigh ii^suppoi table. At the last general njpeting of 

 the oldest cable manufacturing company the chairman stated 

 that a saving of ^25,000 a year in taxation would result if 

 their works were moved to the Tyne, and at the same time 

 pointed out that this amount, if capitalized, would sufEcefor 

 the erection and equipment of works of the best modern de- 

 sign in a more favorable neighborhood. 



Added to the difficulty as regards taxation, there is an- 

 other which is intimately connected with it, naniel}', the 

 high rate of wages and the poor quality of much of the 

 labor obtainable. Germany is not a cheap place, take it all 

 round, but wages are lower and the class of labor better. A 

 friend of ours who spent nearly a year on the German tele- 

 graph steamer Stephan told us that during that time he 

 never saw any member of the ship's crew the worse for 

 liquor, either on board or on shore. That is a great deal to 

 be able to say, and even if the English sailor may be a 

 smarter man and generally more experienced, most ship- 

 masters, if they studied their own convenience, would pre- 

 fer the German. 



There is just a suspicion in our minds that some of our 

 manufacturers may be taking things too easily and failing 

 to keep themselves thoroughlj' up to the times in regard to 

 both machinery and ships. One hears of electric motors 

 driving all the cable machines at Nordenham, of A'-ray 



apparatus for examining core and joints, of electric welding 

 for the sheathing wires and so on, and one cannot help be- 

 ing struck with the difference between such modern methods 

 and the e<iuipment of some of our cable factories. In ships, 

 too, the difference is still more marked. Compare the 

 Stephan, with several of ours which, despite the admir- 

 able work they accomplish, can hardly be said to be of the 

 highest efficiency. 



All such modern features are, of course, to be expected 

 with a comijany which has just made a start, and has had 

 the sen.se carefully to adopt the best of everything, no mat- 

 ter of what nationality, but surely experience should have 

 taught us the importance of not running any danger of be- 

 ing left behind. 



Some j-ears ago Sheffield and Birmingham felt German 

 competition very .seriou.sly, because they were slow to wake 

 up to the fact that improved machinery was constantly re- 

 quired. Now they not only hold their own, but can success- 

 fully compete against the cheapest German manufactures. 

 The penny scissors which are just now to be bought in many 

 stationers' shops are a good illustration ; t' ej' are not made 

 in Germany, but in Birmingham. This, of course, has little 

 bearing on the matter, and has not much to do with subma- 

 rine cables, in the manufacture of which great care and skill 

 are required ; but with the facts we have mentioned, and w^ith 

 the recent feat accomplished by Germany — that of making 

 and laying over 6000 miles of submarine cable without a 

 fault, and almost without a hitch — we think we are justified 

 in giving the matter considerable prominence, and in sound- 

 ing, not the " alarm, " but the "reveille!" 



[The manufacture of submarine cables in Germanj' has 

 assumed important proportions since the firm of Felten & 

 Guilleaume (Miilheim a/R), in 1899, founded the Nord- 

 deutsche Seekabelwerke Aktiengesellschaft, with works at 

 Nordenham. In addition to numerous smaller undertakings, 

 the German works have made and successfully laid a trans- 

 atlantic cable, and the German-Dutch cables in the Far East, 

 now aggregating nearly 4000 miles, and important new 

 undertakings are in prospect.] 



INTEREST IN CEARA RUBBER IN INDIA. 



nr^O THE Editor of The India Rubber World : I would 

 -^ be very greatly obliged if any of your readers would 

 kindly give me information upon the following points con- 

 nected with the tapping of Ceara rubber {Mafiihot Glaziovii). 



In all cases where I have tapped this variety the tree has 

 died. 



My method has been doubtless crude and has been by 

 stabbing the tree closely all over, piercing the cambium and 

 wounding the young wood. 



Would any of your readers who have had actual experi- 

 ence in the tapping of Ceara, kindly say whether this dying 

 of the trees is attributable to my method of tapping, or 

 whether it is a necessary result of tapping Ceara at all ? 



I would also ask whether the stripping of the rough outer 

 bark at any period of the year causes injury to the tree, and 

 what the best method of tapping is ? 



How long does it take for the bark to renew itself? 



CEARA. 

 Shimoga, Mysore, India, T'ebruary 3, 1906. 



