312 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



I July i, 1906. 



results to which they point appear to be becoming real- 

 ized facts. Of course the price of rubber must always 

 fluctuate, as is true of every other commodity, but not 

 necessarily to such an extent a.s to keep the consumer in 

 a constant state of anxiety. 



THE FUTURE CABLE INSULATION. 



THE BICYCLE AND THE AUTO. 



I HERE are some people who, in considering the auto- 

 mobile trade and its great demand for rubber tires, 

 still refer to the rapid rise and decline of bicycling, a few 

 years ago, as an experience which may be repeated in 

 connection with the automobile. The growth in popu- 

 larity of the automobile does, indeed, suggest the de- 

 velopment of the bicycle " craze," but there the similar- 

 ity ceases. The bicycle may be regarded as a toy which 

 prepared the way for a vastly practical new type of vehi- 

 cle, with infinite applications in use. 



The bicycle filled for awhile an entirely new field, 

 without displacing to any great extent any previous 

 means of getting about. The automobile, on the other 

 hand, has displaced a great number of horse drawn carri- 

 ages, with such satisfaction to its users that it is hardly 

 worth while to consider the possibility of everybody go- 

 ing back to the old type of vehicle for purposes of plea- 

 sure and utility. No doubt many individual users of 

 automobiles to-day may give them up. But ever since 

 horse drawn carriages were first devised there have been 

 owners of such vehicles who gave up their use — grew 

 tired of them or unable to maintain them — but all the 

 while the number of carriages increased. So the retire- 

 ment every year of many automobilists from the field 

 need not indicate the decline of automobiling— provided, 

 of course, that the modern vehicle has absolute merit, 

 which it undoubtedly has. 



We have referred here to the automobile as a vehicle 

 of the pleasure type. But this is not all. The business 

 man who in time may lose his interest in motoring, will, 

 if he has successfully adopted commercial vehicles in his 

 business, continue their use so long as they prove more 

 economical than any other vehicle. The various types of 

 passenger vehicles now coming into public use are not 

 supported as a mere "fad," and will be run wherever 

 and so long as they prove profitable. And the great 

 variety of other wheeled apparatus — fire engines, ambu- 

 lances, mail wagons, and the like — when once they have 

 demonstrated their superiority to the vehicles and ma- 

 chines which they displace, will not be thrown out of 

 use in response to any mere whim of fashion. 



The bicycle has no standing for purposes of compari- 

 son. The automobile, in its various forms, is more like 

 a locomotive, doing more work and better and quicker 

 work than the horse in countless situations, without 

 being restricted to steel roadways, and seems bound to 

 last until something even better is developed. And 

 while this condition lasts the demand for rubber tires — 

 and better rubber tires — will grow. 



'npHE construction of submarine cables, though seldom 

 -*- brought to the attention of the average reader, 

 continues to be a most important branch of the rubber 

 and allied industries. ICverybody knows that the Atlan- 

 tic and Pacific ocean beds are spanned by cable lines, 

 and is prepared to hear that many less important bodies 

 of water are similarly crossed. But the tt)tal mileage of 

 such cables, and the amount of costly insulation work 

 involved, call for figures which would be surprising to 

 most otherwise well informed persons. According to the 

 figures compiled by The Electrician the total length in 

 nautical miles of submarine cables in operation increased 

 from 161,384 in 1895 to 233,823 in 1905— a growth of 

 45 per cent, in 10 years. In other words, an average 

 annual increase of 7243 miles, or nearly three times the 

 length of the average transatlantic route. 



The largest single submarine cable interest is that of 

 the Eastern Telegraph Co.. Limited, and the two allied 

 companies, under practically the same management — 

 lately amounting to 73,130 nautical miles, described in a 

 list of the world's cables as 188 different items, and plac- 

 ing nearly every port in the Far East in touch with the 

 rest of the world. The capital shares and debentures of 

 this group of companies — ^12,743,506, or over $63,000- 

 000 — are almost without exception yielding dividends, 

 and quoted at a premium on the London Stock Exchange. 

 The number of cable companies has increased steadily 

 and the length of their lines extended, despite the caution 

 which capital has been taught by the introduction of 

 wireless telegraphy. 



For most of the great ocean cables, it is true. India- 

 rubber has not been used for insulation, but Gutta- 

 percha. The utility of India-rubber for this purpose has 

 been proved, however, and its employment will be en 

 forced in time by the exhaustion of the natural supplies 

 of Gutta-percha — a material produced under cultivation 

 less readily than rubber. But cable building may prop- 

 erly be included with the rubber industry for the reason 

 that nearly if not all the ocean cables in service have 

 been constructed in works which also manufacture rub 

 ber goods, and which do not draw a line between their 

 profits from rubber and gutta, respectively. Ultimately 

 it is possible that they will all be using India-rubber in 

 their submarine work, as they already are in insulation 

 for so many purposes on land. 



With means of communication, as with transportation, 

 every extension seems to call for a new one — a line to- 

 day becomes a " sy.stem " to-morrow — so that the making 

 of ocean cables may be expected to grow indefinitely. 

 Moreover, the question of replacement of existing cables, 

 though not discussed nowadays, must some time have to 

 be dealt with — all calling for more and more insulating 

 material. It is a fact full of encouragment to the plant- 

 ing interest that all this material, in time, will be rub- 

 ber. 



