358 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1906. 



SCRAP RUBBER IN A GRAVEYARD. 



"O UDOLl'H IXIEWENTHAL, wlioiii tlie whole trade 

 -*-^ knows as a pioneer in rubber reclaiming, tells the fol- 

 lowing storj- upon himself. It seems that back in 1SS5 it 

 occurred to him that Europe must contain vast quantities of 

 old shoes and that they could be bought at a comparativelj' 

 low price, because the European manufacturers were not 

 then interested in reclaimed rubber. He therefore started 

 promptly across the water and was successful in securing 

 quantities in Ivngland, Germany, and Russia. .'Vustria was 

 the last country visited and there he called upon Francis 

 Reithoff, a well known rubber manufacturer, and made 

 known his errand. Almost immediately Mr. Reithoff was 

 interested and said : 



" I know where there is a very large quantity of old shoes 

 which a man of perseverance can undoubtedly .secure at 

 a very low ])rice. The slioeS were shipped here by the 

 Liverpool Rubber Co., before we Austrians were willing 

 to wear rubber footwear at all. There was no market 

 for them. The Liverpool conii)any, with true British per- 

 sistence, absolutely refused to allow their agents to ship 

 them back, and said they must find a sale for them, 

 and that finally came about in a very curious way. Our 

 people here, as you know, are buried in full dress, one im- 

 portant part of which is the patent leather shoe. The man 

 who had the rubber shoes on hand, appreciating this, ap- 

 proached the great burial associations and sold these shoes 

 to clothe the feet of the defunct. If j'ou will, therefore, go 

 to our beautiful graveyard, you will find there probably the 

 largest collection of old rubber shoes that are anyw'here in 

 Austria. " 



RAIN AND THE AMAZON RUBBER CROP. 



THE opinion is expressed by the United States consul 

 general at Rio de Janeiro, in a recent oflicial report, 

 that the Amazon rubber production of next season will in- 

 directly be influenced through the copious rains in a very 

 peculiar way. The production, he says, is limited not so 

 much by the demand or by the crop — those two factors have 

 recently been steadily favorable to the producers -but by 

 the facility with which labor can be procured for this un- 

 healthy industry. Ry far the largest contingent of the 

 rubber cutters in the Ania/.on regions is furnished by the 

 state of Ceara, where there prevails in about seven years out 

 of ten a famine caused by the excessive droughts. Through 

 this famine the native labor is forced to accept the offers of 

 the rubber estates on the upper Amazon and its afHueiits. 

 The conditions on which those poor people have to accept 

 labor are such that only the direct necessity induces them 

 to avail themselves of the offers. This year, however, the 

 state of Ceara, on account of the abundant rains that pre- 

 vail there, will furnish a good living for all of its citizens, 

 and probably very few will be forced to risk their lives in 

 the rubber plantations. 



The consul might have added, however, that the upper 

 rubber fields have gradually attracted an increasing number 

 of permanent residents, including Cearenses. Hence the 

 failure of as many workers to go upstream as in some former 

 years may not have the same efifect on rubber production. 



ELECTRIC HOT WATER BOTTLE HEATER. 



A LL the ann<)\ iiig features of varying temperature for hot 

 -*^^ water bags has been done away with by the recent in- 

 vention of an electric heater which can be apjjlied to any bag. 

 This little attachment placed in the stopper of the bottle is 

 connected to the electric light socket in the same manner as 

 a bulb, by the ordinary lamp cord. It can readily be trans- 

 ferred from one room to another ; it is simple ; it is durable ; 



there is no danger in its use ; it is inexpensive and it main- 

 tains an even temperature, thereby increasing the value of 

 the hot water bag in cases of illness where such temperature 

 is desirable. Another very practical argument in its favor 

 is that with its use there will be no boiling water necessary, 

 hence no more burned bands : for despite the blessings that 

 the bag has brought, it has been responsible for many ugly 

 burns. [Standard Electric Heater Co., St. Louis.] 



HOT WATER BOTTLES FOR SEA SICKNESS. 



An old traveler, who has made no less than 30 voyages 

 -^-^ across the Atlantic, is authority for the statement 

 that the nearest aj>proach to an absolute jsreventive of sea- 

 sickness is a hot water bottle. He asserts that mal-de-mer 

 is caused primarilj- by the motion of the ship, but second- 

 arily by the body having become chilled. Where the body- 

 is kept warm at all times, he says, seasickness is very rare, 

 and even those stricken have only slight attacks. The 

 ocean traveler is advised to keep a hot water bottle under 

 his feet when on deck, then, when he retires, he should keep 

 a steaming hot water bottle in his bunk for 15 or 20 minutes 

 before he turns in. The sea air is moist and the bedding is 

 certain to become damp during the day, thus imparting a 

 chill to the sleeper at night. This is overcome by the use of 

 a water bottle filled with the hottest water obtainable. 



Mr. J. Jackson Todd, formerly president of the Chicago- 

 Bolivian Rubber Co., has just returned from a visit to rubber 

 plantations throughout Mexico and Guatemala. 



