November i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



61 



weeding would soon be abandoned on many estates and become 

 a thing of the past. 



The lecturer alluded to the advantages often to be obtained by 

 the cultivation of catch crops where the soil and other conditions 

 were favorable. Mr. Bamber dealt very fully with the question 

 of tapping, and after describing the methods in general use 

 he referred to the basal V system as the cheapest and probably 

 the best, both for economy of bark and for strength of latex. 

 He especially emphasized the bearing which this method of tap- 

 ping would have upon the labor question, but pointed out that 

 the successful adoption of this would depend to some extent 

 on soil conditions. He deprecated the tapping of trees too young, 

 giving five or six years as a minimum age, and he insisted on 

 the need of the greatest care both in field and factory to get 

 pure latex and free from any mechanical mixture, and also on 

 the necessity of economy of bark in tapping operations. A fall- 

 ing off of the percentage of caoutchouc to below the payable min- 

 imum indicated the need for resting the tree, and this was a point 

 to which planters should give more attention. He compared 

 Brazilian and Eastern methods of tapping to give a possible ex- 

 planation of why Brazilian rubber had greater tensile strength, 

 which he ascribed to the greater maturity of the globules in the 

 latex. With regard to renewal of bark, he pointed out that the 

 bark had now been renewed two or three times, the yield from 

 which was as great or even greater than from the original, thus 

 showing the permanency of rubber production might, from this 

 point of view, be reasonably assumed. 



Reference made to the practice of Brazilian tappers who invari- 

 ably make one or two gashes in the trees about 3 feet above 

 the tapping area before they commence to tap, as they believe 

 without these they could not obtain maximum crop. The idea 

 underlying the practice was one which he thought might be com- 

 mended to consideration of planters in the East. Proceeding next 

 to deal with methods of manufacture, Mr. Bamber urged the need 

 for obtaining uniformity in color and appearance. Pale rubber 

 produced by the destruction of oxydase by heat was generally 

 approved by manufacturers, and many German and other firms 

 had declared that the demand for it would be practically un- 

 limited if ample supplies could be relied upon to reach the market. 

 The lecturer specially referred to the necessity of using only the 

 purest water in the factories. Importance of not too rapidly dry- 

 ing rubber was borne out by the lecturer, whose views on this 

 subject were more or less confirmed in subsequent discussion. 

 Net results, he said, had been obtained from the quickly dried 

 product which were far from satisfactory, and he expressed the 

 belief that although it was impossible to say definitely what was 

 the best method of drying, there was reason to believe that too 

 rapid and complete drj'ing would be found a serious mistake, 

 and that they might be sacrificing some strength, elasticity and 

 lasting power by the process. 



Mr. Bamber mentioned also that Continental buyers seemed 

 strongly in favor of rubber being exported in block from i 

 inch to i^ inches thick and about a foot square. 



RUBBER INTERESTS IN EUROPE. 



Note. — In connection with the preceding it may be of interest to read 

 the correspondence in The India Rubber Wobld, October i, 1908 (page 

 44). — The Editor. 



The imperial German post office reports 135 wireless tele- 

 graph stations in that country. In Switzerland the authorities 

 have spent $32,500 within a year in wireless telegraphy experi- 

 ments, with what they regard as satisfactory results. 



The amount of rubber harvested by the Vallambrosa Rubber 

 Co., Limited, for the six months ending September 30, 1908, 

 was 114,304 pounds, against 103,908 pounds for the six months 

 ending September 30, 1907, and 55,376 pounds for the same 

 period in 1906. The Federated (Selangor) Rubber Co., Limited, 

 harvested 15,785 pounds of rubber for the four months ended 

 July 31, 1908, against 5,658 pounds for the same period last year. 



""PHE New York-Hamburg India-Rubber Co., Limited, was 

 *■ registered in London July 15; capital ^7,500 [=$36,498.75] ; 

 to carry on the business of manufacturers and dealers in india- 

 rubber and gutta-percha goods. This company will take care 

 of the business in Great Britain of the New York-Hamburger 

 Gummiwaaren-Compagnie, Actiengcsellschaft, of Hamburg, es- 

 tablished in 1871, and now capitalized at 2,001,000 marks [^ 

 $476,238]. One of the directors of the Hamburg company — Fr. 

 A. Dohner — is a director in the new London company. The 

 Hamburg plant manufactures a full line of hard rubber goods — 

 especially combs and electrical appliances. It was an outgrowth 

 of the India-Rubber Comb Co., of College Point, New York. 

 Conrad Poppenhusen, the founder of the College Point enter- 

 prise, after returning to Germany, his native country, where he 

 ended his life, was actively interested in the New York-Ham- 

 burg company. 



GERMANY. 



The initial issue of Die Gummi-Industrie, which comes to 

 us from Bramsche, near Osnabriick (to the west of Hanover), 

 is an exceptionally good first number for a paper in any trade. 

 It contains a good report of the London Rubber Exhibition, 

 some technical articles of value, and comprehensive and world 

 news and commercial departments. It comes from the publishing 

 house of Wilhelm Braucr. 



GEEAT BRITAIN. 



The London manager of the Home Rubber Co. (Trenton, 

 New Jersey), is mentioned in The India-Rubber Journal as hav- 

 ing disposed of no less than 43 tons of "N. B. O." packing within 

 the past 14 months. 



Mr. A. Stanley Morrison, one of the directors of the Leyland 

 and Birmingham Rubber Co., Limited, was lately about to start 

 on a visit to British North Borneo, where he and several of his 

 friends have considerable investments in rubber planting. 



RUBBER SUPPLIES AND PROSPECTS. 



[from "the times of CEYLON," AUGUST 29.] 



"T^HE Brazilian rubber year ends with the 30th of June, and 

 ■'• the latest New York Indi.\ Rubber World [August i, 1908 

 — page 356] contains a review and estimate of the future which 

 will be closely read by many people in Ceylon. It is further 

 testimony to the fact that Herea is the rubber to be reckoned 

 with both from the superiority of the product and the permanency 

 of the tree. As to the issue of the struggle between wild and 

 plantation rubber, we take it that the American paper's view 

 is the same as our own, viz., with the necessary fall in prices 

 when large quantities of plantation rubber are produced some 

 of the forests will have to be omitted, where the cost of col- 

 lection is above the average, until prices rise again. This wilt 

 prevent estates in the East being knocked out by over-production, 

 but will subject them to market fluctuation in which, in rubber 

 as in tea, there will be good, indifferent, and poor profit periods. 



Fossilized Rubber Trees. — A correspondent of The Indi.\ 

 Rubber World sends in a suggestion of the possibility of rubber 

 forests having flourished formerly in what is now North America, 

 though without claiming for it any specific scientific warrant. He 

 writes : "Scientists say that, centuries ago, the northern parts 

 of the United States and Canada were the tropical centers of 

 the Western Hemisphere, and if so, vegetation that now thrives 

 in that zone must have grown luxuriantly in our north country. 

 If this is so, the question arises : What became of the rubber 

 trees that must have existed there?" Our correspondent offers a 

 tentative suggestion by way of pointing out the similarity of 

 the chemical analysis of some of the hydrocarbons now being 

 found in North .-Xmcrica, with the product of the Hevea and 

 Castilloa rubber trees. 



