Decemi'er I. ipcS.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



85 



■%■■ 



Published on the 1st of each Month by 





THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING GO., 



No. 395 BROADWAY. NEW YORK. 

 CABLE ADDRBBB: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 

 EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 

 ASSOCIATa 



Vol. 39. 



DECEMBER 1. 1908. 



No. 3. 



SOBSCBIPTIONS : $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six months, postpaid, for the 

 United States and dependencies and Mexico. To tlie Dominion 

 of Canada and all other countries, $3.50 (or equivalent funds) 

 per year, postpaid. 



Advertising : Rates will be made known on application. 



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 scriptions should be sent by International Postal Order, payable 

 as above. 



Discontinuances ; Yearly orders for subscriptions and advertising are 

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 vertiser. Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each 

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COPYRIGBT. 1008, BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLIBBIVO CO. 



Entered at Npw York postofficc as mall matter of the second class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE READING MATTER. 



RUBBER AND AERONAUTICS. 



AER( IXAI'TS in the past have had a very distinct 

 ]jrejudice in favor of varnish coated fabrics 

 against the rubber coated. That was laecause rubber 

 manufacturers had not always taken pains to learn 

 exactly what was wanted to supply the needs. Within 

 the last few years, however, certain of the great com- 

 panies have made careful experiments and been able to 

 produce rubber coated fabrics in every way superior to 

 anything heretofore produced, and the fabrics of the 

 future will undoubtedly be covered with rubber. This 

 does not mean that any manufacturer can lightly enter 

 upon this business with prospect of success. Problems 

 are as individual and as different as were the i)roblenis 

 that centered about the manufacture of successful auto- 

 mobile tires. Fabrics, compounds, and cure must not 

 only be of the best, but must be adapted to conform to 

 conditions that are wholly different from any other uses 

 of rubber. Whoever embarks in this line of work, to be 

 successful, should go through years of careful experi- 

 mentation, with a knowledge of aeronautics and under 

 the guidance of practical aeronauts, and even then the 

 progress will be slow and first profits small. 



That ballooning the world over is a coming S[)ort, in- 

 finitely more fascinating than yachting or automobiling, 

 is a widely acknowledged fact, and that the rubber manu- 



facturers will be called upon to produce gas receivers, 

 light, strong, and safe, and durable, is equally true. 



HIGH PRICES FOR RUBBER AGAIN. 



L»i>K, 



NEW '. 

 80TAMC 



THE sharp rise in the prices of crude rubber which 

 has occurred within the past few weeks is one 

 of the most marked in the history of the trade — nearly 

 100 per cent, for fine Para within nine months. It may 

 be that to-day's prices are extreme, judged by all ordi- 

 nary conditions, and that the rise will be followed 

 shortly by a reaction, but doul)tlcss it \\\\\ be many 

 days before the lowest level reached during the cur- 

 rent year will be paralleled. 



When Islands fine at New York, during the whole 

 of 1906, practically dfd not go below $1.18 or above 

 $1.26 a pound, manufacturers considered that tliey 

 were getting cheap rubber, considering the much 

 higher average range during 1907, with a maximum 

 (luring that year of $1.33. So stable a market as that 

 of 1906 had seldom been seen, and consumers began 

 to feel that at last a fixed measure of rubber values 

 had been reached, which would be of great advantage 

 to them in quoting prices for manufactured products. 

 The continuous decline during the following year, how- 

 ever, down to the lowest point within two decades, 

 naturally came as a disturbing element, and must have 

 u]iset many a well planned calculation. 



Under the conditions which have lately been experi- 

 enced it doubtless was easy for not a few members of 

 the trade to become convinced that rubber prices prior 

 to 1907 were unreasonably high, and that a return to 

 old-time figures was imminent. Once so convinced, 

 the next step, in some cases, has been a reduction of 

 prices of manufactured goods to correspond with the 

 lower cost of raw materials, and it is the class who 

 have followed this course that will most seriously feel 

 the efifect of the rise just witnessed. When so heavy a 

 decline in prices is followed by such a sharp advance, 

 it is only rational to expect part of the advance to be 

 lost speedily. But after the fall w^e may again see even 

 higher prices, as have been seen in the past. 



After all, the essential fact is that the prices of crude 

 rubber continue uncertain, and it is far easier for a 

 manufacturer to make the mistake of figuring his sell- 

 ing price too low than to correct the mistake by mark- 

 ing them up when a pinch comes. 



Another point that may be made is that nothing in 

 past experience in the trade — nothing in the study of 

 apparent supply and demand, nothing in the relation 

 of prices to visible stocks — .seems to afford a guide to 

 forecasting the market for rubber. The commodity 

 is not one to be studied alone, but in connection with 

 the general conditions of finance and trade, with politi- 

 cal affairs in the producing and in the consuming 

 countries, with the effect of new inventions, and 

 with innumerable other considerations. 



