no 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1908. 



revenue from transporting rubber is not large yet, the figure for 

 1907 standing at 1,201 rupees [=$389.64], whereas the railways 

 earned 1,198,640 rupees for transporting tea. Evidently, how- 

 ever, the railways expect to have more rubber business in the 

 near future, for the Ceylon Observer mentions that the railway 

 department is constructing a special rubber store at Colombo. 



AN ITEM FROM BURMA. 



The Shwegyin rubber estate is reported to have 1,540 acres 

 planted to Hevea rubber, one to four years old. The Ceylon 

 Obsencr quotes the manager as stating that i]4 pounds of dry 

 rubber had been obtained from three-year-old trees. The planta- 

 tion is owned by the Mergui Rubber Co., Limited. There are 

 three other plantations of Hevea rubber in the country, includ- 

 ing the government plantation, mentioned in The Indi.\ Rubber 

 World [April i, 1902— page 210]. 



RUBBER STUDY AT AMAKI. 



It is assumed that the average reader is not familiar with the 

 location of Amani, especially since there are many excellent col- 

 lections of maps which do not contain this name. As most gener- 

 ally printed, however — in connection with Hafen Tanga — the sug- 

 gestion is natural that Amani is in East Africa, within the Ger- 

 man sphere of influence; hence, of course, there is scientific 

 work in progress there, not omitting e.-cperiments in the cultiva- 

 tion of all the native plants that give promise. From this re- 

 mote region, therefore, comes Der Pflancer, devoted to tropical 

 agriculture, and issued from the Biologisch Landwirtschaftlichen 

 Institut Amani, and maintaining a character that would do credit 

 to a periodical much longer established and emanating from 

 Berlin or Vienna. The subject of rubber culture is by no means 

 the subject least prominently treated in the monthly issues of 

 Der Pflanscr. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



CONDUCTORS FOR ELECTRIC.\L DISTRIBUTION; THEIR MA IE- 

 rials and Distribution; the Calculation of Circuits, Pole Line Construc- 

 tion, Underground Workings, and Other Uses. By _F. -\. C. Perrine, 

 AM D sc. Second edition. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co. 1907. 

 [Cloth, 8vo. Pp. vil-l-287-l-tables in pocket. Price, $3.50 net.] 



THE development of the applications of electricity, and, what 

 is especially to our point, of the uses of insulated wire, 

 has been too rapid to permit most of those who have been 

 active in this field to stop to record the results of their work 

 other than in fragmentary shape in the current technical press 

 and in the transactions of scientific societies. When, therefore, 

 so competent a hand as that of our author has paused to outline 

 a comprehensive view up to date of the subject covered by the 

 title page of his book, it has been an event in scientific progress 

 not lightly to be considered. 



The volume before us is the second (and revised) edition of 

 a work issued five years earlier. It seems to be worth while here 

 to quote from the latest preface the author's conclusion that 

 "comparatively little of the first edition has become obsolete, 

 and that none of the principles of practice therein have lost their 

 force; therefore, the revision of the book has been more in the 

 nature of amplification and addition." We are quite willing to 

 agree with the author in this respect, and in doing so to point 

 out the thorough and painstaking character of his work in the 

 first as well as in the second edition, thus avoiding any neces- 

 sity for quickly revising conclusions. 



There are chapters on conductor materials, alloyed conductors, 

 the manufacture of wire, wire furnishings, wire insulation, 

 catles, calculation of circuits, Kelvin's law of economy in con- 

 ductors, multiple arc distribution, alternating current calculation, 

 overhead lines, the pole line, line insulators, and underground 

 conductors. 



Dr. Perrine's book is succinctly written, fairly bristling on 

 every page with points that are too plain to be misunderstood. 

 The' chapter on "Wire Finishing," for example, is most sug- 

 gestive to the rubber works manager who, turning his attention 

 for the first time to the insulated wire branch, may not have 

 appreciated of his own accord the importance of the treatment 

 and condition of the conductor material. The extensive chapter 

 on "Wire Insulation" deals not only with the rubber and rubber 

 compounds employed, but also the various mechanical processes 

 and appliances at the command of the manufacturer in this 

 branch. Here, particularly, the use of illustrations is very 

 effective. 



We shall not here deal with the distinctively technical fea- 

 tures of this work, further than to commend the whole to the 

 electrical engineer, for whose benefit the book is primarily de- 

 signed, though it is none the less worthy the attention of who- 

 ever is engaged in the production of appliances for electrical 

 distribution. The author has kept in mind the saving clause, as 



expressed in his first preface — the difficulty of the "task of 

 writing up to the present condition of a rapidly moving art." 



INDISCHE CULTUUR ALMANAK (MET SUPPLEMENT) VOOR, 

 1909. Samengesteld A. H. Berkout en M. Greshoff, 22 e Jaargang, 

 Amsterdam: J. H. De Bussy, 1908. [Cloth, 32mo, pp. 368-t-vii. Price, 

 3 florins.] 



The comprehensiveness and variety of the contents of this 

 yearly handbook of Dutch planting interests in the East Indies in- 

 dicate more thoroughly than does any other single publication the 

 vast importance of these interests. There are statistics of sugar, 

 coffee, tobacco, cacao, tea, spices, rice, quinine, kapok, coacoa- 

 nuts, indigo, tapioca and other products. Attention is given also 

 to india-rubber and gutta-percha, though the production of 

 these to date under cultivation is as yet only beginning. There 

 are tables of weights, measures, temperature, prices, etc., of mu- 

 tual interest to estates managers in Sumatra and Java and in- 

 vestors at home in the plantation enterprises. Professor Berk- 

 hout, one of the compilers, was the former conservator of forests 

 in the Dutch East Indies, and Dr. Greshoff, the other, is direc- 

 tor of the Colonial Museum at Haarlem. The supplement re- 

 ferred to (48 pages) is a list of books and periodicals relating to 

 planting interests. 



COTTON MOVEMENT AND FLUCTUATIONS. THIRTY-FIFTH 

 annual edition. New York: Latham, Alexander & Co., No. 16 Wall 

 street. [Cloth. 8 vo. Pp. 193-t-plates.] 



This is perhaps the fullest and most accurate yearly summary 

 of cotton trade conditions, in America and abroad, available in 

 any form. Its value is enhanced by the fact that figures for a 

 long range of years are presented for comparison with the latest 

 compilations. In their annual letter, dated September 20, 1908, 

 the compilers, who are cotton commission merchants, predict: 

 "As business of all kinds in all departments of trade is improv- 

 ing, it can confidently be expected that the consumption of cot- 

 ton will largely increase in the course of the year, and satisfactory 

 business and prices will prevail." 



IN CURRENT PERIODICALS. 



Feasibility of Commercial Growing of Rubber Maintained by Professor 

 01sson-Scffer=Bo;£-/iii de la Asociacion Financicra International, Mexico. 

 IV-i (Aug. '08). Pp. i6-i7. 



Der Gummireichtum Sudamerikas. By O. Spcrher.=5ui/- und Mittd- 

 Amcrika, Berlin I-16 (Aug. 31. '08). Pp. 361-366. 



La Situation du Guayule. By O. Labroy. [Points to the inevitable de- 

 cline of the supply of this Mexican rubber plant. ]=7oHrHa; d Agnculturt 

 Iropicale. Paris. VIII-86 (Aug. 31. '08). Pp. 23i--!34. 



Die Gewinnung des Parakautschuks am Amazons und Seine Zukunft^ By 

 D Sandmann. [From a report on German imperial colonial office.]— Lier 

 Tropenfianzer, Berlin. XII-9 (Sept. '08). Pp. 407-433- 



The amount of "gutta-percha and rubber" collected from 

 public lands in the Philippines and on which the government 

 collected charges during the year ended June 30, 1907, is stated 

 in the annual report of the director of forestry at 942 metric 

 quintals [=207,673 pounds.] 



