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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1909. 



POOR KESUXTS IN LIBERIA. 



The successes attained by the rubber planting companies or- 

 ganized in the British empire do not seem to be repeated in the 

 case of any of the companies organized with British capital to 

 exploit forest rubber in any country. The latest disappointment 

 of moment in this respect has to do with The Liberian Rubber 

 Corporation, Limited, floated a few years ago with a capital of 

 £270.000. [See The India Rubber World, January i, 1906 — 

 page 124; February I, 1906 — pages 146, 147.] Sir Henry H. 

 Johnson, c. c. M. c, the African authority, who was largely in- 

 strumental in the organization of this company, has since retired 

 from the board. But he attended the third annual meeting (Lon- 

 don, July 9), and encouraged the shareholders to look for better 

 results than have been secured thus far. The gross output of 

 rubber in 1908 was 182,578 pounds, which was stated to be an 

 increase for the year of nearly 37,000 pounds. The business had 

 been done at a loss, however, partially because rubber sold during 

 the year for a shilling per pound less than was anticipated, and 

 the company's work had been interfered with by the disturbances 

 in Liberia. The gross profit was £lo,ioo, or £2,300 less than 

 in 1907, but there was again a net loss. But Sir Harry pointed 

 out that Liberian affairs are quieting, and rubber prices have ad- 

 vanced again. Considerable Funtumia rubber has been planted 

 by the company, but this variety, although planted successfully 

 in other regions, does not seem adapted to Liberia, and the com- 

 pany have begun replanting with Hevea Brasilicnsis. 



ANOTHER SYNTHETIC RUBBER CO. 



The Consolidated Rubber Co., Limited, registered in London, 

 July 5, 1909, with £164,000 [=$798,106] capital, has for its objects 

 to adopt an agreement between Arthur Heinemann and others 

 for the acquisition of a process for the synthetical production of 

 rubber, including his patents granted and pending, and plant used 

 in connection therewith, and to carry on the production of gases 

 or liquids used in connection with the production of isoprene and 

 like substances, or any of the terpenes capable of being made in 

 the production of india-rubber or substitutes therefor. A British 

 patent granted to Heinemann for the production of synthetic 

 rubber is No. 21,772 (1907). The registered office of the com- 

 pany is at 196, Palmerston house, 34 Old Broad street, E. C, 

 London. 



This company has no relation to the Synthetic Rubber Co., 

 Limited, at the third annual meeting of which recently in Lon- 



don it was explained that while no commercial result had fol- 

 lowed their large expenditure to date, the company felt that it 

 was "in possession of a well-defined process for producing syn- 

 thetic rubber," and they were confident of ultimate commercial 

 success. 



THEFT OF GUAYULE RUBBER. 



Mexic.'\n newspapers report the arrest at a guayule rubber 

 factory near Zacatecas of one of its employes, charged with the 

 theft of rubber produced there. It is alleged that this was done 

 for the benefit of a rival factory, with a view to revealing the 

 secrets of manufacture by the concern employing him. He is 

 said to have received regularly $200 a month from the rival 

 company, in addition to his regular compensation. The Mexican 

 Herald says : 



"The crime in question recalls the fact that, while most of the 

 guayule produced is prepared under patented processes, whose 

 details are common knowledge, a great many manufacturers of 

 the gum keep certain elements of their extraction methods 

 secret and take every precaution to preserve them so, and in 

 the past there has been great activity among the owners of 'wild- 

 cat' plants to possess themselves of the secrets of the larger 

 companies. In certain guayule districts it is commonly con- 

 sidered easier for an intelligent person to take a fortress single 

 handed than to gain access to a rubber extracting plant." 



WHITTELSEY ON GUAYULE. 



Dr. Theodore Whittelsey, of Northwestern University, at 

 Evanston, Illinois, spent last year in experimental work on 

 guayule, at the plant of the Continental-Mexican Rubber Co. He 

 has written two papers on the subject, reprints of which from 

 the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (Vol. i. No. 

 4 — April, 1909) have reached us. The second is devoted to "Dis- 

 tribution of Rubber in Different Parts of the Shrub." At the 

 April meeting of the Chicago section of the American Chemical 

 Society the programme was : "Production of Guayule Rubber in 

 Northern Mexico" — illustrated lecture by Dr. Whittelsey, fol- 

 lowed by discussion. 



C.\RE OF Hot W.^ter Bottles. — A writer in Canadian Druggist, 

 who seems to think that the average purchaser does not take 

 the proper care of a hot water bottle, advises packing with 

 each bottle a printed slip containing suitable instructions. 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market. 



THE state of the market at New York is difficult to comment 

 upon at this time, for the reason that quotations for so 

 many grades are merely nominal. In other words, stocks of 

 some important grades are non-existent. Actual business has 

 been done at last reports at 43 cents a pound for Upriver fine 

 above our quotations of one month ago, and 41 cents higher for 

 Islands rubber. Higher quotations are made, however, in an- 

 swer to inquiries, with a view to prospective higher costs in 

 primary markets. An indication of the tendency of the market 

 is found in the fact that at the Antwerp auctions on July 29 the 

 average advance over the June sales was 1.50 francs per kilo- 

 gram; and at the Havre sale on July 27, there was a average 

 advance of 12 centimes. An advance occurred in all grades in- 

 cluding the better Africans, but not in the same proportion as 

 for Para sorts. Qu. 'ations have been made as high as $2 

 for plantation crepe, but business has not been done in New York 

 at so high a figure. While the statistics of arrivals at Para for 

 the crop year 1908-09 vary slightly, as reported from different 

 sources, it appears that the last crop was slightly larger than in 

 any previous year. We have these figures: 34,490 tons for 

 1905-06; 38,005 tons for 1906-07; 36,650 tons for 1907-08; and 



38,065 tons for 1908-09. From the latest Manaos statistics it 

 appears that the arrivals of rubber for the crop year were 

 slightly less than last year, and less by more than i,ooo tons than 

 two years ago. The increased total arrivals at Manaos were made 

 up of a gain of 1.300 tons in caucho, and the increase at Para is 

 similarly due to more caucho being received than formerly. Final 

 analysis, therefore, probably will show less fine rubber received 

 during the crop year than in some former years. Our mail 

 advices from Para report : "Entries continue on a moderate scale 

 and are eagerly caught up at quickly advancing prices; it is, 

 however, the general impression that the wild jumps of the 

 market will come to a stop with the gradually increasing ar- 

 rivals of sertao [Upriver] at Manaos." 



An addition of the monthly reports of exports of rubber from 

 Para published regularly in The India Rubber World gives the 

 following distribution of the whole for the crop year ended June 

 30, 1909, expressed in pounds : 



To the United States 42,115,240 



To England and the Continent 42,156,706 



Total 84,271,946 



