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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i, 1909. 



that is about the onl_\' change in processes that are 

 generally applicable. Certain types of goods once 

 extremely popular have entirely disappeared from the 

 market — as, for example, the solarized gossamer. But 

 other products promptly took their place, as did the 

 showerproof or cravenetted garment. Of new appli- 

 cations of rubber that have grown to be special lines 

 of manufacture of ever increasing magnitude there is 

 the American golf ball and the pneumatic tire. 



During a few years past the price of rubber has 

 gone up higher than ever before, and after each rise 

 has dropped lower than any one thought possible. 

 There have been attempted corners that have brought 

 disasters to the speculator. There have been a few 

 valuable compounding ingredients added to the great 

 variety already in use. There have been numbers of 

 excellent plastics that have proved themselves of much 

 value. And ever new and ever interesting there has 

 been the semi annual discovery of synthetic rubber. As 

 a barometer of rubber trade conditions this last item 

 is infallible. ]\Iore than ever before during the last 

 twenty years has this discovery been made. As we 

 go to press we learn that it has just appeared simul- 

 taneously in England and the United States and as an 

 augury of present and continued trade prosperity it 

 stands imrivaled. 



In further commemoration of the twentieth anni- 

 versary of The India Rubber World an issue of the 

 paper to appear shortly will be (le\oted to a review of 

 the india-rubber and allied trades during the past two 

 decades. This is designed to be aii issue of unusual 

 interest, embracing contriljutions from the best au- 

 thorities in the trade. 



RUBBER IN THE AIR. 



THE fact that on the first day <.if the aviation contests 

 at Rheims one of the contestants was lined for 

 ■'reckless flying" may be regarded by many as of small 

 moment, and h)- some as a mere joke. But reallv is 

 this not an indication that aerial navigation has developed 

 into one of the serious facts of modern life? What was 

 the automobile before its use arrived at the dignity of 

 recognition by the courts? The mere imposition of fines 

 against motorists for legal overspeeding was legal recog- 

 nition that the theretofore unheard of automobile "had 

 arrived" ; likewise the fining of aviators for breaches of 

 the peace in the clouds — or above them — is an admission 

 by the public authorities that men can fly, no matter how 

 nonsensical such an idea may have seeiiied when the 

 present generation were playing with hoops and tops. 



Only a decade ago, when the first automobile parade 

 in New York was organized, half the cars which ventured 

 into a ten mile contest had. to I)e drawn home with horses. 

 and the best of the cars merel\- crept along. But now 

 we see a flying machine doing 84 miles without stopping, 

 at the rate of 42 miles an hour, and getting home without 



aid. Men siu'ely are flying nowadays, with such success 

 as to justify the consideration of flying machines in con- 

 nection with preparations for war. The use of the auto- 

 mobile in war also has been much considered, but the 

 trouble has been that wars don't always happen often 

 enough to test new inventions thoroughly before some- 

 thing newer turns u\). 



No doubt in the case of the theoretical invasion of 

 Boston, in the American military maneuvers last month, 

 the automobile and the motorcycle could have been used 

 to marked advantage had the commanders of the forces 

 been receptive to modern ideas. The fact that the auto- 

 mobile trucks actually in the campaign did not keep the 

 food supplies near enough to the troops for use was no 

 fault of the trucks ; they had, owing to prearranged plans, 

 to keep behind certain other units in the marching col- 

 umns. But by the time the next maneuvers occur it 

 may be that commanders with ideas more up to date will 

 contrive to have aeroplanes carrying food high in the 

 air to whatever point hungry soldiers may be in need. 

 One excuse for certain failures in the Boston war game 

 was that some supply ships were interrupted at sea. 

 Could such an inconvenience happen with the use of 

 air ships, free to go over land and sea alike? 



True, it still is a question whether aviation has become 

 "practical" ; at any rate it already is of widespread in- 

 terest as sport, and calls for just as much rubber under 

 one heading as the other. What if a flying machine does 

 fall now and then? V/ere not seven lives lost in the late 

 motoring contests on the Indianapolis "speedway" ? And 

 are not vastly more people kicked to death by horses than 

 ever suiYer injury in motoring? It is conceivable that 

 in a very few years the newspapers will cease to regard 

 as a matter of interest the fall of a biplane from the 

 clouds, with fatal results, and find novelty again in re- 

 porting such deadly- accidents as the falling of truck 

 drivers under horses' hoofs — something now so common 

 in New York as not to attract attention. That is, horses 

 will become so rare in cities that any excuse to mention 

 one will be welcomed by the news gatherers. 



It must be admitted that the flying machine is in the 

 air. What is more, it is daily becoming more the custom 

 for it to remain there, instead of falling into tree tops at 

 inconvenient moments. The Indi.\ Rubber World has 

 preached the gospel of the automobile to the rubber 

 trade : while continuing the same line of discourse, it 

 feels impelled to call the minds of the trade to even 

 higher things, such as have figured of late in the inter- 

 national exhibition of aerial vehicles at Prankfort-on- 

 the-AIain and the exhibitions of real flving at Rheims. 



A LAST WORD ON THE TARIFF. 



BUSINESS conditions in America, measured by every 

 recognized standard, show an improvement over 

 what has prevailed for a year or more past. In other 

 words, business is approaching the normal American 



