October i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



LOOKING FROM FACTORY TO FOREST. 



tfe-P^ 



Published ou the 1st of each Month by 



TilEIiNUIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



F.niTOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIATE. 



Vol. 31, 



OCTOBER 1, 1904. 



No. 1, 



PAGE. 



1 



.A.D. Thornton 



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COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New York Post Office as mail matter of the second-class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, 



Editorial : 



Looking from Factory to Forest 



A "Timorous" Association 



An Encyclopedia Arlicle on Rubber 



Minor Edi'.orial 



Experiments in Congo Rubber 



Literature of India-Rubbev 



Rubber Coagulating Methods in Central Africa. O. Van den KercWiove 

 [Followed by Notes from the Work nf .MM. De Wildeman and Gentil.J 

 [VVilh 8 Illustrations ] 



India-Rubber Goods in Commerce 



[Official statistics lor the United Stales, Canada, and Great Britain.] 

 The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain . Our Regular Correspondtnt 

 [St;ite of Trade. Rubber Heels. Dental Rubber Patent. Rubb'jr So- 

 lution. Faults in Cables. Peruvian Rubber. Two German Rubber 

 Works.] 



Rubber Planting and Exploitation 



[Company Plantations in Mexico. New Company to Work in Peru. 

 Nicaragua, Mysore, and Bolivia. Rubber at the Kuala Lumpur 

 Show.] 



India-Rubber at the St. Louis World's Fair (By The EdiU>r] 



[International Jury of Awards. Jury No. ii. India-Rubber and 

 Allied Exhibits.] 



[With 1 Illustration.] 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber 



[The Samson Leather Tire. Squire's " Quick " Golf Ball. More Krotz 

 Tire Patents. " Bottlehot." Buck • New Dial Dating Stamp. 

 Prussian Rubber Sponges.] 



[With 5 Illustrations.) 



The Amazon Rubber Prospect An Occasional Contributor 



Recent Rubber Patents 



[.American. British. German. French,] 



Rubber Interests in Europe 



[Leyland and Hirmingh.im Rubber Co.'s Report. New Feature at 

 the Ru»si.\n-.-\merican Factory, in St. Petersburg. Notes.] 



Rubber Industry in Massachusetts 



[Statisiics of Growth for Four Years.] 



New Trade Publications — 



The Voorhees Rubber Co. at St, Louis { lUuslratcd) 



Miscellaneous: 



Itublier Mats and Beestings 



Mutual Factory Insurance 



(;ougo Consul to The United Slates 



Kiibber Horseshoes and Others 



WireU'Ss Telegraphy on tlie Ami'.zou 



Shoes and Kubbeis ill White - 



The Hard Kubber Howling Ball 



News of the American Rubber Trade 



[With P.irtrait of Mr, R, Kaye Gray.] 

 Review of the Crude Rubber Market 



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23 

 28 



/^N another page appears a communication from a rub- 

 ^-^ ber manufacturer who, in detailing some difficulties 

 he has met in treating Congo rubbers, no doubt is re- 

 counting the e.xperience of other manufacturers as well. 

 At any rate, we regard his letter as worthy of general 

 interest, and give space to it with a view to inducing fur- 

 ther investigation, and as a basis for discussion which 

 may lead to practical results. 



It is significant of the broadening of the field of rubber 

 investigation when a manufacturer at Montreal expresses 

 concern about the methods of treating rubber /aUx on the 

 river Lopori, To Mr. Goodyear rubber was rubber — very 

 much as tin is tin. He did, indeed, speak in his book of 

 "three varieties" of rubber, "among which there is a 

 marked dillerence, although it is not, in the present stage 

 of the manufacture, sufficient to cause any great difference 

 in the quality of the goods made from them," And it is 

 safe to say that in the generation of rubber manufacturers 

 and factory superintendents who followed Mr, Goodyear, 

 able and successful as many of them proved to be, there 

 were very few who realized the great variety of character- 

 istics of rubber, or to what such differences were really 

 due. If, in what we may call the haphazard factory prac- 

 tice of their time, less satisfactory results were obtained 

 from one lot of rubber than from another, it was most 

 likely attributed to any other cause but bad methods, in 

 some cases, in the coagulation of the rubber. 



Even yet Congo rubber, still comparatively new to 

 manufacturers, is often spoken of as it were one definite 

 material, instead of which it is a surprisingly varied class 

 of rubbers. By way of illustration, we may mention that 

 the 513 tons of Congo rubbers offered at the September 

 inscription sale at Antwerp were catalogued under no less 

 than 31 commercial designations. It is true that in many 

 cases these were geographical terms, and that rubber of 

 the same character might have been offered under differ- 

 ent names. But that there were wide differences in qual- 

 ity is indicated in another way. The rubber was catalogued 

 under 81 lot numbers, with prices marked by the ofticial 

 broker, in advance of the sale, to show his estimation of 

 the values, based upon the last public sales of similar rub- 

 ber. Thirty- five different prices were marked, ranging 

 from 3 francs to 11,45 francs per kilogram — i. e , from 

 26^ cents to $1 per pound. Evidently, then, the designa- 

 tion " Congo rubber " covers a wider range of materials 

 than can be expressed by "good, bad, and indifferent," 



It remains to be considered whether the wide variations 

 in Congo rubbers are legitimate, or unpreventable. In an 

 article which we published just two years ago Monsieur 

 van den Kerckhove, a Belgian expert, insisted upon the 

 word condition, and not quality, in speaking of the apparent 

 deterioration of certain Congo rubber sorts, and he did 

 not hesitate to assert that " the greater part of the lots 

 emanating from the Congo region are more or less 

 tainted." In other words, the rubber suffered either from 

 improper preparation, or in careless handling in transit, 

 with the result that unnecessarily low prices were realized. 



