OcroBER I, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



WIS created. During the next 15 years more than 1,000,000 pairs were 

 sold. 



It is not stated whether the use of rubber boots came to an 

 end in 1867. Charles Goodyear is credited with important 

 work in connection with rubber, through adopting Leuders- 

 dorf's discovery and acquiring the patent of Nathaniel Hay- 

 ward, but the date of Goodyear's activity is not given. In 

 England, Charles Macintosh (spelled in this book Mcintosh) 

 brought out a waterproof garment which is still known by his 

 name. We learn that rubber is always plentiful, and that new 

 sources of supply are frequently discovered. There has been a 

 steady increase in the value of rubber imported into the United 

 States, due in part to "the rise in price, which in 1900 was 63 

 cents per pound." 



And this in a book printed in the summer of 1904! It is all 

 very readable, but we cannot help thinking that the editors of 

 the new encyclopedia might have saved themselves some labor 

 by omitting the preparation of a special article on " Rubber." 

 Their readers would have been benefited quite as much had 

 they reproduced the account of rubber making given in Mr. 

 Rodolphe Wyss's delectable romance, "The Swiss Family 

 Robinson," the scene of which is laid in a desert island about 

 1800. 



The rubber industry in Massachusetts, having been 

 long established, and become extensive and well organized, may 

 well be taken as a criterion of the industry of the whole coun- 

 try, in any study of general conditions. On another page of 

 this issue appears a tabulated comparison, for four years, of 

 details reported in confidence, to a state office, from 47 fac- 

 tories — believed to comprise 80 per cent, of the rubber goods 

 production in the state — from which it appears that a steady 

 increase has been made in the value of products, as well as in 

 the value of stock used, the number of wage earners employed, 

 and in the amount of wages paid. If these identical conditions 

 should prove true of the industry outside of Massachusetts, it 

 would be a most satisfactory state of affairs, and we know of 

 no reason for supposing that the rubber manufacturers else- 

 where have been less successful. Certainly the steadily in- 

 creasing imports of crude rubber into the United States indi- 

 cate a corresponding increase in consumption, which has not 

 all been confined to Massachusetts. 



Boots and shoes form one item of rubber goods produc- 

 tion concerning which it is easier to obtain definite information 

 from published official statistics than in regard to most other 

 wares into which rubber enters. Without doubt footwear of 

 this description is all the while coming into the wider use, biit 

 in the case of each of the European countries producing such 

 goods the tendency is towards the supplying of the home de- 

 mand by home factories. Some figures which we print this 

 month indicate a gradual decline of imports of rubber footwear 

 into Great Britain, and an increase in exports. Last month 

 we presented some statistics of a similar nature relating to 

 Austria-Hungary, and a like showing would be made by France 

 and Germany. Our British correspondent this month also 

 contributes a suggestion on the general subject. The one con- 

 clusion to be made is that the future of the export trade in 

 rubber footwear of any country must depend upon the cultiva- 

 tion of a demand in non manufacturing countries, and in this 

 connection it is of interest to note that Great Britain's exports 

 of such goods to her own colonies increased from 46,340 dozen 

 pairs in igoi to 106,560 dozen pairs two years later. And last 

 month we showed that Austria-Hungary's exports of rubber 

 shoes to Turkey had increased nine fold during three years. 



and to British India nearly three fold. Hong Kong took more 

 than a half million pairs of British made rubber shoes last 

 year, which more than three times the amount taken in 1901. 

 Some of these increases, of course, have been at tiie expense 

 of other exporting countries, but the facts stated all have a 

 bearing upon the prospective importance of comparatively 

 new markets for rubber shoes. In a broader sense, they relate 

 to conditions which may have to be considered in connection 

 with the rubber trade as a whole— the growing independence 

 of each manufacturing country of foreign goods, and the ne- 

 cessity of seeking outlets for export in countries not provided 

 with rubber factories. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CONGO RUBBER. 



TO THE Ediior of The India Rubber World: A friend 

 of mine in the rubber business asked me to help solve a 

 difficulty he had in curing some white goods in a mold ; some- 

 times he would have no trouble whatever, and then without 

 any apparent reason the goods would come out undercured. 



We went over all the compounds; our first suspicions were 

 directed towards the lime, but we found no trouble apparent 

 there ; afterwards we looked at the rubber, which was Lopori ; 

 the piece I saw was cut from a roll which has been ground 

 down on the mill. 



I believe the trouble was eliminated by changing the com- 

 pound a little, but the point which interested me (and I have 

 no doubt will interest you, inasmuch as I know many of your 

 readers have had the same trouble) was that the trouble had 

 occurred without any apparent reason ; the compounds had 

 not been changed, and as far as we could possibly determine 

 no mistake had been made. 



Since then I have come to the conclusion that the trouble 

 was with the crude rubber ; my conclusions are drawn from the 

 following experiments : 



First. I took some high grade Lopori, carefully selecting it, 

 avoiding any of the gum which showed signs of having 

 sweated. After mixing it with the compounds I cured it, and 

 found the results quite satisfactory. 



Second. I took some of the same lot of Lopori, including 

 some of the sweated gum, treated it exactly the same; the re- 

 sults were not nearly as satisfactory. The binding of the mass 

 was not good, and when stretched it broke short, whereas the 

 first experiment did not. 



Third. I took some gum which was sweated throughout 

 (from the same lot) ; with the same treatment it showed a com- 

 plete failure. It was not cured. It had turned a dirty color. I 

 gave it a further curing — in fact I burnt it — but there were no 

 signs of a correct or complete cure. 



To me this was very interesting, as showing that sweated 

 gum must not be used for this purpose— that you cannot judge 

 gum after it has been ground on a mill. 



I find further that a sweated rubber may be washed, dried, 

 etc., and, after being ground, it will present a very good appear- 

 ance, but after laying it aside for a month or two I find that a 

 steady decomposition has taken place. It is not at once appar- 

 ent. It still feels hard and looks all right, but test its elasticity 

 and its deterioration is quite apparent. 



Will you tell me, Mr. Editor, why the gathering of crude 

 rubber on the Congo is not carried out in somewhat the same 

 way as on the Amazon ? It would seem that if a good red 

 Upper Congo milk is cured in the same way as Para, better re- 

 sults would be obtained. Yours truly, A. D. THORNTON, 



Geucral Superintendent, The Canadi.in Rubber Co. nf Montreal. 

 Montreal, Canada September, 19, 1904. 



