28 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1904. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ON THE AMAZON. 



THE Amazon Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Co., with 

 $1,000,000 capital authorized, filed incorporation papers 

 in the office of the secretary of state of Maine, January 26, 

 1904. The expressed object is to establish a wireless service 

 between Para and Mandos. The incorporators were J. Berry 

 (president) and Lewis A. Burleigh (treasurer), both of Augusta, 

 Maine; A.M.French, Winthrop, Maine ; Charles R. Ilebard, 

 Brooklyn, New York ; and Frederick Stewart, Montclair, New 

 Jersey. 



The South American Journal (London, August 13) says : 

 " E.xperiments with a wireless telegraph system which have 

 been quietly carried on between Manaos and Iquitos during 

 the past few months have shown such satisfactory results that 

 the cable company has bought the right to use the system be- 

 tween Pard and Manaos, and the manager of the Manaos office 

 is now in Para making final arrangements for installing the 

 system. No other improvement is so important to the com- 

 mercial interests of the Amazon valley as the instalment of a 

 reliable telegraph service between Pard, Mandos, and upriver 

 points." 



SHOES AND RUBBERS IN WHITE. 



WHITE shoes have never been so much worn as they are 

 this summer. All sortsand conditions of men, women 

 and children, to say nothing of infants, have fallen in line on 

 the white shoe. Boot makers and boot sellers say that they 

 are doing a driving business in both canvas and doeskin shoes. 



Just why the white shoe is so popular is hard to say. In can- 

 vas it is undeniably cool and easy on the feet, but in anything 

 it is difficult to keep clean and looks out of place in city streets. 

 Then it makes the foot look large, as does any shoe of light 

 hue. But it is here to stay until the frost runs it to cover, if 

 appearances count for anything. 



One fashion always calls for another, so the white shoe has 

 created a decided demand for white rubbers. These are easily 

 obtainable at any large shoe store and cost little more than or- 

 dinary black rubbers. There was a time when one pair of black 

 galoshes sufficed even the best dressed; but feet, as well as 

 heads and hearts, have grown complex, and now the well 

 groomed grownup or child must have white rubbers for white 

 shoes, tan rubbers for tan shoes, gray rubbers for gray shoes 



and black rubbers for black shoes. 



Who knows ? In a little while rubbers of rainbow hue may 

 appear. — New York Sun. 



THE HARD RUBBER BOWLING BALL. 



THE suggestion of the use of hard rubber for bowling balls 

 is not entirely new. In The India Rubber World of 

 March 15, 1892, the following paragraph appeared, on page 184: 

 " Hard rubber balls for use in bowling alleys are little known 

 but have been used with good success. The surface is of hard 

 rubber with combination filling. They are expensive and for 

 ordinaiy use are no better than lignum vitae. In otherwords the 

 ordinary flooring of an alley does not call for a high order of 

 ball. The science of bowling has within the past few years re- 

 ceived a decided impetus among the youth of the country, and 

 the growing tastes of the wealthy class are calling for a better 

 standard of alley. It is now proposed to build up-town in New 

 York city, an alley of slate, and on this hard rubber balls will 

 be used. One can almost imagine he was in dreamland or if he 

 be not ethereal, on a greased slide, when he can send a highly 

 polished rubber ball down the smooth plated surface of a bowl- 

 ing alley perfect in its level towards a goal bringing results en- 

 tirely dependent and without variation upon his skill." 



Could not get rubber nails. — A carpenter in Balti- 

 more, whom a citizen sought to enjoin from working in his 

 shop at 7 A. M. because it disturbed the latter's slumbers, filed 

 a humorous answer. It says that as the defendant has not 

 been able up to the present time to obtain rubber nails, ham 

 mers or rubber heels for shoes for his emyloyes that would 

 prove satisfactory in working, there must be some slight noise 

 accompanying the mechanical operation of driving nails, but 

 not sufficient to disturb the nerves of a person in ordinary 

 health and not supersensitive. 



Mr. N. H. Witt, of the important Manaos firm of Witt & 

 Co., rubber merchants, arrived in New York recently via 

 Europe, and will leave for his home by the next steamer for 

 the Amazon. 



= Mr. Henry H. Holland, manager of the European depot of 

 the United States Rubber Co. (London), has been for some 

 weeks on a visit to the company's headquarters on this side of 

 the Atlantic, incidental to which he has also visited their prin- 

 cipal factories. 



REVIEW OF THE CRUDE RUBBER MARKET. 



THE feature of the month has been a general change in 

 crude rubber values, the net decline in fine Para sorts 

 amounting to 7 or 8 cents per pound, with a less 

 marked fall in coarse Paras and Centrals and Africans- 

 Since our last published report still lower quotations have been 

 reported, so that the prices given to-day represent an advanc- 

 ing rather than a declining market. It may be pointed out 

 that the fall in prices is not coincident with either largely in- 

 creased receipts of rubber, or larger supplies in the markets. 

 Indeed, the statistical position would not seem to warrant any 

 particular decline in prices. These facts give color to reports 

 current that present quotations are due to operations in the 

 crude market meant to " bear " prices, which movement has 

 been assisted by the tendency of consumers to refrain as far as 

 possible from buying. What the effect upon prices will be 

 when manufacturers are forced, a little later, to buy heavily, is 



an interesting subject for conjecture, especially if the large yield 

 on the Amazon, now confidently predicted in some quarters, 

 should fail of realization. This subject, by the way, is treated 

 fully on another page. 



While the month's decline has been considerable, prices are 

 still a trifle above those quoted a year ago, and then the mar- 

 ket was considered very high. In introducing the market re- 

 view published October i, 1903, The India Rubber World 

 said : " At the time of going to press with this issue crude rubber 

 is selling at higher prices than at any time in the past his- 

 tory of the trade, with the single exception of a brief period 

 in 1882 - - - The advance has given rise in some quarters to 

 conjectures that speculative trading is the cause. Such reports 

 are always rife at such a time, but they are not always verified 

 by subsequent developments." We may introduce here a 

 comparative table of prices of a few leading grades during the 



