February i, 1905. J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



141 



Fnblished on the 1st of eaob Month b; 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, 



EDITOR. 



HAWTHORNE HILL, 



ASSOCIA IE. 



Vol. 31. 



FEBRUARY 1. 1905. 



No. 5. 



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Entered at New York Post Offlce as mall matter of the second-class. 



TABLt OF CONTENTS. 



] 



Editorial: , . „ ,^ 



Ihe Oullook for Synthetic Rubber 



.Minor Editorial 



New Trade Publications 



An English Opinion of African Rubbers J- Cardwell Quinn 



Mr. Thornton on African Rubbers A . D. Thornton 



Death of Dr. CO. Weber lU'ii/i I'orlrait) 



Exploring for "Castilloa" Rubber in Panama— III The Editor 



[C;»mp Iguana. Close Ouarters. Provisions Low. Lucas Cruz. The 



Foiesi Primeval. Bees and Rubber. The Natives* Horror of Gold. 



A Land Without Law. Breaking Camp. Mountain Climbing. At 



Las Minas. The Plantation "Las Margaritas." Fourth of July 



Fiesta (Jn Board Quitriros Htrmanos, Panama, Colon, and 



New York j 



Rubber Planting and Exploitation 



[Ceylon Rubber at the St. Louis World's Fair. Letter from a Ceylon 



Planter. "Record Prices" for Ceylon Rubber. An Agricultural 



Scientist in the Far East. Rubber Seed Shipments from Ceylon. A 



London Opinion on Ceylon Rubber. Experiments with Rubber in 



Pol to Rico.) 



Rubber Exploitation In Peru 



Deterioration (?) of Para Rubber 



A Eailure In Rubber Exploitation 



African Rubber Trading Protits 



The Congo Rubber Situation 



[Grisar & Co.'s Annual Review. Rubber Regulations on the Congo.] 



The India-Subber Trade in Great Britain . Our Regular Corrr^potulen i 



[A Relro';[)ect. Price of Rubber. Electric Vulcani/.ing. The Fiscal 



Question. Weather Troubles. Solvent Naphtha. New Eccles 



Rubber Co. Joshua Lister & Sons, Limited. Recovered Rubber. 



Rubber Gloves. J 



Some Rubber Interests in Europe 



[Combination of (ialalith Interests. Sundry Notes.] 



India-RubberlGoods in Commerce 



[Official Imports and E.xports of the United States and Canada. Rub- 

 ber Footwear in China.] 



Recent Rubber Patents 



[American. British. German. French.] 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber ' 



["Republic" Non Skid Tire Covers. Toy " Druggists' Sundries." 

 "Torpedo-Asbestos" Packing. " Common Sense" Window Cleaner. 

 Automobile Tile Repair Outtit. A Toilet Appliance for Automobilists. 

 Schweitier's Sanitary Razor Cleaner. Marbel's "Solid Comfort" 

 Scat Pad. A Rubber Toothbrush. The "Anchor" Rubber Tile.) 

 [With la Illustrations.) 



Tires at the Madison Square Garden Show 



Literature of India-Rubber 



American Consumption of India-Rubber in 1904 



[With a Diagram.) 



Recent Statistics of Rubber Production 



[British India. Bolivia. Africa.] 

 Return of the Yacht "Virginia '' '.. 



Miscellaneous: 



Leominster's Comb Industry 



Belting Still Indispensable 



Some Wants of the liubber Trade 



(Jreat Interest m Rubber in Brooklyn "].. 



New Field for Canadian Capital 



News of the American Rubber Trade. 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 



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158 

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 175 



THE OUTLOOK FOR SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



THE statement that the late Dr. Carl Otto Weber be- 

 lieved that in five years, had his life been spared, 

 he could have discovered synthetic rubber, brings again 

 before the trade, particularly those who are investing in 

 rubber planting, the fear that a true substitute for India- 

 rubber is a possibility, perhaps an imminent one. 



Taking up the learned chemist's statement as it stood, 

 and allowing him to be able to solve so wonderful a prob- 

 lem, the results in a commercial way could hardly have 

 been felt for many years after the discovery, and possibly 

 never. No great industry can be revolutionized in a day, 

 or a year. If synthetic rubber were discovered to-day, 

 its progress would be like that of synthetic indigo, a se- 

 ries of experiments covering years before the product 

 could be produced economically enough to warrant its 

 manufacture on a large scale. 



A review of all the so called " rubber substitutes " in the 

 field to-day does not bring to light one that anywhere 

 near approaches even a poor grade of India-rubber in its 

 unique and most valuable feature — that of resiliency. As 

 assistants to rubber in compounding there are many valu- 

 able substitutes, but used alone, where elasticity is re- 

 quired, they are useless. 



Taking up a minor virtue of India-rubber, that of plas- 

 ticity, with perhaps insulating or waterproof qualities 

 added, there have been rubber substitute.s. That is, rub- 

 ber has been entirely superseded by new compounds. For 

 example, a German casein compound has been, and is 

 used, under the name " Galalith," in the manufacture of 

 certain grades of goods that take the place of hard rubber, 

 and that answer the purpose very well. So too, the arti- 

 ficial leathers of the " Pantasote " class, that contain no 

 rubber at all, are plastic and waterproof and would pass 

 for high grade rubber surface work to all but the initiated. 

 Still further, when the question of plasticity, insulating, 

 and waterproof qualities are needed to take the place of 

 India-rubber and Gutta-percha in the insulation of wires 

 and cables, the erection of factories in Germany, Eng- 

 land, and France for the production of an "artificial (iut- 

 ta-percha" containing no rubber or gutta shows a perfect 

 -substitute, as far as the qualities named are concerned. 



The preceding review fairly epitomizes the progress of 

 the search for a substitute to the present time. They are 

 of distinct value to the rubber trade, and it is to be hoped 

 that many others may soon be added to the list. 



For example, stickiness is a very valuable feature of 

 rubber. If there were a substitute for "friction" that 

 would hold together plies of cloth as well as a high grade 

 vulcanized friction gum, it would at once find a large field 

 of usefulness. Were it an ideal sticker it might also be of 

 use in the general cement trade. To sum up, then, real 

 synthetic rubber is as far off as ever, but products that may 

 be successfully substituted for rubber — in certain fields — 

 are already in use, and doubtless others will be developed. 

 But meanwhile the demand for natural rubber constantly 

 grows, for the production of goods in which no " substi- 

 tute " has ever been found to serve. 



