334 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1905. 



ONE POUND OF COLORADO RUBBER. 



ONE RUSSIAN "CONSTITUTION. '• 



THE Salida (Colorado) Mail ol June 2 contained the follow- 

 ing highly important item of news : " Mr. F. E. Hodding, 

 president of the Rocky Mountain Crude Rubber Co., operating 

 an extraction plant in this city, announces that his company is 

 seriously considering an ofTer from Buena Vi^ta tocome to that 

 city. Mr. Hodding says the power of the engine and boiler is 

 insiifTicient to pull the extractor, and Buena Vista offers a bonus 

 of $2000 to have the plant locate there. This sum would start 

 them in first class condition. A test run was made Wednesday 

 and one pound of rubber was extracted from ten pounds of 

 root, showing it to contain 10 percent, of the crude product. 

 Mr. Hodding siys the extractor worlds entirely satisfactorially 

 and with more power the company could produce several hun- 

 dred pounds of rubber per day." 



AMBRICAN PRODUCTION CO. 



The American Production Co. was incorporated May 12, 

 1905, under the laws of New Jersey, with $50.000 capital author- 

 ized, and with registered offices at Camden, N. |. The princi- 

 pal office, however, is at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the 

 officers are as follows : M. (i. Leslie, president; A. W. Dravo, 

 vice president; E. H. Swindell, secretary ; and W. H. Jacob, 

 treasurer. Recent reports from Buena Vista, Colorado, refer 

 to the presence there of Mr. Jacob and S. H. Woodbury in the 

 interest of the American Production Co., and to the granting 

 of certain franchises by the city to this company, in considera- 

 tion of the erection of a factory for the treatment of at least 

 15 tons daily of the Colorado rubber plant. A widely pub- 

 lished report having connected the name of The Diamond 

 Rubber Co. (Akron, Ohio) with this enterprise, Mr. A. H_ 

 Noah, treasurer of the Diamond company, informs The India 

 RuBBF.R World that the report has no basis in fact. Mr. Noah 

 states that while in Colorado some months ago he investigated 

 the so called rubber weed in that region, and found it to con- 

 tain so little rubber that he considered it unprofitable to invest 

 any money in its exploitation. 



A SUGGESTION TO JAVA PLANTERS. 



Writing in De Indische Mercuui (Amsterdam), A. H. Berk- 

 hout, a leading agricultural expert of Holland, quotes from an 

 article contributed to a French journal by Emil De Wilde- 

 man, a well known botanist who states that he has searched in 

 vain for Caoutchouc in the specimens of Acthiella Richardsonii 

 contained in the herbariums. Heer Berkhout adds : " The im- 

 pression we have gained from the above article, is that this is 

 an instance of American humbug, but as we may possibly be 

 mistaken, we consider it useful to bring the matter to the 

 knowledge of the Java planters. Provided a further investiga- 

 tion gives good results, seeds will probably soon be brought in- 

 to the market, and our Java cinchona bark planters might make 

 a trial on a very limited scale." 



RUBBER TIRES FOR FIRE ENGINES. 



AT a recent meeting of the board of police and fire commis- 

 sioners of Utica. New York, the question of having some 

 new fire engines now being built for that city equipped with 

 rubber tires was decided in the negative. Mr. R A. Henry, 

 clerk of the board, advises The India Rubber World: " As 

 to the matter of equipping our fire engines with rubber tires, 

 the question of finances was not considered as much as the dur- 

 ability and lasting qualities of the steel tire wheels. We do 

 not think that an engine working at a fire in five or six inches 

 of hot cinders equipped with rubber tires would stand the heat 

 and fire as well as steel tire." 



A CORRESPONDENT writes to The India Rubber 

 World : " One of the large iron works of St. Peters- 

 burg had a strike early in the year. At the end of a couple of 

 weeks the men went back to work, having obtained what they 

 struck for — shorter hours and increased pay. Evidently, in 

 their minds, the strike was the proper lever with which to ob- 

 tain one's wants of whatever kind. In less than a week another 

 strike was inaugurated. The spokesman of the workers said 

 that although they had obtained all they asked for, yet they 

 would not work with content unless they had a Constitution ! 

 The managers tried to convince the men that from the Czar 

 alone might they obtain that much coveted blessing, but no 

 impression was made — no constitution, no work ! At la't one 

 of the directors drew up a formidable looking document, bear- 

 ing large red and green seals and with much formality handed 

 the men a " Constitution." With light hearts and happy faces 

 the newly made freemen went to work — and that is the type 

 of Russians now clamoring for a constitution." 



INDIA-RUBBER G(JODS IN COMMERCE. 



EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES. 



OFFICIAL statement of values for April, 1905, and the 

 first ten months of five fiscal years, beginning July I. 

 from the treasury department at Washington : 



CUBA. 

 Official statement of values of imports of manulnCtuies of 

 India-rubber, for two fiscal years : 



From — ic^oi'-o^. 



United States $35,252 



Germany 10,253 



France. 



Great Britain 



Austria-Hungary. 



Spain 



Mexico 



Italy 



Total I51.358 



Duties oollecteil ... 6,121 



190 ^-04. 



$35,249 



8,353 



3.678 



866 



702 



311 



80 



34 



$48,125 

 5.303 



Aluminum Hose Poles.— An English rubber manufacture r 

 on a recent visit to the United States, in going over an important 

 mechanical rubber factory, expressed surprise at seeing iron 

 hoie poles in use. He said that he had for years used alumi- 

 num hose poles, made in the form of tubing, and that he found 

 them infinitely preferable. They only weighed one sixth as 

 much as iron, did not get out of shape easily, were absolutely 

 unaflfected by sulphur fumes. and were so smooth that the hose 

 could be removed without an air compressor. Of course, the 

 first cost of the tubes was a little more, but when they for any 

 reason ceased to be useful, he could send them back for remelt- 

 ing and get 50 per cent, of the first cost, and anyhow, as alumi- 

 num is so much cheaper than it used to be, the cost was not an 

 Item to be seriously considered. 



