396 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i, 1905. 



poor work go together, but tliere are exceptions. In any 

 event no manufacturer is responsible for the misuse of a 

 first class product. 



On the other hand the character of his output is a ques- 

 tion for the manufacturer's conscience. There is need, 

 real or supposed, for all grades of insulation. In these 

 days the higher classes of rubber covered wire are unde- 

 niably expensive, and there is a perfectly genuine need for 

 cheaper even if somewhat less effective coverings. Some 

 of these are entirely safe when used with full knowledge of 

 their properties, perhaps as safe as the most costly, under 

 proper conditions of use. But from these cheaper insula- 

 tions down there is a wretched series of substitutes and 

 imitations, which reputable manufacturers know only too 

 well in competition, none of them permanently safe in any 

 situation and some of them unsafe in all. These are not 

 made through ignorance, but deliberately to meet the de- 

 mand for cheap and nasty goods. 



Right here and here only is the manufacturer culpable. 

 He knows perfectly well when he is putting out a grade of 

 insulation which no honest contractor would wish to use, 

 and becomes a conscious partner in the latter's rascality. 

 It is a good sign of the times when the fire underwriters 

 and manufacturers get together and agree upon standard 

 specifications for insulation. It will be a still better sign 

 when they mutually agree upon an irreducible minimum 

 of safety and unite to exterminate unsafe materials. If 

 the leading manufacturers would join in turning out no in- 

 sulation below a certain specified grade upon any excuse 

 whatever, and the underwriters did their full duty of in- 

 spection and condemnation, the dangerous wires could be 

 wiped out of existence in a very short space of tmie. 

 When the contractor can obtain poor insulation only with 

 difficulty and can use or misuse it only at imminent risk of 

 prompt condemnation, we shall hear little more of electri- 

 cal fire risks. The end is worth the employment of drastic 

 measures enforced without fear or favor. 



RECLAIMED RUBBER. 



■p l', 1\ 1 1 .\ PS no portion of the rubber manufacturing 

 *- trade is attracting more attention or growing more 

 rapidly than rubber reclaiming. This is shown not only 

 in the new processes that from time to time are made the 

 subjects of patents, but it is also reflected in the forming 

 of new companies, and the erecting of additional plants. 

 The business to-day really divides itself into three classes : 

 First is the manufacture of reclaimed rubber along the 

 standard lines producing either mechanical or chemical 

 rubber, and that solely for sale to manufacturers. Second, 

 the rubber manufacturer who has a plant for reclaiming, 

 which is an adjunct to his own works, and the product of 

 which is used in the manufacture of his own goods. Third, 

 the company with the new process, sometimes a distinct 

 advance over the old and sometimes a freak, which also 

 caters to the general trade. 



The high price of crude rubber has so stimulated the in- 

 terest in reclaimed rubber that most of the above named 



types of reclaiming mills are busy and prosperous. Freak 

 processes of course soon drop out of sight just as surely 

 as those that have real merit will continue to live. Indeed, 

 the impulse that leads an inventor in reclaimed rubber or 

 anything else to establish a new method of doing work, is 

 altogether commendable, and is the basis of progress. 

 Were a drop in crude rubber to come suddenly, it would 

 be seen that the individual reclaiming plant and the auxilia- 

 ry would still exist and still be profitable, because what- 

 ever advantage the auxiliary plant may have in utilizing 

 its own scrap or in a lessened cost of operation and super- 

 intendence, the individual operator can offset it by the 

 purchase in larger quantities, by a more intimate knowl- 

 edge of the market, and by concentration of energy to that 

 one particular line, which in itself gives added prt)fit. 



Exactly what the future of the reclaimed rubber business 

 will be depends upon two factors, the market for general 

 rubber goods, and the supply of crude rubber. That the 

 former will continue to increase notably from year to year 

 is almost a certainty, and that crude rubber is bound to be 

 an expensive commodity for from ten to twenty years to 

 come is equally certain, ail of which argues an increase in 

 demand for reclaimetl rubber, added attention to reclaim- 

 ing processes, and better grades of goods than even the 

 best produced to day. 



Our news of the ruhber trade of late has dealt much 

 with increases in the capital stock of manufacturing compa- 

 nies, with the erection of additional factory buildings, and with 

 the enlargement and improvement of machinery equipment. 

 These are ail definite indications ol a growth of business, which 

 are supplemented by the steady increase in the volume of im- 

 ports of raw rubber. Evidently the rubber industry is keeping 

 pace with the general prosperity, but there is the further con- 

 sideration that all the while rubber is becoming a distinctive 

 necessity in more ways, and to more people, so that whenever 

 a check does come to the liberal buying of manufactured pro- 

 ducts the rubber industry will be among the last to feel it. The 

 demand lor rubber is permanent, and must increase. And these 

 conditions exist alike on both sides of the Atlantic. Hence 

 we feel that the planting of rubber trees on a large scale has 

 begun none too soon. 



Exports of American rubber goods continue to increase 

 the figures for the last fiscal year being larger than in any 

 former year, and more than three times as large as the exports 

 ten years ago. This by no means indicates a lessening of the 

 production of rubber goods elsewhere, or in the exports from 

 any other country; it means that the world market for such 

 goods is widening all the time. And while American rubber 

 goods exports are on the increase, it is not at so great a rate as 

 from Germany, for example. Besides, it must be considered 

 that the United States last year imported more foreign made 

 rubber goods than in any preceding twelvemonth. 



The SENDiNo of one wireless message down the Ama- 

 zon has not prevented the cable company operating in that 

 stream from largely increasing its debenture issues. Con- 

 sidering how much of the time the cable remains a messageless 

 wire its owners, who seem able always to borrow money for 

 mending it, by merely registering a new mortgage, can be com- 

 plimented upon their financial ability. 



