October i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



GOOD INDUSTRY FOR THE RIGHT MAN. 



Published on the 1st of each Uonth hy 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



SnBSCBiPTioNS : $3.00 per year, $1.75 for six monttis. postpaid, fortlie United 

 States and Canada. Foreign countries, same price. Special Rates for 

 Clubs of five, ten or more subscribers. 



Advertising: Rates will be made known on application. 



Remittances: Should always be made by bank draft. Post Office Order? or 

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 Publishing Company. Remittances tor foreign subscriptions should 

 be sent by International Post order, payable as above. 



Discontinuances : Yearly orders tor subscriptions and advertising are 

 regarded as permanent, and after the first twelve months they will 

 be discontinued only at the request of the subscriber or advertiser. 

 Bills are rendered promptly at the beginning of each period, and 

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COPYRIGHT, ii>02, BY 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



Entered at New York Post Office as mail matter of the second-class. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial : page. 



Good Industry For the Right Man .... i 



Mr. Roosevelt and the Trusts 2 



The Business of Gathering Rubber 2 



English View of American Industry - 3 



Where Rubber is •• Melted" 4 



A Suggestion for Para 4 



Minor Editorials . 4 



Working Rubber Estates on the Amazon Ashmorc Russon 5 



Causes of the Deterioration of Congo Rubber 



O. Von den Kcrckhove 7 



Unprofitable Rubber Trading on the Congo, 8 



[Report on the Plantations du Lubefu.] 



Gentsoh's "New Gutta-Percha" 9 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



Our Hegtdar Corrapnndent 10 



[A New Doubhng Machine. The Proofing Trade The Manufacture 

 of Dermatine. Motor Tire Notes. Fire Brigade Appliances. Trade 

 Names. Sulphide of Antimony. Golf Balls. Brief Mentions.] 



The American Bicycle Co, Embarrassed 12 



The American Automobile Industry 13 



The Rubber Situation in Bolivia .. . 14 



[With Plan of a " Seringal."] 



The Yield of the Par.i Rubber Tree L.G. 15 



Rubber Culture and Exploitation 16 



[Notes Relating to Perak, Selangor. Ecuador, Mexico, and Bolivia.] 



New Goods and Specialties in Rubber </f'us(rn(edi 17 



[A Golf Ball with an .Air Core. Shakespeare's " Sure Lure " Weed- 

 less Bait. The "Farrier" Horseshoe Pad. The Foster Rubber 

 Sole. The Yankee Rubber Sponge. The "V'ivayeur" Scalp Medi- 

 cator. Aluminum Rubber Horseshoe. Some New Woonsocket 

 Goods ] 



New Venture of the United States Rubber Co 19 



[With Portrait of King Leopold 11 , of Belgium] 



Our Obituary Record 20 



f\Vi,h Portraits of Robert Cowen and Alexander C. Oliphant.] 



The Cotton Duck Market ... 21 



The Packing of Old Rubber Shoes JT. C. Coleman 22 



Hiscellaneous : 



Literature of India-Rubber 22 



Rubber Exhibits at the Fire Convention (/( ustratcd) 23 



What the Rubber Truit Looks Like (Illustrated) 24 



New Trade Publications. 24 



Mr. Flint Has the Fastest > acht (ii'i's'i'nted) 24 



.lottlngs from Mangos Ignack) 25 



Change in a Hamburg Firm 25 



Recent Rubber Patents [American and English] 25 



News of The American Rubber Trade 27 



The Rubber Trade at Akron Our Correspondent 31 



The Rubber Trade at Trenton Our Correspondent 32 



Review of the Crude Rubber Market 33 



A N inquiry reaches The India Rubber World from a 

 **■ cautious investor who desires, before putting some 

 money into a rubber factory, a list of the failures in this 

 industry during the past ten years, and the causes of such 

 failures. The list is not long enough, or the liabilities 

 large enough, to discourage any but the most timid capi- 

 talist. Judged alone by the absence of failures, the man- 

 ufacture of rubber goods should appeal more strongly to 

 the man with money to invest than any other industrial 

 field. We have looked over the list of rubber factories ad- 

 vertised in the first issue of The India Rubber World, 

 thirteen years ago this month, and only one or two of the 

 whole number are to be marked as failures. There have 

 been reorganizations, changes due to deaths, consolida- 

 tions, and the like, and some of the firm names then in use 

 no longer appear in the trade. But with few exceptions 

 the businesses are still carried on — in most cases with more 

 capital, with larger and better equipment, bigger produc- 

 tion, and bigger profits. 



The demand for rubber goods has grovvfn with the in- 

 crease in population and increased requirements of com- 

 fort and convenience in modern life, so that several rubber 

 factories not in existence in 1889 have grown into large 

 and profitable establishments, and no doubt many still 

 newer plants will attain a similar development. In a few 

 notable cases profitable businesses have been wrecked tem- 

 porarily by extravagant management or the misuse of funds 

 by trusted employes, but with new hands in control the 

 factories have been continued in operation, affording proof 

 of the solid foundation of the industry as a whole. There 

 have been more changes in the list of mackintosh and rub- 

 ber clothing factories than in all the other branches of the 

 industry combined, but most of the concerns that have come 

 to grief in this branch were garment makers rather than 

 rubber manufacturers, and hence do not count. 



Our correspondent asks particularly what companies 

 making rubber tires alone have failed. There never have 

 been many factories making tires exclusively, and the 

 only failures in this class have been of some small bicycle 

 tire concerns, financially weak from the start. Some of 

 the strongest rubber companies probably found their bi- 

 cycle tire business unsatisfactory, and most of them 

 dropped this branch as soon as the "boom" in the bi- 

 cycle trade showed signs of collapse. The vehicle tire 

 trade, however, has become more important, as a whole, 

 than the bicycle tire trade ever was, and promises to be 

 more permanent, and most of the companies fitted to make 

 such goods are taking on this line. 



As we have said above, the record of failures in rubber 

 is not a discouraging one. But it doesn't follow that prof- 

 its are certain for everybody who may care to start a rub- 

 ber factory. Most of the large rubber factories of to- day 

 had small beginnings. The biggest beginning that was 

 ever made in the way of a rubber factory was near Boston, 

 when a rubber shoe plant was started with $1,000,000 cap- 

 ital, and the result was the most complete failure that the 

 industry in this country has ever known. Evidently it is 



