October i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



17 



other crops to be planted. Against these 1000 acres the com- 

 pany offer an equal number of " rubber harvest deeds," each 

 representing the profit on the product of one acre, at $200 

 cash, or $300 payable in monthly instalments of $4. Officers: 

 John IV. Byam, (lawyer) president ; Frederick Starr (profes- 

 sor in the University of Chicago), vice president; William R. 

 Mitmford (of W. R. Mumford & Co., Chicago), treasurer; 

 James R. Hardy (who resigned as United States vice consul 

 general at Mexico city to accept the position), secretary and 

 general manager; Charles IV. Rickard (\ong resident in Span- 

 ish America and familiar with tropical planting), resident 

 plantation manager at Palenque. The company hold out no 

 promises of dividends before the rubber plantation shall have 

 been sufficiently developed to yield them. 



THE TEHUANTEPEC RUBBi:R CULTURE CO. 



[Plantation " Rubio," Coatzacoalcos, catiton of Manititlan, state of Vera Cruz, 

 Mexico. Offices : No. 35 Nassau street, New YorI<.] 



The general manager, A. B. Luther, reporting to the com- 

 pany September i , states that 1 500 acres referred to in previous 

 reports had been cleared, burned, lined, staked, and planted, 

 and at practically every stake a rubber plant was growing. He 

 estimated that 1,250,000 of these trees would not require re- 

 placing, and such replanting as would be necessary to maintain 

 a uniform stand would be done during the autumn. Consider- 

 able new clearing and planting has been planned for the first 

 six months of 1903. The company have planted crops of corn 

 and rice for supplying their own forces. They have done con- 

 siderable building and erected 29 miles of telegraph wires for 

 connecting the various parts of their property, and also for 

 communication with Manititlan. 



THE ANDES RUBBER CO. (BALTIMORE). 



[See The India Rubber Wori-D. May i, 1902, page 255.] 



Henry A. Parr, of Baltimore, president of this company, 

 was reported on September 18 to have reached Guayaquil, 

 Ecuador, on his way to visit the company's concession in Bo- 

 livia. Work was begun by the rubber gatherers on this prop- 

 erty several months ago, and a shipment of rubber is now 

 reported to be on the way from Mollendo — the company's ship- 

 ping port — to the United States. 



* * » 



The Oaxaca Association (Chicago, Illinois), writing to The 

 India Rubber World of their rubber plantation in Vera 

 Cruz, Mexico, state : " Some of our cultivated trees are five 

 years old and show a satisfactory yield from the trees we have 

 tapped— 6 and 7 ounces of rubber per tree from two tappings." 



= Emperor Menelik, of Abyssinia, seems disposed to en- 

 courage plantations by giving concessions of lands to foreign- 

 ers. One recent experiment, conducted by two French gentle- 

 men, involved the planting on a considerable scale, during two 

 seasons, of Ceard rubber {Manihot Glaziovii), resulting in al- 

 most complete failure, owing to the great heat from the desert. 

 Another planter, however, in the same country, obtained trees 

 3 to 4 meters high within 18 months from planting seeds of 

 this species. 



Fungus on Rubber.— Mention is made in the last annual 

 report of the Ceylon government mycologist, J. B. Carruthers, 

 of a fungus which grows on samples of Para rubber grown in 

 that colony. It grows more abundantly on samples treated 

 with acetic acid. It is a species of Syncephalis and causes red 

 workings in the sample, though not destroying itstranslucency. 



NEW GOODS AND SPECIALTIES IN RUBBER. 



A GOLF BALL WITH AN AIR CORE. 



ADDISON T. SAUNDERS, of Akron, Ohio (in the speci- 

 fication of United States patent No. 707,263), states that 

 he is able to obtain greater resiliency than is possessed 

 by a solid Gutta- percha ball, by forming within the ball 

 a cavity to be filled with compressed air, and that this resiliency 

 increases in proportion to the compression of the air, enabling 

 him thus to supply all necessary rebound or resiliency for the 

 whole ball, making it practicable to construct the ball of mater- 

 ials which of themselves would not successfully replace Gutta- 

 percha. A ball made of Gutta-percha of the standard size, and 

 having a cavity containing compressed air, would be of less than 

 the standard weight, which may be compensated for by the use of 

 metal filings, white lead, or other heavy substances. The inventor 

 has used compounds of India rubber with non elastic substan- 

 ces in such proportion as to reduce the liveliness of the ball to 

 the desired degree — such as wood. Gutta-percha, cotton, cork, 

 straw, and the usual metallic ingredients for rubber compounds. 

 The ball is built up by winding narrow strips of textile fabric, 

 friction tape, or thread around an airtight lining of rubber, this 

 air shell being made up as in the case of toy hollow rubber 

 balls, except that instead of the single lump of self healing rub- 

 ber usually attached to the inner surface, two lumps are used, 

 at opposite points of the interior, to preserve the center of 

 gravity. This ball, after being vulcanized, is covered with a 

 layer of fiber in strips to prevent its inflation and distortion in 

 subsequent operations. The air chamber being sufficiently 

 charged with air by means of a hypodermic needle thrust 

 through one or both of the self healing lumps of rubber, to be 

 rendered rigid, is then wrapped until the proper size is at- 



tained, when the air in the inner cavity is further compressed 

 and the outer coating of Gutta-percha or India-rubber is ap- 

 plied. 



SHAKESPEARE'S " SURE LURE " WEEDLESS BAIT. 

 Rubber baits, as a rule -that is, artificial rubber frogs, and 

 worms, and helgramite — have not been wholly successful in 

 fish capture. The " Sure Lure," however, is said to do better, 

 and has the definite advantage of protecting 

 the hooks from catching in weeds while 

 trolling. It is, in brief, a seamless piece of 

 rubber made very much in the shape of a fin- 

 ger cot, through the middle of which runs a 

 wire shank. On this is molded a piece of rub- 

 ber with three ribs designed to keep the rub- 

 ber hood expanded while it is drawn through 

 the water. This rubber hood is painted to 

 represent live bait, and, by means of flanges 

 -hung in front of it, is given a whirling mo- 

 tion. When a fish strikes, the rubber col- 

 lapses and the hooks come in play, and the 

 next thing is to land him. It is said that very 

 large catches of bass have been made with 

 this hook, particularly in the Champlain re- 

 gion, where it is commonly called a "plug." 

 As far as the hook is concerned, the appara- 

 tus is practically weedless. The flanges, 

 however, that give the rotary motion, do 

 catch on weeds more or less, but clear 

 themselves easily. [William Shakespeare, 

 Jr., Kalamazoo, Michigan.] 



