May I, 1902. 



THE INDIA RUBBER \VORL-D 



241 



— so vigorously that such of the white men as survived 

 have fled the country. If this news should ever reach the 

 Congo Free State or certain Amazonian regions, it might 

 lead to a decided change in the attitude of the lords of the 

 forest to the rubber industry. 



AMERICAN INTEREST IN THE CONGO. 



Something that interests nearly the whole of the 

 rubber manufactaring trade is the present exceedingly high 

 price of cotton which, by the way, will in a measure offset the 

 lower prices of some other raw materials. The amount of cot- 

 ton fabric used in almost all lines of rubber manufacture is 

 something that is rarely appreciated by either wholesalers or 

 retailers who handle such products. If, however, they would 

 take pains to examine their stocks of hose, of belting, packing, 

 footwear, and 80 per cent, of the goods in nearly all other rub- 

 ber lines, they would see how important an ingredient the cot- 

 ton fabric is. This being the case, it is only fair to the manu- 

 facturers that the unusually high price of cotton should be 

 taken into account in the price making of cotton and rubber 

 products. 



The statistics of the rubber industry, as shown by the 

 United States census of 1900, have now been made public for 

 the states of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Ohio, 

 in a form which permits of a comparison of the gross value of 

 products for 1890 and 1900, with the exception of the single 

 item of rubber boots and shoes produced in New Jersey. The 

 ' total for the former year was $7,727,880, and for the latter year, 

 $49,386,482— an increase of nearly seven fold. There are yet to 

 be published the reports of the important rubber industry of 

 Massachusetts and New York, besides six other states in which 

 rubber factories existed during the last census year. It appears 

 probable that when the census totals are made known, the 

 showing of increase made by the rubber industry will be as 

 great or greater than in any other manufacturing interest in 

 the country. 



The number of pairs of rubber shoes exported from the 

 United States during the first three quarters of the current fis- 

 cal year reached 2,319,714. During the decade beginning with 

 1890 the average per year was only 316,976 pairs. The careful 

 and systematic efforts which have been made to build up the 

 business to its present volume are commended to the consid- 

 eration of other branches of the rubber industry. 



In case of any difficulty in understanding how the rub- 

 ber shoe manufacturers can make any money in view of the 

 alleged " price war," one might recall the information imparted 

 to the old lady to whom the country merchant was offering his 

 wares at less than cost. 



" I don't see how you can afford it," said she. 



" It is because we sell so many goods, madam." 



It is hardly surprising, in view of the successful use of 

 rubber in so many forms of sporting goods, that there should 

 be attempts to make rubber a " foot ball of speculation " in Wall 

 street. 



Cuba — Writing in The Indepettdent on " The Future of 

 Cuba," the president elect of that republic, Seiior Tomas Es- 

 trada Palma, says : " As for rubber, there are some Caoutchouc 

 trees growing in Cuba, chiefly on soil that has no other use. 

 But in the province of Havana Cubans are already establish- 

 ing nurseriesof young trees, and the people are buying them ex- 

 tensively." 



TH E Congo and Sangha Development Co. was incorporated 

 April 5, under New Jersey laws, to deal in India-rubber, 

 ivory, and other African products; capital, $3,000,000; incor- 

 porators: Howard Smith, Rufus P. Edson, and Frank Smith. 

 The company will be organized under its charter within a few 

 days. The purpose of the company is to acquire and work the 

 concession of the Sociei^ de la Sangha fiquatoriale, formed in 

 Paris in 1899 with 1,000,000 trancs capital, their location being in 

 the French Congo, on the Sangha river at its confluence with the 

 Congo. The important trading town Bonga, on the north side 

 of the Congo, is the shipping point for the concession. Consid- 

 erable rubber has been exported by this company to Antwerp, 

 where it is sold under the name " Equateur," bringing prices 

 corresponding to what is paid for Lopori. The negotiations in 

 America have been made by H. A. Darnell and James W. S. 

 Langerman, who purpose, after completing the organization of 

 the new company, to introduce colored labor from the United 

 States on a large scale, as better suited for rubber gathering 

 than the natives, 



SYNTHETIC HARD RUBBER. 



A SAMPLE of a new product has been sent to The India Rubber 

 World, accompanied by the following descriptive notes by the 

 inventor. 



THIS term applies to a new product which, when combined 

 with sulphur and exposed to heat at about 3oo''F., can 

 be vulcanized independently of India-rubber or Gutta-percha, 

 or in combination with them. Under the process by which 

 this material is produced, almost any vegetable substance, or 

 that of vegetable origm, can be rendered vulcanizable, and 

 converted into a hard vulcanite, by heat, though the vulcaniz- 

 ing process differs somewhat from the ordinary form of treat- 

 ing rubber. 



Some of the substances which have been tested by this pro- 

 cess are grass, common woods, oils, cotton, pine pitch, pine 

 tar gums, paraffine (a large per cent.), paper, etc. These ma- 

 terials are each first brought to a plastic state, when they can 

 be tempered to any consistency desired and rolled into sheets, 

 or molded into any form. 



A very good result has been obtained by converting the 

 twigs of the rubber tree— the entire wood— into hard rubber. 

 The leaf of the rubber tree can also be converted into this new 

 product. Of course all materials do not yield the same quality 

 of hard rubber, but many kinds of vegetable substances give 

 similar results. 



The originator of this process does not call the new product 

 a "substitute," for the reason that none of the so called rub- 

 ber substitutes can be vulcanized independently of India-rubber 

 or Gutta-percha. 



The cost of producing this article is far below that of ordi- 

 nary hard rubber, and while its quality is not fully equal to 

 that of good rubber for all uses, yet for many purposes it will 

 fully fill the requirements. 



This new hard rubber has been produced by persistent study 

 for years, and by numerous experiments and tests. The most 

 favorable words yet spoken for its qualities are from rubber 

 manufacturers, their chemists, and other rubber experts, who 

 have seen the finished products, and until they have tested the 

 material by heat, refused to allow that it contained no ordinary 

 rubber. This product will be placed upon the market in form 

 of manufactured goods, and also in blanks for numerous pur- 

 poses." 



