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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September 1, 1913. 



COMPETITIONS AT NEXT YEAR'S LONDON RUB- 

 BER EXHIBITION. 



A NEW RUBBER FROM QUEENSLAND. 



THE fourth IntLTiiational Ruljlicr and Allied Trades E.\hibi- 

 tion, to be held in London from June 24 to July 9, 1914, 

 includes a number of highly interesting competitions, a special 

 program of which has been issued. 



.Among the principal competitions are : 



1ndi.\ Ruuber World Trophy: Silver cup, value $1,000, for 

 best process of extracting late.K froin wild llcrci.i, Ccistiltoa or 

 Manihot trees ; 



"Grenier's Rubber News": Silver tropliies. value ihO and il.i. 

 Best samples of commercial rulilier from Mal.'iya. Java. Su- 

 matra and Indo-China ; 



Association des Planteurs de Caoutchouc, Antwerp : Silver 

 cup for best sample of plantation rubber grown in Dutch East 

 Indies and Indo-China : 



Mincing Lane Tea and Rubber Share Brokers' -Association : 

 75 guineas and 25 guineas. New ideas for use of plantation 

 rubber ; 



President's Trophy: Eor most interesting exhibit affecting 

 rubber ; 



West India Committee Coinpetitinii ; Three silver cups for 

 West India Exhibit ; 



Rubber Growers' Association; (1) !Medals— Best commercial 

 samples of plantation rubber; (2) Gold medal — Best exhibit 

 of plantation ruliber ; (3) iSO and gold medal— Improvements 

 in plantation rubber: (4) Aledals — E.xhibit of rubber flooring; 

 (5) Gold medal— Rubber articles for commercial purposes: (6) 

 £50 and gold medal— New ap|)lications of plantation rubber. 



Planters' Association of Ceylon Diamond Juliilee Competition : 

 Trophy. Samples of commercial rublier. 



"India Rubber Journal": £25. Plan and description of rubber 

 estate factory ; £25, photographs of factory work. 



"Rubber World": Trophies, silver cup and salver — Ideal Rul)- 

 ber Estate ; Special tropliy, Wild rubber. 



"Tropical Life": Gold medal— Best sample Ccara rubber. 



'"Gummi-Welt" : Gold medal — Rul)l)er niamifact\uing machine 

 of German manufacture. 



Inquiries should be addressed to The .Awards Conmiittee. care 

 of A. Staines Manders, 75 Chancery Lane (Holborn), London, 

 W. C, England. 



USES OF RUBBER. 



Special interest attaches to three of the competitions at the 

 London Rubber Exhibition of 1914, forming Nos. 4, 5 and 6 of 

 the series of six competitions inaugurated by the Rubber Growers' 

 Association. 



Competition 4 offers gold, silver and l)ronze medals for the 

 three best exhibits of rublier llooring in tile or sheet form; open 

 to manufacturers of any country. 



Competition 5 offers a gold medal for the greatest variety 

 of articles made from rubber for commercial purposes. 



Competition 6 offers a prize of £50 and a gold medal for tlie 

 discovery and application of each new use for plantation rubljer. 

 as may be adjudged the most valuable, special consideration 

 being given to the weight of sucli rubber which the ap|)lication 

 is likely to consume. 



The scope of these three competitions renders them of special 

 interest to manufacturers. 



prizes for essays and photos. 

 The "India Rublier Journal," of London, will offer two prizes, 

 to be awarded at the rubber exposition to be held in that city 

 next summer. One prize, of £25, will be ofTered for the best 

 essay, with diagrams, on rubber estates: and the second, for a 

 like amount, for the best series of photographs of rubber estates. 



D l''.\DEKS will no doubt be interested in a sample received by 

 ■^ ^ The Indi.\ Rubber World from Mr. Joseph Campbell, M. A., 

 M. I. M. E., of Cairns, North Queensland, of a rubber extracted 

 by him frnni a si)ecies of .'\pocynaceous tree, which grows abun- 

 dantly in and near the North Queensland "scrubs.'' This, he 

 claims, is the first time wild rubber has been extracted in any 

 quantity in North Queensland. 



Rubber planting has been for some time carried on in that 

 state ; among others by the Gossypium Park Estates, Limited, of 

 which Mr. Campbell is managing director. 



While the coitipany is chiefly interested in the production of 

 cotton, it is engaged to a limited extent in the manufacture of 

 rubber solution and vulcanized sheets; and this fact has caused 

 the members of the company to feel much interested in the 

 general subject of rubber, including both the production of the 

 crude article and its manufacture. 



Mr. Campbell's discovery grew out of his work in the labora- 

 tory of the company. In his earlier experiments he had used 

 chemically prepared cotton in conjunction with the juices of the 

 trees referred to, but later on he found it was not necessary to 

 do so. His object was to bring about polymerization, on the 

 degree of which the quality of a rubber depends; and by the 

 use of these juices he was able to make three or four different 

 qualities, of which he preserved careful records, lieing thus in a 

 position to reproduce them at any time. 



The rubber made by Mr. Campbell's process has been valued at 

 3/ per pound, taking the basis of fine hard Para at 4/2. He 

 estimates that when the company's rubber plantation comes into 

 1)earing next year, by mi.xing his compound with natural rubber 

 latex he can greatly increase the yield. In order to carry his 

 process through the initial stages he has formed a small syndi- 

 cate. .According to Mr. Campbell's report to the London direc- 

 tors of tlie company, the plantation now approaching the bearing 

 stage includes three acres in Manihot Dichotoma and two in 

 Manihot G!a:iovii. The hurricane of January 30 last put back 

 the trees al)out six months. He is, however, so satisfied with 

 rubber prospects that he intends bringing the plantation up to 

 12 acres, ploughing out poor cotton with that end in view. 



Queensland has the reputation of extreme fertility, and its 

 needs on the subject of agricultural instruction have been put 

 forward in the present discussion as to the proposed college. 

 .As it is understood there are millions of rubber trees in the State, 

 there would seem to be possibility of important results from Mr. 

 Campbell's "Queensland Rubber," provided it has the properties 

 claimed for it, including that of vulcanizing perfectly. 



GUEENSLAND AS A SOURCE OF RUBBER. 



In a recent press interview Sir Rider Haggard, who has been 

 traveling through .Australia and New Zealand on behalf of the 

 Dominion Royal Trade Commission, said the fertility of Queens- 

 land was such that he firmly believed there was nothing grown 

 in Ceylon which could not be produced with equal success in 

 that colony He added that he considered it would be possible 

 to grow rubber in many parts of Queensland, were it not for the 

 labor problem. He added : 



".-^t the present time Queensland is very largely undeveloped, 

 but its wealth is almost unlimited and the natural resources only 

 need tlie necessary labor to be put into practical use. It is all 

 virgin soil and its fertility is extraordinary." 



The principal difficulty as to labor in Australia consists in the 

 objection by the white population to the importation of lowly paid 

 black lalior. .As a result of the opposition developed, the latter 

 class of workers was all sent out of the country. 



Replete with information for rubber manufacturers — Mr. 

 Pearson's "Crude and Compounding Ingredients." 



