April 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



339 



-^^uiiA-i u^*' 



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HENRY C. PEARSON, Editor 



Vd. 48. 



APRIL I. 1913. 



No. I 



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TABLE OF CONTE.NTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



THE WASHING OF BRAZILIAN RUBBER. 



'T^'HE standardizing of Brazilian crude rubber sorts is 

 ■■• something that has often been discussed. No 

 special progress has been made, however, and the trade 

 designations have remained loosely descriptive or whollv 

 arbitrary. There has never even been formulated a clear 

 descriptive paragraph that would adequately describe Up 

 River Fine. 



That it is a pity to pay freight on water, bark, chips, 

 sand and other worthless contents of crude rubber pelles, 

 slabs and balls, no one doubts, but — and this is a very large 

 but — how is the washing of all of the 42,000 tons of 

 Brazilian rubber going to be viewed by the parties most 

 interested — the rubber manufacturers? They are 

 equipped with washing and dn,ing plants that cost hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars. They are accustomed to 

 judge the rubber by certain physical characteristics. 

 They know its value for various lines of goods by these 

 characteristics. If the rubber all comes to them in crepe 

 form it means not only the scrapping of much valuable 

 JI2 machinery, but involves the testing of every grade in 

 I— the laboratory, in compounding, vulcanization, and in 

 ' actual use. It is bv no means certain that Fine Para 

 rubber, for example, washed in Manaos, will arrive in 



New York possessed of the same degree of nerve that it 

 shows when it comes in biscuit form. The generally ac- 

 cepted explanation of the superior nerve of Para biscuits 

 is that the constant pressure of the stretched and super- 

 imposed films, together with the water held in the mass, 

 are responsible for this superiority. With some of the 

 softer sorts like Mangabeira, washing, particularly clean 

 washing, tends to soften the rubber so that it deteriorates. 



.\11 of these points were put before the Minister of 

 Agriculture at Rio de Janeiro recently by the editor of 

 The India Rubber World, who was given an audience 

 for that special purpose. His Excellency, however, gave 

 his assurance that nothing would be done hastily and that 

 sample lots of all kinds would be shipped for examina- 

 tion before any grade was definitely changed. 



A point in favor of the bid for the plant in Manaos 

 is the comparative cheapness of the price charged — about 

 six cents a pound. This is for washing, sheeting and 

 packing in boxes. The present price for cutting and box- 

 ing is over 20 cents a pound. In this connection it might 

 be well to cite the various grades of crude rubber that 

 now come from Brazil. Of the Amazon sorts nearly all 

 of the grades named are still further sub-divided into 

 Fine, Medium and Coarse. 



The various grades are as follows : Bolivian, Peru, 

 Acre, Matto Grosso, Amazonas sorts (Javary, Purus, 

 Jurua, Madeira, etc.) ; Tapajos, Xingu, Islands, Cameta, 

 Weak fine Hevea (Rio Negro, Peruvian, Bolivian, Purus, 

 Para). 



Bolivian, Peruvian, Matto Grosso, Acre, Amazonas 

 and Para caucho. 



Ccara sheet and crepe. Jequie sheet, Jequie washed, 

 Jequie scrap, Piauhy rubber, Mangabeira slabs, Alanga- 

 beira crepe. 



LI«SA 



NEW V'l 



60TANI 



QAKDl 



A TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY IN THE 

 WEST INDIES. 



IN that exceedingly interesting paper on "The Pres- 

 •*■ ent and Future of the Native Hevea Rubber In- 

 dustry," by Dr. Jacques Huber, which appeared in the 

 March number of The India Rubber World, he made 

 this statement: 'Tt would seem strange that in the 

 Amazon region, the very home of the Hevea Brasilieii- 

 sis, its cultivation has not made more progress, in 

 spite of the many efiforts in that direction. The cause 

 is not only in the general conditions of the country 

 and in the scarcity of labor, but perhaps principally 

 in a factor which unfortunately has too often been 

 overlooked — that of management. In Amazonia there 



