July i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



301 



HEARD AND SEEN IN THE TRADE. 



SPEAKING of the present condition of the India-rubber 

 industry, a manufacturer of a good many years' exper- 

 ience said : " I have never seen anything like the recent growth 

 of new demands for rubber. Every day there is a call for some 

 article in rubber, involving new uses. The total volume of 

 trade is growing, too. There is room for half a dozen new rub- 

 ber factories in this country to-day. The manufacturer can 

 take his pick of the orders offered him now, to a greater degree 

 than ever before, so that it only requires good judgment to be 

 able to make money in the rubber business under existing con- 

 ditions." 



♦ • * 



"There is one change in trade methods." said the same 

 manufacturer, "that marks a great improvement in the rubber 

 trade. It is the tendency to cut down the extent to which 

 goods have been shipped on consignment. So long as 

 goods in stock don't belong to the dealer, it is not in human 

 nature for him to give them the same care as when the goods 

 belong to himself. Under the old method consigned goods 

 were piled up in stock without regard to the real needs of the 

 trade ; bales and rolls of goods were cut into recklessly, in fill- 

 ing orders, without regard to what became of remnants ; and 

 as a rule little care was given to keeping goods in condition. 

 Any loss, of course, fell on the manufacturer. But let a dealer 

 or jobber buy his goods, and it makes all the difference in the 

 world in the way those goods will be cared for." 



« « v 



There has been so much said lately about the relative merits 

 of solid and pneumatic tires for automobiles that many people 

 seem to have lost sight of the fact that these are not the only 

 types of rubber tires. Not that any other kind is likely to be 

 met on city streets, but on the country roads of such districts 

 as Long Island and the suburban portions of New Jersey, it is 

 asserted that a good demand exists for cushion tires for light 

 vehicles. One carriage firm in New York is reported to have 

 determined to confine its attention altogether to vehicles for 



the country trade, fitted with cushion tires. 



* * * 



New York was visited recently by a Danish chemist — a 

 young man who, though only twenty-four, has found time to 

 give a good deal of attention to India-rubber. He attended to 

 his business expeditiously and without flourish of trumpets, 

 and doubtless left richer than when he came. Among other 

 things, he sold to a leading rubber manufacturing concern his 

 patents in Canada and United States for a new process for re- 

 claiming rubber, which process has been patented also in all the 

 European countries and in Japan. The writer is assured^ 

 though not by the inventor himself — that the young Dane may 

 reasonably expect to profit, by his discovery, to the amount of 



hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



tt * * 



The contents of a Chinese store in New York, or any other 

 American city, are decidedly foreign in character, as a rule. 

 But of late one may see displayed prominently in nearly every 

 such store clothes wringers of genuine American manufacture. 

 Indeed, the demand for these articles has become so general 

 among Chmese laundrymen in this country that the American 

 Wringer Co. have added to their list a special make for this 

 trade. Many of the wringers are retailed at the company's 

 stores, besides which there are Chinese merchants throughout 

 the United States who do a considerable jobbing trade in the 

 wringers. The Chinese make good customers, buying as a rule 

 for cash. But the demand for wringers in China has not 



grown proportionately. It seems that it is only when launder- 

 ing white people's clothes that the Mongolian laundryman has 

 any use for modern appliances. 



* * * 



Inquiry was made, during one of the hottest days recently, 

 in a rubber store in New York, why Jubber boots were displayed 

 so prominently in the windows. " We retail about as many 

 boots at one season as another." replied the proprietor, " be- 

 cause people at work in the water require rubber boots, whether 

 in winter or summer. Besides, we wholesale and job rubber 

 boots all summer for the coming winter trade." 



* * * 



The few rubber manufacturers on the Pacific coast have at 

 least one advantage. When any crude rubber reaches San 

 Francisco by steamer from southern Pacific ports, the compe- 

 tition among buyers is not so great but that it may sometimes 

 be secured at very low prices. An Eastern rubber man while 

 in San Francisco recently, heard of a lot of rubber just ar- 

 rived, which was offered at a price which would have enabled 

 him to ship it by rail to New York, at a total cost less by 10 

 cents a pound than the quotation here at that time. But be- 

 fore he could reach the seller the lot had been taken by a local 

 manufacturer. 



* « * 



Cotton duck made for carriage cloths has to be finished 

 weighing a certain number of ounces to the running yard and 

 of a certain count. The width used principally is 50 inches, 

 although there is a considerable call for 36 inches, and a limited 

 demand for 54 inches. The same applies to drills as well as 

 ducks. The cotton goods are bought generally in the gray and 

 colored to suit by the carriage cloth manufacturer. The color 

 principally in demand at present is green, although goods are 

 made also in blue, brown, drab, and maroon. 



SOME WANTS OF THE RUBBER TRADE. 



[169] A MANUFACTURER of rubber specialties writes : 

 ■^»- " Will you kindly inform us where we can secure 

 grummets, such as are used in the tops and tails of water 

 bottles?" 



[170] " We wish to get the address of a manufacturer of rub- 

 ber castors." 



[171J A correspondent in the Indian Territory sends a draw- 

 ing from which the following cut has been made, and writes : 



"This is supposed to be a hair curler. Can you tell us where 

 we can secure the article .'" 



[172] " Kindly inform us who are the manufacturers of rub- 

 ber nails or spikes, such as are used in lodge work." 



[173] The rubber goods house of Hill & Miiller, Mannheim, 

 Germany, advise The India Rubber World that they are 

 buyers of large quantities of American gas tubing, and that 

 they desire offers from reliable manufacturers. 



[174] " We have been thinking something of installing a 

 number of linen hose machines. Can you furnish us with the 

 address of a manufacturer of the same .'" 



[175] A dentist writes: "Is there a substitute for rubber 

 made from petroleum, asphalt, or any other material, that can 

 be vulcanized or hardened like hard rubber?" 



