108 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1902. 



HEARD AND SEEN IN THE TRADE. 



THE exhibit of one of the big rubber factories at the Pan 

 American Exposition was in charge of a representative 

 who has grown up with the company, so to speak, becoming 

 familiar with rubber from many points of view, but he tells me 

 that he was sorely taxed at times to answer questions put to 

 him by visitors to the fair. Not only did they want informa- 

 tion about the secrets of rubber manufacturing, but they thirsted 

 for knowledge regarding the sources and nature and methods of 

 obtaining the raw material. And a traveling salesman of sev- 

 eral years' experience said the other day that he found it prof- 

 itable to read everything available on the subject of rubber, in 

 whatever connection, on account of what seemed to be a grow- 

 ing interest on the part of his customers and many other peo- 

 ple in the raw and manufactured material. No doubt one cause 

 of this deepened interest is the fact that practically everybody 

 in the United States who can read has seen references lately to 

 India rubber as a vegetable substance, capable of being pro- 

 duced by cultivation, and at a good profit in the right place. 



* » * 



One hears again, at the beginning of every winter, that the 

 wearing of rubber shoes is likely to decline, on account of the 

 growing use of thick soled leather shoes. Yet in proportion to 

 the amount of snow in recent years, the production of rubber 

 shoes undoubtedly has increased. The number of persons 

 who affect heavy shoes as a fad is greatly outnumbered by 

 those who buy rubbers, even as a necessai-y evil, in preference 

 to risking their health in times of snow and slush. " I tell the 

 wearers of heavy soled shoes," said a rubber shoe manufac- 

 turer, -'that they only carry about with them more leather to 

 absorb moisture than people who wear ordinary shoes." 



» * * 



After the late Colonel Waring made such a reputation for 

 keeping the New York streets clean, somebody— it may have 

 been Robert D. Evans— told him that the profits of the United 

 States Rubber Co. had fallen oflf $100,000 a year on account of 

 the lessened call for rubbers. But even under Colonel War- 

 ing the street cleaning did not extend to the suburbs which 

 have been growing so rapidly about New York, and the same 

 condition is true of our cities generally— creating a wider de- 

 mand from the suburbs to offset any falling oflf in the city 



trade proper. . 



* * * 



An importer in New York, asked for an explanation of the 

 decline m receipts of scrap rubber from Europe during the 

 past year, gave two reasons. One was that stocks had been 

 accumulating on the other side of the Atlantic in the hands of 

 dealers who had bought in anticipation of higher prices than 

 later prevailed in America. Their holdings are bound to come 

 on the market, however, and dealers in New York are being 

 pressed with offers of foreign supplies. The importer here 

 quoted did not believe that the lessened imports of European 

 scrap had been due either to reduced collections or to a meas- 

 urably larger production of reclaimed rubber abroad. 



* * * 



There was one other important reason, however. Consid- 

 erable rubber scrap had been imported, of a quality which did 

 not prove satisfactory to the reclaimers, who have been careful 

 since to specify that certain sorts will not again be accepted. 

 For instance, the importer referred to spoke of solid rubber car- 

 riage tire scrap, of continental origin, as having proved most 

 unsatisfactory. It will be remembered that imported rubber 

 shoe scrap at first met with little favor in the United States, fail- 

 ing to give good results when subjected to the same treatment 



as domestic shoe scrap. To-day imported shoes sel! at $20 a ton 

 less than domestic stock, but this is due to the larger propor- 

 tion of fiber contained in the scrap; the constituent rubber is 

 reclaimed as thoroughly as in the case of any other scrap. Hut 

 again to quote the importer, he was disposed to think that the 

 dissatisfaction with imported tire scrap resulted less from the 

 method of treating it than from the small percentage of rubber 



in the compounds. 



* * * 



Refekring to the statistics of rubber scrap imports at New 

 York contained in the last India Rubber World, and show- 

 ing a decline in 1901 as compared with the preceding year, 

 T/ie Commercial Bulletin (Boston) says: " It will be seen that 

 importers got about an average of tYt cents a pound for that 

 stock, but it should also be borne in mind that they also got a 

 tare of 3 per cent., whereas the domestic dealer gets no tare, 

 having to send his stock ' standard packing,' so that the differ- 

 ence in price per pound between foreign and domestic rubber 

 is less than i cent. In spite of this it looks as if the manufac- 

 turers and reclaimers had been buying foreign rubbers and 

 letting domestics accumulate until they are forced onto the 

 market. Two years ago there was a tare of 2 per cent on do- 

 mestic rubbers." 



» * * 



No matter how much more Balata may be produced, there 

 appears to be no increase in the consumption of this gum in 

 the United States. This fact is the more noticeable in the 

 view of the active part taken by Americans in exploiting 

 Balata almost from the beginning. But Balata is affiliated 

 more closely with Gutta-percha than with India-rubber, and 

 as the use of Gutta-percha has never gained an important foot- 

 ing in the United States as compared with Europe, it is not 

 surprising that the chief consumption of Balata should be 

 found beyond the Atlantic. A New York merchant expresses 

 the opinion that Balata might have come into more general 

 use had it possessed a more distinctive character. It so re- 

 sembles Gutta-percha, however, that in the main it is used for 

 the same purposes as Gutta, the latter having the preference 

 when "the price is right," and Balata coming toward the front 

 only when Gutta is exceptionally high. 



* ♦ * 



The past year or two have seen an unusually large amount 

 of submarine cable building, but without an advance in prices 

 of Gutta-percha to the highest notch. Of course the laws of 

 supply and demand apply to the Gutta-percha trade as else- 

 where, but there are some secrets in the means whereby cable 

 making firms obtain their supplies of Gutta-percha that, for 

 the time being, are guarded as jealously as any of their secrets 

 of manufacture. The story is told, that several years ago, 

 when an important new ocean cable was being projected in 

 England, rumors got out that a new rubber compound suited 

 for deep sea insulation had been perfected. The compound 

 was understood to be a secret in the possession of the com- 

 pany that secured the contract for building the cable, and 

 everybody in the trade looked for a rise in rubber, due to the 

 large quantity which the cable would require. Finally, when 

 it became known certainly that Gutta-percha insulation was to 

 be used, and people began to ask " Where are you going to get 

 your Gutta-petcha ? " the answer was that the necessary supply 

 had been secured quietly while the holders of India-rubber 

 were waiting to sell out at an advance. 



* * » 



SoMe towns report a larger trade in rubber footwear already 

 this winter than during the whole of last season, and it looks 

 as if there is to be more snow. 



