136 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1902. 



house having established a branch in England, before the days 

 of free trade, to avoid paying duties on their products sold in 

 the latter country. 



THE AMERICAN PACIFIC CABLE. 



In the report presented to the shareholders of the India 

 Rubber. Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Co., Limited, at 

 the annual meeting in London on December 17, the direct- 

 ors stated that the company had just commenced the manufac- 

 ture of 2400 nautical miles of cable for the Commercial Pacific 

 Cable Co. .This cable would also be laid by them. The board 

 tendered for this work at an extremely low figure, in order to 

 secure the contract. 



The chairman stated that he had an object in giving the 

 shareholders this information, as he did not wish them to go 

 away with the impression that the work might prove highly 

 remunerative. As they were aware, one could not, in this 

 class of work, which entailed considerable risk through un- 

 foreseen misfortune from weather or from other causes, pre- 

 dict results from a financial point of view. They might rest 

 assured, however, that nothing would be wanting in the skill 

 and foresight brought to bear for the successful accomplish- 

 ment of the work, and they hoped that when the cable was 

 laid between San Francisco and Honolulu, extensions of the 

 line would be determined upon, and that a portion of the work 

 would fall to the company's share. 



« « If 



George G. Ward, vice president of the Commercial Pacific 

 Cable Co., testifying before a congressional committee at Wash- 

 ington on January 10, stated that the new cable was being man- 

 ufactured at the rate of 240 miles per month and that $182,655 

 [about £37,500] had been paid on contract. He said that the 

 company proposed to charge $1 a word for messages between 

 San Francisco and Manila, and 35 to 50 cents to Honolulu. 

 Until recently the cost of cabling between New York and Ma- 

 nila had been $2.35 a word, but in November last, in view of 



coming competition, the rate had been reduced to $1.66. 



* ♦ ♦ 



While no specifications have been made public regarding 

 the Commercial Pacific cable. The India Rubber World 

 learns that the amount of Gutta-percha to be used will be 

 about 750 tons, and of copper about 500 tons. Taking 2400 

 nautical miles as the length, would give an average weight per 

 mile of 700 pounds of Gutta-percha, and 466% pounds of cop- 

 per. The practice hitherto, while the amount of material and 

 the relative proportions varied, was to employ a greater weight 

 of copper conductor than of Gutta-percha. Thus the French 

 cable laid between Brest and New York in 1898 contained 660 

 pounds of copper and only 396 pounds of Gutta-percha per 

 mile. In some other important ocean cables the ratio of'cop- 

 per and Gutta-percha has been 650-400 pounds, 552-368, 510- 

 325, 500-320, and so on — the copper always predominating in 



weight. 



* * » 



At Washington, on December 4, Senator Hale reintroduced 

 the Pacific cable bill as it passed at the last session of congress. 

 It provides for the construction by the government of a cable 

 from the western coast of the United States to Hawaii. In 

 the house of representatives three bills have been introduced : 

 (i) by Mr. Jones of Washington state, proposing a Pacific 

 cable, by the northern route, via Puget Sound, with an appro- 

 priation of $8,000,000 ; (2) by Mr. Corliss, of Michigan, pro- 

 posing a government built cable ; and (3) by Mr. Sherman, of 

 New York state, offering a plan allowing private participation 

 in the enterprise. During the past month there have been 

 hearings before the committees in the two houses to whom the 



cable bills have been referred. The Commercial Pacific Cable 

 Co.'s representatives appeared to protest against any legisla- 

 tion on the subject, and against governmental competition with 

 their enterprise. Western Union Telegraph interests, on the 

 other hand, protest against a cable monopoly in private hands, 

 maintaining a service which they could not use in sending 

 transoceanic messages without being discriminated against. 

 Hence they favor governmental control of the new cable. 



* * * 



The New York E/ecirtca/ jRevt'ew ssiys: "There are not at 

 present any cable-ships flying the American flag of capacity 

 sufficient to undertake the laying of even the shortest length 

 of the contemplated cable across the Pacific. It is chiefly to 

 this lack that we must lay the blame for the contract for a 

 transpacific cable going to foreign concerns." The Review 

 suggests that the government equip as cable ships one or two 

 of the foreign built vessels purchased for transport service dur- 

 ing the war with Spain, and now no longer needed by the mil- 

 itary establishment. 



PROGRESS IN AMERICAN CABLE MAKING. 

 The contract awarded to a New York firm for the construc- 

 tion of nearly 500 miles of submarine cable for the Mexican 

 government was referred to in the last India Rubber World 

 [page 116]. The cable is to be insulated with Para rubber, put 

 on by the seamless process. It is stated that the contract was 

 secured in competition with European manufacturers, but that 

 the high grade and good results from this form of insulation, 

 as manufactured in the United States, won the contest, at a 

 price in advance of the foreign tenders. "The warm waters of 

 the Mexican gulf," it is stated, "and the resultant animal life, 

 espedially the teredo, make it advisable to use India-rubber in- 

 sulation, as it has the double advantage of withstanding the 

 heat and is not attacked by the /i?ri?^tf as Gutta-percha is." Dur- 

 ing two years past over 1000 miles of rubber insulated cable, 

 built by this company, have been laid by the United States 

 army signal corps in the Philippine archipelago, one section at 

 a depth of i>^ miles. These cables, besides being subjected to 

 the usual conditions of service, are said in some cases to have 

 been required to meet emergencies never before equalled, 

 owing to mishaps due to laying them in unchartered waters, 

 the wrecking a cable ship, with the resultant strain on the cable 

 and its long exposure to the sun, and so on. But all the cable 

 laid is now working satisfactorily. 



• * * 



On January 6 bids were opened at Washington for approxi- 

 mately 250 miles of submarine cable for the Philippines service, 

 to be made in every respect similar to that previously made by 

 The Safety Insulated Wire and Cable Co. (New York). On ac- 

 count of the success of the rubber insulated cables already in 

 use, the chief signal officer of the army awarded the contract 

 to the Safety company. 



It is well known that the jar ring business is a very large item 

 in the line of mechanical rubber goods. A quiet revolution 

 now taking place in this business is in the methods of packing. 

 Whereas in the past they were sold almost entirely in bulk, to- 

 day the package ring has almost wholly driven out the bulk 

 ring, which is a move in the right direction, from both the 

 manufacturers' and consumers' standpoint. 



The exhibits of vegetable and mineral products — including 

 India-rubber — from Central America and South America, dis- 

 played at the Pan American Exposition, at Buffalo, last year, have 

 been deposited in the Philadelphia Commercial Museums and 

 will be shortly catalogued. 



