May 



1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



233 



HEARD AND SEEN IN THE TRADE. 



THE hard rubber industry is reported in a very satisfac- 

 tory condition — both as to the volume of business and 

 prices obtained for goods. There was a time, not so 

 many years back, when complaints were rife of much 

 business done at a loss. But the manufacturers agreed to stop 

 cutting prices, where the result meant wiping out the whole 

 margin of profit, after which, gradually, prices were advanced 

 where advances were necessary, until the present condition 

 was reached. At no time was the increase marked, but the 

 tendency was persevered in, and for the most part without 



any protest from jobbers or the consuming trade. 



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" It is a pity that the rubber shoe trade didn't follow the 

 same course," commented a rubber man, in connection with 

 the statements made above. " There was a time when, by 

 making more moderate advances in prices of rubber shoes, and 

 by pursuing a more conciliatory course in dealing with jobbers, 

 the leaders in this branch could have insured themselves 

 against competition for many years. No doubt rubbers were 

 sold at too great a discount a few years ago, just as they are 

 being sold now, but it was not good business to put back 

 prices to a normal level all at once, instead of by degrees." 



« « * 



When the automobile trade has reached some fixed level, 

 and particularly when it has got beyond the control of the 

 stockjobbing element which has figured before the public so 

 spectacularly, the hard rubber trade will profit from the de- 

 mand for cells for storage battery vehicles. Up to date the 

 electric motor has not been a tiowling success, but the idea of 

 electric traction is a fascinating one, and experimenters and 

 inventors may be expected to keep at work until a type of con- 

 struction is evolved that will be lighter in weight and more 

 efficient than anything now in use. The electrical press en- 

 courages the hope that Thomas A. Edison's recent inventions 

 connected with storage batteries may mark a new epoch in au- 

 tomobilism. So far the demand for hard rubber battery cells 

 has been for material too thin to stand the wear and tear to 

 which the jolting vehicles subject it — in order that as many 

 cells as possible may be compressed within a given space — and 

 the automobile makers have been calling for replacements 

 where the inevitable breakdowns occur. 



m * * 



The writer is assured by one rubber man who has had 

 some experience with motor tires that the electric vehicle 

 companies that have gone out of business in Boston and Chi- 

 cago would have been obliged to do so in time — if for no other 

 reason — because of the heavy tax upon them of replacing rub- 

 ber tires. This rubber man believes in the future of the elec- 

 tric vehicle and of the pneumatic type of motor tire, but he in- 

 sists that no pneumatic tire made with any regard to resiliency 

 can long stand up under the excessive weight of the storage 



battery cars turned out thus far. 



» * * 



The hard rubber goods imported into the United States — 

 and the total is very small, as compared with the domestic 

 goods sold here— are of three classes : (i) very cheap goods, or 

 surplus goods sold by foreign manufacturers at any price, rather 

 than unload them upon their home markets ; (2) some excep- 

 tionally fine goods, which find their way into the trade here 

 through channels in which they do not always come into com- 



petition with domestic goods; and (3) specialties, say for sur- 

 gical use, for which the demand here is so small as not to 

 appeal to the interest of American manufacturers. Some time 

 ago complaint was made in behalf of home producers that im- 

 ports of hard rubber were being undervalued, and the govern- 

 ment was appealed to, since which the complaint has been no 

 longer heard. It is doubtless the case that the charging of 

 more than a moderate profit on home goods in hard rubber 

 would open the way for a material increase in imports. 



» * * 



There is a steady demand for hard rubber telephone fittings. 

 One estimate places the output of telephone receivers at about 

 23,000 per week, which average would give a total of 1,200,000 

 in a year. By the way, receivers are being sold now at only 10 

 per cent, of the price first charged for the same articles. Re- 

 duction in the cost of manufacture ha« had much to do with 

 the decline in price. By the way, the secret of profitable man- 

 ufacture in every branch is cheapening the cost of production 

 — without debasing the goods — and not the study of how far 

 selling prices can be cut down. 



* » * 



It is a singular fact that of the many attempts to produce a 

 substitute for rubber nowadays, all seem to be made by per- 

 sons having little or no practical knowledge of rubber itself. A 

 man in any of the chemical industries who chances upon a by 

 product without any other conceivable use, seems most likely 

 at once to call it a " rubber substitute," and then tries to mar- 

 ket it. The less he knows about rubber the more sanguine he 

 is apt to be. There would be much more reason for the rubber 

 trade to regard a new substitute with interest if it should hap- 

 pen to have resulted from the practical experience of a success- 

 ful rubber worker. 



* * * 



A chemist who has been at work upon a rubber substitute 

 lately, without having otherwise been interested in rubber, 

 found his product criticised for the reason, among others, 

 that the goods in which it might be employed would lack dura- 

 bility. "So much the better," said the chemist ; "the manu- 

 facturer could make sales oftener." But the idea of making 

 inferior goods with a view to their having to be replaced fre- 

 quently, if it ever was entertained in the rubber trade, certainly 

 does not now find favor, and the chemist here referred to 

 showed his lack of familiarity with the rubber business by 

 making the remark quoted. 



* * ♦ 



" Whatever the merit of certain substitutes, and whatever 

 the demand for a good article in this line," said a rubber factory 

 superintendent, "there is more hope of important developments 

 in the near future in the production of reclaimed rubber. Whether 

 it be that sulphur is mechanically or chemically combined with 

 rubber in vulcanization, it doubtless will be possible in time for 

 all the sulphur to be displaced, and when this has been done, 

 the efficiency of the resulting product probably can be brought 

 up to near the original value of the compound. There are 

 many bright rubber men at work in this field to-day, and the 

 result no doubt will prove the most important advance in rub- 

 ber manipulation in modern times." 



* * * 



One of the leading mechanical rubber firms is preparing a 

 catalogue in French, It may prove a good idea. There is an im- 



