November i, 1910/ 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



43 



to verify anything. Tlie Santarem plantation is a private enter- 

 prise, formed by Americans — the Riker brothers — who landed 

 in Brazil with limited capital, and wlio went into rirbber plant- 

 ing against the judgment of all their neighbors. One indica- 

 tion of their success is the sale of part of their property to a 

 $500,000 London company, whose prospectus enlarges upon the 

 merits of the Santarem district as a field for rubber planting, as 

 demonstrated by results already attained. It may be of interest 

 to recall that all the Hevea planted in the Far East is derived 

 from the original seeds collected by Mr. Wickham from up the 

 Amazon, the native habitat of this species. Mr. Wickham, by 

 the way, had back of him the inexhaustible resources of a great 

 government. There is no telling what the results might have 

 been had Mr. Riker, instead of his limited private resources, 

 been supported by such powerful influences as were at the 

 command of Mr. Wickham. At any rate the American experi- 

 ment in rubber planting at Santarem is of much interest, and 

 our readers, we are sure, will be pleased to read the report on 

 it which appears in another part of this paper. 



Wellm.\n's f.mi-Ure to cross the Atlantic in his dirigible 

 balloon has one point of interest for the rubber industry. One 

 more rubber enveloped flying apparatus has been lost, and some- 

 body is sure to order another in its place, whether or not the 

 purpose is to cross the ocean. Count Zeppelin's disasters in 

 Germany, however regrettable in themselves, have given little 

 regret to the rubber companies, who have been called upon re- 

 peatedly to supply fabrics for new dirigibles for the doughty 

 adventurer. On the other hand, when we begin to have flying 

 machines that will last a lifetime, the cost of crude rubber may 

 fall still lower. 



Why do C.x.naman consumers of rubber goods prefer a high 

 tariff on imports to a lower tariff? The question is suggested 

 by the tables of Canadian imports on another page, showing how 

 much more rubber goods are bought from the United States than 

 from Great Britain, in spite of the lower tariff on imports of 

 British origin. 



Among the advertisements most prominently displayed 

 in the able Far Eastern Review is that of "The Westinghouse 

 Broke Co." offering air brakes. People on this side of the globe 

 had been given to understand that the Westinghouse company, 

 though lately in the hands of the receivers, were no longer 

 "broke." 



It is interesting to learn from the latest annual report of 

 the Canadian department of customs that the exports from the 

 Dominion included, under the heading "Goods Not the Produce 

 of Canada," one automobile to the Fiji Islands, of the value of 

 $186. Wonder if any "sporty" Fijian is planning to compete for 

 the Vanderbilt Cup. 



DISTINGUISHING RUBBER GRADES. 



ORDERS for rubber goods often call for Para in the compo- 

 sition. Hitherto it has been impossible to prove the pres- 

 ence of this grade. The percentage of resin is usually relied 

 upon to settle this point. Para giving the lowest figure for this 

 determination. Ilinrichsen und Kindscher [Chemische Zeitung, 

 XXXIV, No. 27] have discovered, however, that in rubber goods 

 made from Para to which a small amount of ceresin has been 

 added, the resin figure is abnormally high. Experiments by them 

 show that the resin figure for fine Para increases two per cent, 

 when vulcanized with 10 per cent, sulphur and 3 per cent, ceresin. 

 In order to find whether the curing was responsible for this in- 

 crease, they heated a mixture of rubber and 5 per cent, ceresin, 

 but without sulphur, in the same way as in the previous experi- 



ment. Again an increase of resin of over 10 per cent, was no- 

 ticed. The resin figure is, therefore, not reliable as a means of 

 judging the grade of rubber. The authors prefer to use for 

 this purpose the test for optical activity of the resins. Of all 

 the rubber resins those from Para and Ceylon rubbers are alone 

 inactive. This holds true for rubber, both in unvulcanized and 

 vulcanized condition, and the activity is shown by the unsaponifi- 

 able portion of the resins only. Hence, if the unsaponifiable 

 portion of the resins extracted from the compound, dissolved 

 in benzol and examined in a polariscope give a reading of 0°, 

 it is fair to assume that a Para, or a Ceylon rubber has alone 

 been used in the composition. F. j, maywald. 



NEXT YEAR'S AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION. 



IN view of the persistent circulation of rumors to the effect 

 ■^ that the prosperity of the country was being menaced 

 by the purchase of automobiles by many persons not able 

 to afford these vehicles, and particularly that many were 

 mortgaging their properties in order to buy machines, Mr. 

 Benjamin Briscoe, president of the United States Motor Co., 

 wrote to 24,000 bankers in the United States asking for de- 

 tails hearing upon this subject. He reports in Leslie's 

 Weekly (New York, October 13) having received replies 

 from 5,254 bankers, who reported 198,216 automobiles in their 

 cities and towns. Of these only 1,254 have been purchased 

 by the placing of mortagages and only 7,475 have been 

 bought with borrowed money without mortgages. Mr. Bris- 

 coe adds: 



"The sale of automobiles will increase during 1911 over 

 that of 1910, in the opinion of 3,653 bankers; while 1,601 are 

 of the opinion that sales will not increase in their localities. 

 The latter, however, are bankers in the small towns, where 

 the increase in population is small, which probably accounts, 

 in part, for their opinion. Many of these letters speak in 

 glowing terms of the various business purposes to which the 

 automobile is applied. The bankers report that a large per- 

 centage of so-called pleasure cars are used for business pur- 

 poses, such as physicians, real-estate dealers, farmers, con- 

 tractors, the bankers themselves and other business men. The 

 bankers do not hesitate to say that they consider automo- 

 biles helpful not only in ways of recreation but in business 



as well." 



* * * 



Said an observant tire manufacturer to a representative of 

 The India Rubber World: "The continued reports that 

 fewer automobiles will be made next season, and that the tire 

 business will therefore be much smaller, has to my mind no 

 basis in fact. Last year most of the automobile factories re- 

 ported in advance how many cars they would produce, and 

 many of them exaggerated by one-half at least. The com- 

 pany planning to turn out 40,00 cars actually produced 20,000. 

 This year they are saying that they will produce 20,000; and 

 that is what they will do. As I see it, the 191 1 product will 

 be just about the same as that of 1910, so for new tires and 

 replacements there will be a demand for even more tires 

 than were sold in 1910. There is another feature which 

 promises a big business. The small, light, cheap car of the 

 runabout type has been wonderfully perfected. It is now 

 within the reach of any man who can afford a horse and 

 buggy, and he will buy and have no need to mortgage his 

 home, cither." 



A MASSEUR recently raised his charges. Asked for a reason, 

 he replied that he had thought it was well known that rub- 

 bers had had a boom and were in great request. 



As we go to press it is rumored that a substitute for 

 rubber has at last been discovered. It was found in a city 

 restaurant, and was served up as a steak. — Punch. 



