August 1, 1911. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



4i; 



which prevents their cohesion. Hydrochloric acid likewise seems 

 ill adapted to Bleekrodca latex, the product, under its action, 

 being less elastic than would normally be the case. 



COMMERCI.\L V.^LUE. 



Two samples sent by the author of the paper were valued by 

 Mapes Hccht Fieres. One had been treated by ether and freed 

 from all foreign substances, being valued at 72 to 75 cents per 

 pound. The other, a crude sample, gathered without care by the 

 natives and containing a large quantity of impurities (coagulated 

 without using any acid) was valued, notwithstanding its impuri- 

 ties, at about 49}^ cents per pound. These prices were quoted 

 at a time of depression when Para was worth less than $1 per 

 pound. 



On the basis of the price current for Para fine wlicn the article 

 was written, about $2.25 per pound, it is considered that if any 

 Bleekrodca rubber was on the market (well treated and well 

 prepared) it would sell at from about $1.62 to $1.80 per pound, a 

 difference of about 28 per cent. While these comparative valua- 

 tions are thus more or less approximate they are none the less 

 interesting. 



NEW TRADE PUBLICATIONS. 



JOHX ROYLE & SONS (Paterson. N. J.) publish a series of 

 booklets illustrating and describing their "Perfected" Tubing 

 Machines, made in a series of three sizes, suited for different 

 classes of work. .Accompanying them is a partial list of users 

 of these machines, which includes the leading rubber goods manu- 

 facturers. The artistically executed illustrations plainly show the 

 construction and general appearance of the machines, which the 

 text describes in detail. 



Westinghouse Electric .\nd M,\nuf.\cturing Co. (East 

 Pittsburg, Pa.) describe in detail, in an attractively illustrated 

 pamphlet, their Engine Driven Direct-Current Interpole Gen- 

 erators—Type Q., made in 25 to 1,(X)0 Kw. and 125 to 6(X) volt 

 sizes, for power purposes. TTie illustrations, with the accom- 

 panying text, are admirably planned to give even the non-expert 

 reader an idea of their constructional and technical advantages. 



B. F. Sturtev.\nt Co. (Hyde Park. Mass.) publish as an addi- 

 tion to their engineering series, Bulletin 188, devoted to genera- 

 ting sets with vertical engines, especially adajted for installation 

 on board ship and for isolated electric power plants. The well- 

 executed illustrations and accompanying text, plainly set forth the 

 advantages claimed for this apparatus, tables with suitable 

 diagrams giving detailed particulars as to their component parts. 



The United St.\tes Tire Co., (New York) in distributing its 

 latest publication, "How to Keep Down Tire E.xpenses," among 

 automobile owners, has not only accomplished a judicious and 

 very timely feat in advertising, but has given practical evidence 

 of its intention to make its recently established "tire service de- 

 partment" of practical value to the owners of automobiles. The 

 publication in question, which is liberally and effectively illus- 

 trated and typographically attractive, contains a great deal of 

 information that the motorist formerly acquired for hard cash, 

 or at the cost of expensive experience and which is set forth in 

 plain terms. It is designed to eliminate the most frequent 

 sources of tire trouble and the intelligent application of the in- 

 formation it contains will go far towards accomplishing that 

 result and increasing tire mileage. 



Recording gauges for a variety of purposes of recognized 

 accuracy are the subject of bulletin No. 142 published by The 

 Bristol Company, Waterbury, Connecticut. Thousands of these 

 gauges are in use for recording pressure, vacuum, water level_, 

 moisture, etc. Their recording water-level gauge, for tanks, 

 reservoirs, sewers, canals, etc., are notably useful for recording 

 the levfl of water where the recording instruments are at higher 

 level than the surface of the water under observation. The 

 bulletin, in its 24 pages, illustrates and describes the various 

 forms in which these gauges are supplied. 



REAL SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



S.\YS a London daily regarding the production of synthetic 

 rubljcr from Isoprene at the International Rubber 

 Exhibition : 



"So far as we are concerned, the experiment is interesting, 

 but must be inconclusive. We have never denied to the inventor 

 his ability to produce a substance which has the appearance and 

 some of the attril)utes of natural rubber, and that we are ready 

 enough to concede to other experimenters who take isoprene 

 (however obtained) as the basis for an artificial product. What 

 we wish to emphasize, however, is the improbability of such an 

 invention becoming a commercial success ; that is to say. we do 

 not believe that any synthetic rublier process yet invented can be 

 worked on strict commercial lines that will admit of profits being 

 earned for those who back such processes with their capital. 

 The total annual output of such a commodity claimed by every 

 inventor of a synthetic rubber process with whom we have come 

 in contact invariably shrinks from first airy estimates of hun- 

 dreds or of thousands of tons to a couple of hundred tons each 

 year at most, and inventors then fall back upon their second line 

 of defence, so to say, and hint, more or less mysteriously, at 

 profits to be earned from other products of their isoprene base, 

 which alone are calculated to make the working of their rubber 

 processes amply remunerative, .^s tlie markets for such of these 

 products as have been named to us are essentially limited ones, 

 it calls for no great acumen to discover the fact that to produce 

 them en even a moderately large scale would mean an immediate 

 fall in the selling prices. Therefore, as putative sources of rev- 

 enue, they are unreliable, and to talk of these increased sup- 

 plies creating increased uses for them is a weakening rather than 

 a strengthening cf the case of the inventor of any 'synthetic' 

 rubber process. No doubt such new outlets in time might be 

 created, but while these were being found the mere fact that sup- 

 plies of these commodities were much in excess of existing re- 

 quirements would be bound to keep the selling prices down to 

 unremunerative levels." 



ILLUMINATING PARAGRAPHS CONCERNING RUBBER. 



"Home Grown Rubber May Smash Trust"! says the Boston 

 Post in big letters half across the page. Just how or when is 

 not explained, nor do the editors care. They know it is the 

 sort of spicy pabulum thai the public will gorge and feed it 

 out regardless of facts. 



* * * 



Harper's Weekly informs its readers that black ants in South 

 America gather the coarse Para from Hevca trees and "carry 

 it away." (Doubtless with the idea of cornering it.) 



The same trustworthy paper also declares that South .'\nien- 

 can bees tap trees to get gums for their "nests." 



(This is not as strange as the habit of the Peruvian frog. 

 The frog, of course, must be a good jumper to secure food 

 and to escape its enemies. As they grow old the resiliency 

 of the leg muscle decreases. They, therefore, with a piece of 

 saw grass, tap a caucho tree, coagulate the milk with their 

 saliva which is very alkaline, and form little pneumatic cushions 

 for their hind feet. These they attach with partly coagulated 

 rubber. They are then able to jump as far as ever. Curiously 

 enough they will not allow any of the young frogs to make or 

 use these rubber soles. Whether this ruling out of the more 

 vigorous ones comes from fear that they may jump so far that 

 they cannot get back, or from simple jealousy, scientists have 



not determined.) 



* * * 



The Chicago Journal has discovered a "New variety of 

 rubber" in Borneo. It is "jelutong" and comes from the Dyera 

 Costulata. (.\ctually it has been on the market for more years 

 than has the journal that has just discovered it.) 



