November 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



97 



THE FRENCH ARMY'S VAST RUBBER CLOTHING 

 SUPPLIES. 



A FRENCH FORECAST OF THE RUBBER SITUA- 

 TION. 



/^OLONEL FORBES, M. E., a well-known designer of re- 

 ^-^ frigcrating apparatus for the United States Navy, and an 

 eminent authority on steam fittings, in a talk with a reporter for 

 The India Rubber World, spoke interestingly of the great care 

 which the French Republic exercises in providing her soldiers 

 and sailors with the best kinds of rubber clothing. Colonel 

 Forbes is almost the last survivor of the Americans who served 

 in the French Army in the Franco-Prussian war. Being a 

 student of engineering in Paris when the war broke out, he 

 promptly volunteered and went at once to the front, serving as a 

 sharpshooter and scout until the end of the war. In that war the 

 I'"rench had no rubber clothing nor blankets, and such was the 

 churlishness and heartlessness of many French people to their 

 own soldiers that in the terrible winter of 1870-1 it was a com- 

 mon sight to see exhausted soldiers sleeping in the streets of 

 towns and villages amidst snow, sleet and ice. 



Colonel Forbes makes one of his inventions for the French 

 army and frequently goes to France. Being a veteran of the 

 army he is permitted to visit all forts and garrisons, and often 

 makes practice marches with old comrades now high in rank on 

 the French General Staff. 



Speaking of rubber clothing for that army, Colonel Forbes 

 says that in the chain of defences that make Paris the world's 

 greatest fortified camp there are rubber blankets and clothing for 

 550,000 men. Every article is rigidly inspected at stated periods 

 and what time has injuriously affected is removed and new cloth- 

 ing substituted. A vast quantity of other rubber goods, in- 

 cluding packing, hose and surgical rubber supplies, is kept in 

 the great storehouses, all of which are underground and are 

 served by electric railways. 



The lines of defence are three, the outer being almost 70 

 miles from the centre of Paris. Each line of defence in its forti- 

 fications and warehouses is independent of the other, so that if 

 one be taken by the enemy the troops can fall back to the sec- 

 ond, or the third, as a finality, and at each line find enough food 

 and clothing, arms and ammunition to keep 200,000 armed men 

 at full power for two years. 



Nowhere else are such quantities of rubber clothing and sup- 

 plies of special medical and army rubber articles kept in stock. 

 In these stores of the defences of Paris there is a good deal 

 that was made in the United States, and which was bought under 

 very rigidly drawn specifications, demanding the highest grade, 

 regardless of price. 



EXCLUDING GERMAN RUBBER GOODS FROM FRANCE. 



A law has been passed by the French Chamber of Deputies, 

 and was at last accounts before "the Senate for final reading, 

 prohibiting the sale in France of certain nursing teats, made in 

 Germany. It is claimed that being necessarily made by the cold 

 vulcanization process, owing to the incorporation in the material 

 of rubber substitutes that cannot be exposed to a high tempera- 

 ture, they cannot be subjected to sterilizing heat after use. The 

 law after reciting these facts, not only provides for the exclusion 

 of the articles in question, but provides that all nursing teats 

 marketed in France in future shall bear, in addition to the 

 maker's name the legend "Pure rubber." and shall live up to it. 

 While the French advocate the proposed law. as a measure of 

 protection for helpless French infants, the Germans claim to 

 recognize in it a further move towards the restriction of com- 

 merce with Germany, that is a survival of the policy of la 

 revanche. 



UNDER the caption "The Future of Rubber," "The Bulletin 

 Ofliciel de la Chambre de Commerce dcs Colonies," issued 

 in Paris, which has of late bestowed much attention to the con- 

 dition of the rubber market, publishes, in its non-official section, 

 an article in which the writer considers at some length the con- 

 ditions which, within the next few years, at the present rate of 

 progress, the rubber producer will be called upon to face 



Starting with the proposition that the year 1918-1919 — pro- 

 vided no disaster overtakes them — will see the 532 plantations 

 owned by existing corporations in full yield, the writer claims 

 tliat their output may be estimated at 300,000 tons. Adding to 

 this the production of Brazil and that of Africa, calculated at be- 

 tween 65,000 and 70,000 tons, there would be a total output of 

 .%5,000 to 375,000 tons of rubber, without reckoning guayule, 

 jelulong and reclaimed rubber. 



The writer computes the world's consumption for 1913, pro- 

 vided purchasing conditions based on the general prosperity in 

 the United States and Europe are normal, at 120.000 tons; so that 

 an advance in consumption in the six intervening years of 265,000 

 tons, or, distributed over the entire period, of 44,000 tons a year, 

 \vi)uld have to take place ro bring consumption to a level with 

 production. He does not believe that the rubber industry is 

 likely to progress within the period mentioned to such an extent 

 as to make this increase in consumption likely, and argues that to 

 obviate the disaster that confronts the producer, new uses for 

 rubber must be devised and that this can only be effected by a 

 very material reduction in the selling price. 



The article goes on to suggest five francs per kilo (about 45 

 cents per pound) as a price that would bring out many new uses 

 for rubber and expresses the belief that it could be sold at this 

 price and still pay a good profit to the producer. 



RUBBER IMPORTS AT BORDEAUX. 



Tlie imports of rubber at Bordeaux are given in an official 

 report of Consul Alfred K. Moe as 3,009,119 pounds for the 

 year 1912, the chief varieties being Sudan Conakry "niggers," 

 Gambian, Labou "niggers" and Labou cakes. He states that 

 the strict enforcement of recent administrative decrees has 

 considerably improved the general quality of forest rubber, 

 enabling it to compete on more equal terms with certain of 

 the plantation varieties. Madagascar rubber, according to 

 this report, was uniform in quality and was easy of sale. 

 The price of Para ranged from $2.40 to $2.60 per kilo (2.2 

 pounds) in January, to $2.77 in August; plantation crepe 

 which was quoted at $2.60 in January, went to $3.09 in 

 March, dropped in October to $2.18 and closed in December 

 at $2.50. 



Ullmann Bros. & Co., of Hamburg, Germany, whose offices were 

 formerly located at Bergstrasse 28, have removed to Berg- 

 strasse 11. 



THE VALUE OF A PATENT ON GOLF BALLS. 



The proprietor of English patent. No. 20.905, sued a firm 

 selling golf balls, made according to this patented process. 

 The courts upheld his suit and awarded him damages amount- 

 ing to 32.500 francs ($6,176). The infringers had actually 

 sold 20,000 dozen of the balls. 



This success would not have been obtained but for the 

 lucid and precise wording of the patent, the claims of which 

 had been formulated with due regard to prior inventions. 



There are in Belgium about 2.000 patents on sporting 

 goods and in England more than 10.000 (as may be seen in 

 the "Dictionnaire des Brevets,"' published by J. Gevers & Co., 

 of Antwerp). 



These patents being arranged in classes, sportsmen who 

 invent an improvement would do well to investigate what 

 has previously been patented, so as to be able to claim exactly 

 the new points of their invention. 



