526 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March 1, 1914. 



MR. DA COSTA INVENTS A NEW COAGULATING 

 MACHINE. 



■]V4R. J. SIM.\0 D.\ CGST.'X, of Rio tie Janeiro, prominent for 

 •'•''•* many _vear.s in the South .American ruliber trade because of 

 his various inventions, e.xpects soon to put a coagulating machine 

 on the market which will he used in the ruliber camps, coagulat- 

 ing latc.x on an endless mandrel in thin pellicles by the use of 

 smoke. These pellicles or thin films of rubber are wound around 



J. SlM.\0 D.\ CosT.\. 



a bobbin and ma<le into a nnind liall, whicli is subjected to just 

 enough pressure to e.xpel the surplus moisture and to give it 

 shape convenient for handling. Rubber coagulated in this way 

 will enable the manufacturer to avoid the process of cutting, 

 steepin,g in hot water and uKicerating, through which crude 

 rubber now has to pass ; and as the latex will be poured on the 

 machine from the tree, much unnecessary transportation will be 

 avoided. The inventor believes that he has devised a machine 

 for doing mechanically and quickly what the scriiigiieiro now 

 does laboriously and slowdy l>y hand. 



PRODUCTION OF "FINE" RUBBER IN BRAZIL. 



In a circular t<i the proprietors of Scriiigucs, the Revista (or 

 Review) of the Commercial Association of Atnazonas, urging the 

 advantages of ihe smoking process, says : 



".As this method tends to the production of a high i|uality, it 

 is the only one adapted for our industry, provided it is carried 

 out in such a manner as to assure the rubber being classed as 

 'fine.' Of the 42,000 lims annually produced by Amazonia, scarce- 

 ly 17.0(K) is of tine rubber. It is this 17,000 tons which constitutes 

 by its superior quality our capacity of resistance to the competi- 

 tion of the East. ... It is for us to improve as much as 

 possible our process of smoking and to increase our product of 

 'fine' rubber, avoiding as far as possible the production of the 

 other less remunerative qualities." 



EFFECTS OF BRAZILIAN RUBBER SLUMP, 



In an official report Mr. G. B. Michell, British consul at 

 Para, comments upon the effects experienced in Northern 

 Brazil on account of last year's slump in prices, the losses 

 having extended to every line of business. He adds that for 

 many years the people of the .\mazon valley have sacrificed 

 everything to the collection of rubber, having planted 

 nothing, not even rubber trees. They have, moreover, neg- 

 lected all cultivation of food stuffs. Every ounce of dairy 

 produce is imported under a heavy import duty. Living is 



almost insupportably dear through the manner in which the 

 commonest items of a laborer's food are taxed. 



PARA RUBBER AFLOAT, 



An English return shows that on February I, there were 1,0.^0 

 tons of Para rubber in transit to Europe, as compared with 1,750 

 tons at the corresponding date last year. The quantity afloat for 

 America, at the date named, was, in 1914, 'XSO tons as against 

 1,350 tons in 1913. These ligures are thought to indicate that 

 supplies are being kept back at Para, in the anticipation of better 

 prices Ix'ing obtainable later on. 



SOUTH AMERICAN NOTES. 



A commercial review of Eastern Brazil shows that rubber 

 goods to the value of $30,578 were imported into Bahia in 1912, 

 rubber exports from that port for the same year amounting to 

 1,683 tons (valued at $1,600,647), an increase of 19 tons over 

 those of the preceding year. Of the rubber shipped from this 

 market — the bulk of wdiich is of the class known as Manitoba — 

 about two-thirds is said to be purchased by .American manufac- 

 turers, shipments to the United States in 191 1 representing a 

 value of $1,004,068, and in 1912 $1,030,084. Shipments from 

 Pcrnambuco into the United States in 1911 and 1912 were valued 

 at $3,848 and $5,954, respectively, from Maceio $269 and $166, 

 and from Ceara in 1911 — the only year for wdiich figures are 

 shown — $351. 



Rubber exports from the consular district of Ceiba, Venezuela, 

 are reported as representing in 1911 a value of $32,735, and in 

 1912 of $51,309 — the total for both years having been shipped 

 into the United States. 



The value of the rubber exported from Colonibi.i in 1912 was 

 $736,427. 



EASTERN NOTES. 



-\ detailed statement has been prepared by the Director of the 

 -Agricultural and Commercial Service of Cochin China showing 

 the status of rubber cultivation in that section, from which it 

 appears that 168,000 of the 494,200 acres of land thought to be 

 suited to Hevea rubber have been taken up, and that of this area 

 29,625 acres are actually under cultivation, the plantations hav- 

 ing an aggre,gate of 3,800,000 trees, averaging in age ZYz years 

 Xone of the estates, with the exception of the Government Ex- 

 perituent station — known as the Belland Estate — are yet produc- 

 ing on a commercial scale, but some experts express the opin- 

 ion that the soil and climate are not so well adapted to the 

 Hevea as are those of the Straits and Ceylon, and that the same 

 yield per tree cannot be obtained. Exports of rubber from 

 Cochin China in 1912 amounted to 72 metric tons (158,731 

 pounds). On the basis of the planted area it is estimated thai 

 by 1920 the annual production will have reached between 3,500 

 and 4,000 tons. 



The value of Samoa's ridjber exports for 1912 was $26,359, of 

 which quantities to the value of $19,810 were sent to Germany, 

 $5,343 to other European countries, and $1,206 to Australia. 



Siam exported, in the year 1912-13. 229,234 pounds of rubber— 

 an advance of 221,393 pounds over the exports of the preceding 

 twelve months. 



The area of the colony known as the Straits Settlements is 

 1,599.7 square miles, consisting of a number of small islands in 

 the archipelago and small tracts on the mainland of the Malay 

 peninsula — embracing the Settlement of Singai)ore (including 

 the Islands of Singapore. Labuan, Christmas Island and Cocos- 

 Keeling Islands), the Settlement of Penang (including the 

 Penang Island, Butterworth and Dindings"), and the Settlement 

 of Malaca. Of this area 1,038,000 acres are under cultivation, 

 94.263 acres being devoted to rubber growing. The exports of 

 Straits produce for 1911 included 22,840 tons of "rubber, gutta 

 percha and gutta jelutong" ; for 1912, 21,726 tons. Of these ex- 

 ports the United States took in 1911 quantities valued at 

 $3,537,170: in 1912, $6,138,997, 



