October i, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



to the Straits and Ceylon month by month. At the same 

 time rubber from other plantations is appearing in other 

 markets than London. 



Whatever may have been the case when Air. Ivins's 

 article was written, cultivated rubber plays a very "real 

 part in the world's markets" today. The mere quantity 

 is a factor which cannot be ignored, but the trade is con- 

 fronted with a much broader consideration. Whether 

 manufacturers, importers and brokers have considered 

 the question fully, it has made an impression in the 

 producing centers of the Amazon and in Africa — that 

 the future of their trade depends to no small extent upon 

 their capacity to produce rubber which will rival in clean- 

 liness the plantation grades from the Far East. Other- 

 wise, the industry will demand plantation rubber. It 

 is true that The India Rubber World has sounded a 

 warning against the feverish promotion of rubber plan- 

 tation companies. But what has been objected to in these 

 pages is not the planting of more rubber ; the thing to be 

 guarded against is putting money into companies formed 

 primarily for other purposes than rubber cultivation. 



RUBBER IN FIRE FIGHTING. 



THE use of india-rubber in connection with apparatus 

 for fighting fire deserves largely more attention 

 than it receives, as a rule, at the hands of those who at- 

 tempt to show what becomes of the world's large and 

 growing production of this important material. One 

 hears on every hand that rubber costs more today than 

 formerly because of the increasing production of tires, 

 which appears reasonable in view of the great number 

 of automobiles to be seen everywhere. Or the increas- 

 ing use of rubber for insulation purposes may be sug- 

 gested by those familiar with the growth in the uses of 

 electricity. And so on, through a long list of rubber- 

 consuming interests. But who has written anything on 

 the manufacture of fire hose as a factor in the constant 

 drain on crude rubber supplies ? 



Important and comprehensive as were the pioneer 

 works by Goodyear and Hancock — dealing with so many 

 practical applications of india-rubber already accom- 

 plished or foreseen — one looks in vain through these vol- 

 umes for the slightest suggestion of rubber fire hose. It 

 was not. indeed, until after these fathers of the industry 

 ha<l passed away that rubber hose came into use in con- 

 nection with fire department apparatus. Only half a 

 century ago the world's chief dependence for putting out 

 fires was still the time-honored practice of emptying pails 

 of water upon the flames, except that in larger towns 

 pumping "engines" were employed to convert the water 

 into streams which would carry farther than water from 

 pails. The first such engines forced the water through 

 short metal pipes, which came to be succeeded by leather 

 hose, and this in time by hose made of linen or cotton 

 and rubber.' 



The latter development marks the beginning of fire 

 fighting upon which dependence could be placed — of fire 



insurance at economical rates — of conditions under which 

 great cities could be founded hopefully. Through all the 

 stages of modern development of means of contending 

 with fires in cities the rubber hose manufacturer has 

 contributed largely to the successive steps in advance 

 which have been attained. The steam fire engine seemed 

 a wonderful invention, contrasted with the old hand 

 truck, and the work it did stimulated the growth of 

 cities, but that work would have been impossible without 

 rubber hose. But the present-day steamer is a mere 

 pygmy — a squirt gun — compared with the still later 

 high-pressure systems which the "skyscraper" has called 

 into use. Here again, rubber hose figures : rubber hose 

 such as the last generation never dreamed of, hose with- 

 out which there could be no high-pressure systems, and 

 without high pressure the skyscraper cannot endure. 



What the rubber tire maker has done for the auto- 

 mobile the rubber hose maker has done for protection 

 against fire. This is not the only debt of the fire depart- 

 ments to the rubber trade, however. The resilient tire 

 has become a necessity for wheeled fire apparatus. The 

 motor fire engine is driving out every other type, by rea- 

 son of the prompter service possible, the fact that the 

 motor serves also as the means of propelling streams, 

 and owing to the greater durability of machines equipped 

 with rubber tires as compared with rigid steel. 



The rubber industry, as a whole, while it may not wel- 

 come the increasing cost of rubber, may console itself 

 with the thought of having contributed in so many ways 

 to the world's needs — the hose industry not being the 

 least in importance. And rubber planters have only to 

 consider the inevitable growth of fire department sys- 

 tems to gain a new incentive for the encouragement of 

 their work. 



CREATION OR EXTRACTION. 



IT is not generous or charitable to consider all of the geniuses 

 who "make" crude rubber as frauds. Dishonesty presup- 

 poses a knowledge of and an abandonment of the right. The 

 rubber maker is often honest but without a knowledge either of 

 india-rubber or exact English. He extracts from a bastard gum 

 by certain chemicals a proportion of rubber. Delighted with the 

 result, he announces that he makes rubber. But his work is not 

 creative. He is not a parent. He is simply a midwife. What 

 he accomplishes may be of value or not. It is honest, of course, 

 but he is an extractor not a maker. 



The thanks of the rubber trade are due to the esteemed 

 New York Times for the information that crude rubber prices 

 are raised by the directors of the United States Rubber Co. We 

 had supposed that, in view of the large consumption of crude 

 rubber by this company, the interest of the directors would lie 

 in the direction of lower prices. The Times's information can- 

 not be ignored, however, particularly when it gives evidence of 

 possessing access to such special facts as this statement from its 

 columns indicates: "As early as three years ago automobile 

 rubber orders in advance were sufficient for more than six times 

 the possible rubber output. The rubber famine was foreseen 

 vears ago, and rubber tree planting began in the Para district of 





