January i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



111 



if not, why not. This information was made the basis of their 

 present important trade. 



The same principle, applied to hard rubber goods, mechanical 

 goods, and particularly surgical goods has led to the preeminence 

 of the Germans in the rubber export trade. The increasing 

 importations of rubber goods into the United States is due largely 

 not only to the activity of German manufacturers in studying 

 intimately the wants of the trade, but particularly to their will- 

 ingness to supply specialties on small orders. No American 

 manufacturer would book an order for 75 cents worth of garden 

 hose to be made to specification any more than a manufacturer 

 of hair pins would take an order for a two-cent package for 

 goods in his line of a special shape. But the German rubber 

 factory will welcome such an order (1) because it means busi- 

 ness in the general line, or (2) because if it be in a new field or 

 in a special line of goods it offers a promise of an ultimate 

 growth of trade. In hard rubber goods, for instance, a special 

 surgical article may be ordered by the staff of a hospital and 

 the German manufacturer fills the order readily. An American 

 manufacturer capable of producing the same article will be in- 

 different about doing so in the absence of an order for less than 

 thousands, being more interested in filling 20 ton orders for 

 electrical appliances, for instance. 





Franz Clouth. 



It is not implied here that other rubber manufacturers than 

 Germans are lacking in enterprise in any way, or that the vul- 

 canite or any other branch of the rubber industry is larger in 

 Germany than elsewhere. In fact, the German rubber footwear 

 manufacturers, for instance, complain all the time of the lack of 

 protection under their fiscal system against the competition from 

 other countries. What has been said here in general, however, 

 is illustrated by the fact that there has not existed in England 

 for some years a factory devoted to hard rubber alone, although 

 presumably the consumption of hard rubber goods in England 

 is comparable with that in any other country of like rank. 



Account must be taken in this article of the enterprise of the 

 Germans in the development of a submarine cable industry, at a 

 time when most other countries than England were content to 

 leave the cable field to the latter. The success of the German 

 manufacturers in this line, no doubt, was due in part to the en- 

 couragement of the government, which generally is extended to 

 industrial enterprises of merit. The plant of Norddeutsche See- 

 kabelwerke, Aktiengesellschaft, at Nordenham o/Weser, was de- 

 scribed at length in The India Rubber World January 1, 1908 

 (page iog). The rubber feature of the cable industry in this 

 country was the outgrowth of the important rubber industry at 

 Cologne, founded by Franz Clouth, who, by the way, is distin- 



guished from most manufacturers in this line by his success as an 

 author. His "Gummi, Guttapercha, und Balata" long has been a 

 standard work. 



The importance must not be overlooked of the German faculty 

 of association in trade, which is notably represented by the 

 society of rubber manufacturers known technically as Central- 

 verein Deutscher Kautschukwaren-Fabriken, of which the presi- 

 dent today is Herr Louis Hoff, director of Vereinigte Gummi- 

 waren-Fabriken Harburg-Wien, vormals Menier — J. N. Reit- 

 hoffer Actiengesellschaft (Harburg a/d Elbe). This is in no 

 sense a "rubber trust," nor does it lessen in any way the inde- 

 pendence of the various leading companies which comprise its 

 membership. Nor does the society undertake to regulate prices 

 of rubber goods, or in any way dictate or control the affairs of 

 its members. At the same time, its influence has been most 

 helpful to the rubber industry in the matter of making its leaders 

 better acquainted socially, in dealing with the government in 

 the matter of legislation affecting the industry, and in keeping 

 the members better acquainted with such details affecting the 

 industry generally, for instance, as the conditions which now 

 and then lower or raise the price of crude rubber and other 

 important materials. A very notable meeting of this society was 

 held in Berlin on November 5, attended by 54 leading manufac- 

 turers, for the discussion of important questions affecting the 

 welfare of the industrv. gustav heinsohn. 



COTTON GROWING IN AFRICA. 



QHIPMENTS of British grown cotton reach Liverpool every 

 ^ week from all parts of the empire, and this year's crop from 

 new fields opened up by the British Cotton Growing Association, 

 principally in Africa, is estimated at 33,000 bales, worth nearly 

 £500.000. The West African crop is estimated at 13,000 bales of 

 400 pounds each, as compared with 6,400 bales in 1908. These 

 figures are insignificant compared with the statistics of cotton as 

 a whole, but the work of the association named has proved 

 that cotton can be grown on a commercial basis over large areas 

 in the British possessions, and an appeal is made now to the 

 spinners of Lancashire to foster this new British interest with 

 the investment of capital for the development of planting enter- 

 prises already founded by the association. It may be mentioned 

 that the Duke of Marlborough has taken a very active interest 

 in the promotion of the work of this association, the capital of 

 which was subscribed by cotton manufacturers in England. 



THE EARLY USE OF DENTAL RUBBER. 



A N early application of vulcanized rubber, second perhaps 

 **• only to its use in footwear, was developed by the American 

 dentist. In the library of The India Rubber World is what 

 may be termed the first rubber journal ever published — The 

 Vulcanite, "a quarterly journal devoted to the science of me- 

 chanical dentistry," and published by the American Hard Rub- 

 ber Co., at New York, during 1861-62. In its pages appeared 

 frequently the name of Dr. Jonathan Taft, both as editor of 

 the Dental Register of the West and dean of the Ohio College of 

 Dental Surgery, both of Cincinnati, the latter the pioneer 

 dental college in the western country. Dr. Taft was connected 

 with this college for 24 years, and at various times with several 

 other important dental schools. It may be added that he was a 

 prominent member of the New England-Ohio family that gave 

 to the United States the president now in office. 



The "cow tree" of British Guiana and adjacent regions, while 

 yielding latex freely, has not been regarded as having value as 

 a source of rubber. Recently, however, Mr. G. C. Benson, of 

 that colony, has announced the discovery of a process whereby 

 the product of this tree can be converted into a serviceable qual- 

 ity of balata. 



