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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1910. 



Growth of a Rubber Library. 



THE development of the india-rubber and allied in- 

 dustries during the past 20 years is notably illustrated 

 by the extent of the literature which has come into 

 existence regarding them. At the date of the establishment 

 of The India Rubber World there were few books in any 

 language devoted solely or chiefly to any branch of the 

 rubber interest. 



For English readers the chief books in this field were those 

 of Goodyear, in America, and Hancock in Great Britain, re- 

 garding their work in connection with the rubber industry. 

 But these were not only out of print but had become very 

 inadequate as an exposition of the scope of the rubber inter- 

 est as a whole. One who desired to be informed in regard to 

 the nature of rubber, its sources, and its applications was ob- 

 liged to search through libraries, where one might chance to 

 fall upon a paper of value hidden away in a volume of scientific 

 transactions, or in a public document, a book of travel, or 

 something of the kind. 



But there were few if any libraries, twenty years ago, in 

 which pains was taken to catalogue such scattered papers, 

 and the search under such circumstances was not one to 

 promise results of value. It was useless to go to a bookseller 

 for anything in print on rubber, and the manufacturer or 

 rubber worker who desired to inform himself fully in regard 

 to the business in which he was engaged had to depend upon 

 oral information rather than printed books. 



Twenty years ago the rubber industry was largely in the 

 hands of what might be termed one-man companies, where 

 the head of the establishment was expected to know the 

 whole scope of the business so far as his own particular 

 company was concerned, and those with which it came into 

 competition, without much regard to whether there were 

 rubber factories in other lands, and with little thought to 

 where the raw material originated 

 or under what conditions. 



The fact that rubber factory 

 secrets were still so sedulously 

 guarded had no slight effect in dis- 

 couraging the writing of books or 

 papers on rubber, and will help to 

 explain the paucity of rubber litera- 

 ture up to the past two decades 

 While what has been written here 

 relates more particularly to the 

 United States and England, the 

 condition was practically the same 

 in France and Germany, the other 

 hailing rubber manufacturing 

 countries of the time. 



The illustration on this page of 

 a corner in The India Rubber 

 World library will serve to indicate 

 how conditions have changed. Just 

 as the Editor's desk, absolutely 

 bare on the first opening of the of- 

 fice, is now crowned with a row 

 of twenty bulky — and we may say 

 handsome — bound volumes show- 

 ing the production of the paper 

 continuously for as many years, 

 the neighboring and surrounding 

 shelves are filled with books re- 

 lating to rubber which have come 

 into existence in the meanwhile. 



["here are books written by manufacturers, books written 

 by chemists and other experts, books written for rubber 

 planters, and so on. 



There are books which relate only in part to rubber, such 

 as general works on chemistry or books relating to certain 

 rials applicable to rubber compounding; there are books 

 which each contemplate a comprehensive treatment of the 

 rubber industry ; and others devoted to a single branch such 

 as tires, dental work, or even rubber stamps. The richness 

 of the special literature which has come into existence is 

 such that no man whose business touches upon any of the 

 Inns which have here been referred to can fail to find in 

 printed pages helpful information or suggestions emanating 

 from recognized authorities. 



It is not intended here to present any catalogue of rubber 

 books — much less a complete bibliography of rubber — but 

 to mention for purposes of illustration only a few titles. 

 As the new books have come from the press earlier produc- 

 tions out of print have been picked up from time to time, 

 so that the library goes back to 1745, i n which year in the 

 "Histoire de L'Academie Royale des Sciences," La Conda- 

 mine reported his discovery up the Amazon of the 

 resine elastique, or "Cahoutchou," believed to be the first 

 published scientific reference to what the world has come to 

 know as india-rubber. This volume is in our library, as 

 well as later volumes in the same series, including that for 

 1751, in which appears a fuller report by La Condamine, 

 together with plates of the tree, for which the spelling had 

 now been changed to "caoutchouc" in French with a different 

 spelling for Spanish. 



The crude rubber situation is better comprehended with 

 the aid of the collection of books which has grown up 

 regarding the opening to the world's knowledge the various 



"THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD" LIBRARY. 

 [Mr. Pearson's desk at the left. Cabinet of rubber specimens, compounding materials, substitutes, and the 



like, partially shown on the right.] 



