242 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Atril I, igio. 



to where he can find a buyer or a seller in respect of any com- 

 mission which he has to execute. It would seem that under 

 these conditions, if the market is to be maintained, brokers must 

 be prepared at times to step into the shoes of a jobber, and if 

 there are more buyers than sellers, or sellers than buyers, to 

 carry shares themselves. No doubt a certain amount of business 

 of this sort is done by brokers. But those best acquainted with 

 the market say that their business has been for the most part 

 direct commission business. Although it has no jobbers of its 

 own to undertake any business which may be offered, Mincing 

 Lane has close relations with the Stock Exchange, and can avail 

 itself of the services of the regular jobbers in case of need. 

 There is no organized co-operation between the two markets, 

 but connections have been established between the principal 

 Mincing Lane houses and broking firms on the Stock Exchange. 

 If a Mincing Lane broker cannot find a buyer or seller in his 

 own market he can execute his commission with jobbers on the 

 Stock Excange through the inside broker, with whom he is 

 connected, as intermediary. Conversely the inside broker may 

 find it convenient to execute a commission on the Mincing Lane 

 market through his friends there, nor is there any rule of the 

 Stock Exchange to prevent him from doing so, provided that 

 the firm with which he is connected does not advertise. 



Thus each market assists and supplements the other, nor can 

 either be said at present to be predominant. But the general 

 result of the relations between the two centers must be that the 

 residual business of Mincing Lane tends to pass over, and its 

 orders to be balanced through jobbers on the Stock Exchange. 

 The connection between the two may in some cases have been 

 closer still. It is not impossible that the method of working 

 through a salaried broker may have enabled some regular job- 

 bers to act practically as jobbers on the Mincing Lane market, 

 making net prices to the Mincing Lane brokers. But that method 

 of conducting business, if it has ever existed, will be put an end 

 to by the new Stock Exchange rule against working for salary. 



It would seem that one or other of the two markets must in 

 the long run fall into a subordinate position. At the outset of 

 the movement the Stock Exchange was slow in providing facili- 

 ties for the new business. Mincing Lane was allowed to get a 

 start, and it has taken good advantage of it, developing a large 

 connection on the basis of its established relations with all sorts 

 and conditions of men interested in rubber. At the present 

 moment it probably gets as much if not more business than the 

 Stock Exchange. But it is to the Stock Exchange that the out- 

 side public tends to give its custom, and the spread of the boom 

 among the world at large has brought business increasingly to 

 Throgmorton street. Another important influence which will 

 tend to bring business back to the Stock Exchange is the greater 

 financial facilities which it possesses in comparison with its rival. 

 Dealings in rubber shares are at present for the most part ready- 

 money transactions for a single account. But as the market 

 steadies, speculators and others will increasingly require to carry 

 over, and Mincing Lane has neither the credit facilities nor the 

 organization necessary to enable it to transact this class of busi- 

 ness. Already its dependence on the Stock Exchange and its 

 jobbing facilities is probably greater than appears upon the sur- 

 face; greater indeed than is realized by the market itself. 



We may be inclined to guess that in the long run the center of 

 gravity will become fixed in the Stock Exchange, and that the 

 Mincing Lane share brokers will remain interested in the busi- 

 ness as feeders of the regular market only. Just so did the 

 South African boom begin in Hatton Garden, but the market 

 grew and the public came in, business was gradually and auto- 

 matically drained away to the Stock Exchange. 



A NEW RUBBER SPREADER. 



' I 'HIS illustration shows one of the latest designs in spreading 

 *■ machines. It is intended for putting on a thin coating of 

 rubber. The cloth to be coated is wound on a wooden roll 

 carried by a shaft provided with an adjustable friction, for 

 holding back the cloth to give a proper tension. The cloth 

 passes up and over a rubber covered roll, above which is located 

 the spreading knife, so mounted that it can be raised or lowered 

 to fit different thicknesses of cloth. After being coated, the 

 cloth passes over steam coils and around a drum at the extreme 

 end of the machine and is wound on a wooden roll placed 



Rubber Spreading Machine R-6b 



underneath. The drive for the wind-up roll is arranged with a 

 friction device which can be adjusted by a hand wheel while 

 the machine is running. A countershaft is furnished with the 

 machine, which has pulleys for both straight and crossed belts 

 so that the machine can be reversed and the cloth run back as 

 occasion requires. 



The machine shown is for handling cloth of any width up to 

 60 inches. It is made by the Xew England Butt Co. (Providence, 

 Rhode Island). 



•AMERICAN SELF CONSCIOUSNESS." 



[FROM THE "gUMMI-ZEITUNG," BERLIN.] 



AN article in The India Rubber World entitled "The Country 

 of Today" [February 1, 1910 — page 159]. proves that 

 Americans are thoroughly conscious of the importance of their 

 country as a producer of rubber goods. A passage from this 

 article reads as follows: 



The growth of the rubber industry in the United States alone guarantees 

 the future of rubber culture in whatever part of the world it is pursued 

 under proper conditions. It ;j-~urr< ihe continued profits of rubber pro- 

 duction on the Amazon, which long will be a necessity, even in the face 

 of the success of plantations of rubber elsewhere. The stability of crude 

 rubber prices and of the prices of rubber goods is being brought about 

 by such American corporations as one which recently was able to borrow 

 $20,000,000 for its operations, through the sale of "notes" to the best 

 financial institutions in New York. The beneficial effects [Questioned by 

 the Gummi-Zcitung.'] of such conditions will be felt ultimately by the 

 smallest rubber factory in America, and by the large a..-' small concerns 

 in every other country in which rubber goods are made. 



Although the above statements show a rather high degree of 

 self consciousness, those who have had occasion to observe the 

 development of the American rubber industry during the past 

 10 or 15 years, will understand this display of assurance. 



Java. — Exports of crude rubber from Java for the first ten 

 months of 1909 amounted to 162,913 kilograms, compared with 

 28,108 kilograms for the same months of 1908 — the increase 

 doubtless being due to the larger production of plantations. 



The Aero Club, formed in England in 1901, is to be known 

 in future as the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, the 

 king having granted the necessary permission. 



