May I, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



263 



HOW MUCH RUBBER IS PRODUCED. 



I NQUIRIES come from every class of people who are inter- 

 * ested in any way in the rubber industry or trade, or in planta- 

 tions, as to the amount of the raw material produced in a year. 

 Singularly it is one of the most difficult questions to answer that 

 is confronted in the commercial world. The following table, 

 and the annexed comment, from an anonymous correspondent of 

 the London Times, may prove of interest : 



"The world's present sources of supply for crude rubber are 

 approximately as follows: 



Tons. 



The River Amazon with its tributaries 39,000 



Other districts of Ei azil 2,800 



The Federated Malay States, Ceylon, Sumatra, etc. (plantation 



rubber) 4,600 



The Congo Free State and the French Congo 5,600 



Portuguese West Africa 2,900 



The West Coast of Africa, excluding the Congo and Portuguese 



West Africa 9,500 



Rangoon, Penang, Borneo, etc. (wild rubber) 1,200 



East Coast Africa. Mozambique, Madagascar, _ etc 800 



Mexico, the Fast Indies, and Central America 1,500 



Total 67.900 



"The figures given above are necessarily for the most part 

 estimated, as with the exception of the exports from the Ama- 

 zon, no exact records are obtainable of the production of the 

 various districts, nor is it possible to obtain a complete record 

 at the different ports of arrival, as statistics of some of the ports 

 can only be obtained in an unclassified form, and from other 

 ports no accurate statistics at all are obtainable." 



A principal difficulty in dealing with raw rubber is that the 

 figures of exports, say from the Amazon, never correspond with 

 the imports at New York or Liverpool, so great is the shrinkage 

 which occurs en route, especially in the case of new rubber. The 

 chief value that such statistics have is in their indication of the 

 steady increase in the world's production, while everybody knows 

 that prices mount up much more rapidly. What makes the Para 

 statistics particularly credible is the fact that an export duty on 

 rubber is charged there. Hence every man who handles rubber 

 is on the alert — government officials to see that not a kilogram 

 escapes the tax ; shippers to avoid the payment of a penny too 

 much in dues. Hence the statistical system is permanent, and on 

 the same basis of reckoning, year after year, the export weight 

 at Para increases. Similarly, the weight of receipts at New York 

 and elsewhere gains each year, though no one knows how much, 

 for rubber is not weighed by the customs in the importing coun- 

 tries, an import duty being imposed in no country except Russia. 



It may be added that the unsigned figures in the Times corre- 

 spond closely, as to the total, with those supplied by the leading 

 houses in the trade. The latest figures from an authorized 

 source fix the production for 1909 at about 69,000 tons. The 

 Times's figures doubtless relate to a twelvemonth beginning 

 further back. But none of the recent statistics appear to include 

 the new Mexican rubber, guayule, the production of which 

 amounts probably to 6,000 tons a year. And a gum for which 

 consumers readily pay 90 cents a pound certainly may be classed 

 as rubber, whatever may be said of Pontianak gum (gutta- 

 jelutong), of which 12,000 tons have been sold in a recent year, 

 though until the "boom" came in all kinds of rubbers 5 cents a 

 pound was considered a high price for it. 



MANUFACTURE OF SPONGY RUBBER. 



DRITISH patent No. 16,663 (1909), for which complete speci- 

 *-* fication was accepted February 10, 1910, relates to an im- 

 proved process for the manufacture of spongy rubber, by Emile 

 Poizot, of Glos, France. 



The specifications accompanying Poizot's application No. 16,540 

 (1909) described the manufacture of a spongy rubber with a 

 base of caoutchouc gum, sulphur and volatile alkali, with or 

 without the addition of factice (according to the desired quality 

 of the product). Now it has been found that without modifying 



the process of manufacture, it is possible to obtain products of 

 good quality by adding certain bodies to those enumerated in 

 said specification, and to use a smaller proportion of volatile 

 alkali. 



The present improvement consists in employing a mixture of 

 "latex" caoutchouc, ordinary caoutchouc or gum, old rubber in a 

 powdered state, sulphur, oxide of zinc, white factice and volatile 

 alkali in any appropriate proportions, tlje volatile alkali being 

 preferably added to the factice. The spongy rubber product ob- 

 tained possesses the desired quality of resiliency and is utilizable 

 for numerous industrial purposes. 



The following formula is referred to as giving excellent 

 results : 



Kilos. 



"Latex" caoutchouc 4.00 



Ordinary pure caoutchouc or gum 4.00 



Powdered old useless rubber (first quality) 4.00 



Sulphur 0.80 



Oxide of zinc 2.00 



White factice 2.00 



Volatile alkali (liquid ammonia) about ,3.6 per cent., 



say 625 c.c. 



Total 16.80 



The alkali is mixed with the factice; the duration of the vul- 

 canization process is about one hour at a pressure of about 4 

 kilograms. . . 



AN ENGLISH NOTE ON "GOLOSHES." 



I N an exhaustive article on the supply of rubber and the demand 

 ^ for it, in the London Times, the writer says that "motor tires 

 alone account for a large part of the total output of the Amazon, 

 and it will astonish many people to know that the article next in 

 importance from the rubber consumption point of view, absorbing 

 approximately 15,000 tons per annum, is rubber shoes, known 

 in America simply as 'rubbers,' and in this country generally as 

 goloshes. This is a branch of the rubber industry of which we 

 have little to remind us in England, but in America, Russia, and 

 Scandinavia, the wearing of rubber shoes in winter is practi- 

 cally universal. An American friend recently expressed the 

 matter to the writer as follows : 



I reckon there are about four million inhabitants in New York, and 

 about five thousand of them don't wear rubbers, because somebody has told 

 them that it is English and smart, so they prefer to go about with wet feet. 



"In the hotels and restaurants in Russia the cloak rooms are 

 furnished differently from those here, because in addition to a 

 hook for the coat and a peg for the hat there is always to be 

 found on the floor a little wooden box arrangement into which 

 the Russian kicks off his goloshes. 



"A good deal has appeared lately about the so-called American 

 Rubber Trust, the full name of which is the United States Rub- 

 ber Co. It will be news to most people to know that the 'rubber' 

 here does not stand for the commodity, but for the manufactured 

 article, 'rubbers,' otherwise 'goloshes.' The varieties mostly used 

 for this purpose are fine Para, Peruvian ball, and medium rub- 

 bers from Portuguese West Africa and the Congo." 



The Pontianak Rubber Estate, Limited, registered in Lon- 

 don on March 21, iqio, with a capital of £110,000 [=$535.- 

 315], will not be concerned, as some readers might suppose, 

 with the production of the gum known to the trade as Pon- 

 tianak. or gutta-jelutong. The company has been formed to 

 acquire a concession covering 834.2 hectares [=2,061 acres], 

 held from the sultan of Pontianak, in the vicinity of the town 

 of that name, in Dutch West Borneo. They purpose planting 

 Hevea Brasiliensis, of which species there are reported to be 

 already on the ground 30.000 trees, ranging in age from one 

 to six years. The company's prospectus points out that a 

 profit from rubber is expected this year of £3,750, and profits 

 from tapioca and cocoanuts together of £1,200. 



