4i: 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



| September i, 1910. 



RUBBER AND THE ELECTRICAL TRADE. 



[from "the electrical review" (london), jvlv 24.] 

 D UBBER has now for sonic years been steadily rising in 

 * * price as the demand has increased, furnishing as it does the 

 basis for the manufacture of the thousand and one indispensable 

 articles, from the cycle and motor tire to the pipe stem. That 

 prices are so high is not only due, however, to the enormous con- 

 5umption of rubber, but, so it seems to us, to the fact that even 

 with the many sources of supply which have so far been avail- 

 able, the supply has not been nourished and tended as it might 

 have been. In some cases, as everyone knows, rubber has been 

 obtained in a haphazard fashion, ami with a constant ami ever-in- 

 creasing drain upon the source and no corresponding replace- 

 ment or replenishing, there has come the inevitable lessening in 

 the yield. 



It is now more difficult to obtain the raw material, since those 

 have been reaping much and sowing little. With the 

 at boom in the notation of so many new concerns to culti- 

 vate and produce rubber in various parts of the world, on a 

 scientific and commercial basis, a few years should see the supply- 

 less uncertain and more easily obtained, and, consequently, prices 

 then to recede to a more rational level. 

 In the meantime, electrical people see visions of larger wiring" 

 bills, for the price of vulcanized india-rubber cables and wires 

 always ri-< pathy with that of rubber, and consumers are 



hard enough to get, in all conscience, even at present. Prime 

 cost has long since ousted rubber insulation from the market for 

 cables, and, presumably, there is a point at which the vul- 

 ed cable of a smaller size cannot compete with its rivals in 

 the matter of price. For long life and efficiency a vulcanized 

 with a well-tinned conductor ami the insulation 

 properly vulcanized, can hardly be surpassed, or even equalled, 

 but cost is a factor which has little respect for old age or long 



We do not suppose that rubber will ever be supplanted for use 



with the modern form of flexible cord, where the pure rubber 



is simply lapped on in conjunction with silk or cotton cover- 



. but it does seem that vulcanized rubber must soon give way 



for small cables, larger than, say 7/17's, and for such there is now 



another rival in addition to the paper lead-covered form. We 



have seen vulcanized bitumen or paper bitumen cables as small as 



the size mentioned above, and when it is remembered that this 



class of insulation is, like rubber, non hygroscopic and needs no 



other covering than an ordinary tape and braid, it would ap- 



that bitumen is likely to be the insulation of the future, 



where, up to date, the vulcanized india-rubber cable has more 



than held its own. 



And bitumen has many good points. After being vulcanized or 

 "cured," it is equal to rubber in homogeneity, and elastic enough 

 to stand all bending to which the ordinary cable is subjected in 

 erection. Exhaustive tests made on large bitumen cables, such 

 as those used commonly in coal mines, have shown that the in- 

 sulation is not appreciably affected by considerable pressure, so 

 that decentralization cannot take place under the normal working 

 conditions. One of the disadvantages, however, of this form of 

 cable is that if not carefully constructed the conductor will be 

 i slightly decentralized, and, of course, should such fault 

 to be more than local, there may be a weak place in the 

 cable which will provide the location of a future break- 

 down. 



Jointing affords some difficulty, though not more than is pre- 

 sented by other forms of insulation. Further, a paper insulated 

 cable sheathed with bitumen, and protected by tape and braid or 

 serving, ought certainly to have as long a life as the best grade 

 rubber cable, since the former is free from the fatal chemical 

 action which in the rubber cable spoils wire and insulation alike. 



When copper is dear a fair sized paper cable always pays for 

 stripping and reinsulating, whereas, on the other hand, the rubber 



cable, no matter what the size, always finds its way to the scrap 

 heap, en bloc. 



Naturally, much depends upon the course taken by the price 

 of the raw material in the near future. Even now the price is 

 such as ought to attract a chancellor of the exchequer in search 

 of new sources of revenue. A few years should see the supply 

 largely augmented, and, let us hope, the price largely decreased. 

 Should the present level become permanent, and cable makers 

 increase the prices to the same tune as the golf ball makers, who 

 have already drawn the ire of certain indignant golfing cor- 

 respondents, then it is not improbable that a cheaper article will 

 supersede the old and valued vulcanized rubber cable altogether. 



RUBBER WONDERS IN SINGAPORE. 



HP HE transformation of Singapore through tiie agency of rub- 

 *■ ber is thus referred to by the United States consul gen- 

 eral, in Daily Consular and Trade Retorts of August 5: 



"The wide reaches of waste land on the island of Singapore, 

 which have been of no use since the culture of gambier, coffee 

 and pepper was given up, are now the scenes of great activity. 

 Rubber plants are being set out over these deserted wastes, 

 and seem to do well. In the suburbs of Singapore city a con- 

 siderable area of swamp land has been drained and converted 

 into a nursery for Para rubber plants, which are sold at a 

 good profit to the planters on the island. In Malacca there 

 were formerly many square miles of land covered with lalang, 

 the hiding place of the tiger and other big game, which have 

 been transformed into fine rubber plantations, and now Malacca, 

 winch has for years been largely neglected, is in a flourishing 

 condition. A short time since there was no banking institution 

 in the town of Malacca; today three banks are doing a good 

 business and the place is rapidly becoming an important center. 



"The eastern rubber boom has caused the flotation of 75 com- 

 panies with 35,000,000 shares, capitalized at nearly $8o,ooo,oco 

 gold. A large portion of the shares has been used as part pay- 

 ment of purchase price. In many cases only a portion of the total 

 capital has been issued. The public has taken great financial 

 interest in these flotations. The amount actually expended rep- 

 resents only a modest part of the total value set upon these 

 properties by the speculating public." 



INCREASED PRODUCTION OF BALATA. 



"""THE production of balata continues to increase at a steady rate, 

 ■*■ though the annual growth of the trade may not be very 

 large. The figures for the three past calendar years have been as 

 follows — with the exception* that the 1909 output is missing: 



1907. 1908. 1909. 



Venezuela pounds 3,203,141 3,512,485 3.573753 



British Guiana 991,280 1,124,530 1,033,895 



Dutch Guiana 765,120 999,227 



Total 4,959,541 5,636,242 



The total for 1902 was only 2,891,091 pounds. 



A British consular report from Venezuela says : "The high 

 price prevailing for this article has stimulated its production. 

 The system of felling the trees to collect the gum still continues, 

 and the productive forests are growing more and more distant 

 from the base. The extent of country bearing the balata trees 

 appears to be, however, so great that as soon as one district is 

 exhausted another is discovered, further away of course. Con- 

 sidering the total absence of modern transportation facilities and 

 that the products has to be carried from the forests over bad 

 roads and tracks on donkey back or in wagons for distances ex- 

 ceeding 200 and 300 miles, it is surprising that the production is 

 so well maintained." 



A rook for rubber planters — Mr. Pearson's "What I Saw in the 

 Tropics." 



