June 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



417 



new company makes the same lines, including hard 

 rubber. The United States Rubber Co. plans a new 

 autonidbile tire plant to equal or excel anything that 

 the new company possesses. It has also as an 

 anchor to the windward its big rubber plantation 

 in Sumatra. Whether or not the Goodrich and Dia- 

 mond have anything similar nobody seems to know. 

 L'ertainly their pioneers have been pretty well o\'er 

 the tropical world for the past five or six years. It 

 would, therefore, seem that the rubber trade now has 

 two huge corporations battling for the world's rub- 

 ber business — a peaceful warfare, and, in the event 

 tliat the rubber business increases as it has in the 

 past, one that will net alter general conditions or ap- 

 preciably handicap other manufacturers. 



situation, with a view to recommending desirable changes- 

 is possibly the best solution of the problem. 



IS THERE A SATISFACTORY RUBBER SUBSTITUTE? 



OUR ANTIQUATED PATENT LAWS. 



T T is doubtful if Congress in the present swirl of politics 

 ■*■ will find time to devote to the proper revision of our 

 patent laws; but that they should be revised is a subject 

 hardly open to discussion. Over forty }ears have elapsed 

 since the present patent laws were enacted. During that 

 time there has been a vast increase in inventions, with 

 accompanying patents, and there have been many develop- 

 'ments in the world of economics that render the laws as 

 they stand today in many respects totally inadequate to 

 protect the best interests of.society. 



The fundamental [lurpose of granting an inventor the 

 prcjtected benefits of his invention for a certain number 

 of years is not so much to reward him for his achieve- 

 ment as it is to encourage him to continue his activities, 

 in order that society at large may benefit from his work. 

 In other words, it is the permanent welfare of society 

 rather than the temporary advantage of the individual 

 that is the main concern of the law. 



Among the unhappv developments since the present 

 patent laws were enacted is the practice, extensively en- 

 gaged in by some corporations, of purchasing a patent 

 from the inventor, not with the intention of using the 

 patent, but rather with the contrary intention of sup- 

 pressing it. This condition obviously renders nugatory 

 the whole purpose of the patent law, and the statutes 

 should be so amended as adequately to correct this abuse. 

 It might prove a salutary plan to punish the suppression 

 of a useful invention by a forfeit of the patent. In any 

 event, it is time that our patent laws were revised, and 

 the President's message to Congress asking for the ap- 

 ])ointment of a commission to investigate the whole patejit 



¥X dealing with this question in the columns of the 

 "Gummi-Zeitung," a writer remarks that rubber sub- 

 stitutes are known to have the defect of not forming a 

 homogeneous compound with rubber. The particles of 

 substitutes can be accurately detected with the micro- 

 scope. But from an ideal filling substance for rubber, 

 it is justly expected, that it will dissolve in the substance 

 of the rubber. 



This "indift'erence" of rubber substitutes towards rub- 

 ber is due to the great divergence in their chemical com- 

 position : one being a derivate of glycerine and the other 

 a hydro-carbon. But this indifiference is really only an 

 undersirable accessory circumstance ; the possibility not 

 being excluded that in conjunction with the saponification 

 of the oils and other combinations, hydro-carbons may 

 be obtained, which through polymerization, sulphuriza- 

 tion, or oxidation may give elastic products. In view of 

 the close relationship of such products to rubber, it may 

 be assumed, that they will form homogeneous compounds 

 with the latter in cases where they cannot be used alone 

 in place of rubber. 



Such products would be advantageously distinguished 

 from ordinary rubber substitutes by the fact of their not 

 exercising any unfavorable influence upon the substance 

 of the rubber, while ordinary substitutes, through saponifi- 

 cation, produce a slightly acid reaction, thereby injuring 

 the rubber with which thev are used. 



BRAZILIAN DUTIES ON AMERICAN GOODS. 



T TNDER the existing agreement between the United 

 ^^ States and Brazil, the first-named cor.ntrv is ac- 

 corded a preferential rebate of 20 per cent, of the duty on 

 various articles, mcluding rubber goods, colors, and milk. 

 It is now proposed to increase this rebate to 40 per cent, 

 and, at the same time, to extend it to other articles. The 

 Brazilian Minister of Finance has, however, called atten- 

 tion to a declaration by the Brazilian Congress, to the 

 effect that preferences can only be accorded in virtue of 

 agreements, providing for mutual concessions of that na- 

 ture. On these grounds the maintenance of the present 

 agreement is recommended by the minister. 



While American manufacturers have been making 

 great efiforts to push trade with Brazil, the preference 

 hitherto allowed has not been sufficient to produce im- 

 jiortant results. With this preference doubled and with 



