September 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



569 



at all — certainly only for a brief time. The consumer 

 has to pay more for the article, only to throw it away 

 in a marvelously short time and buy another. He 

 pays 50 per cent, more than formerly and buys three 

 times as often — an increase of 350 per cent, in this 

 factor in the cost of living." 



This is interesting, but is it true? Is it a fact that 

 tiie manufactured rubber articles of today are rubber- 

 less? Take tires, for instance — a proper subject for 

 consideration, as tires now constitute fully one half of 

 the rubber output of this country. Have they dete- 

 riorated? As a matter of fact, tires — or to be more 

 specific, automobile tires — were never better than thev 

 are today. There has been a constant improvement, 

 compelled by competition, until the standard tires 

 today, if properly treated, are expected to give at least 

 6,000 miles of service. There are plenty of cases on 

 record where they have given twice or three times 

 that service. To be sure, it is quite possible to get 

 inferior tires if the purchaser is disposed to consider 

 nothing but the initial cost. Manufacturers will al- 

 ways be found willing to make what the consumer is 

 anxious to buy, and wherever there are enough con- 

 sumers looking for cheapness as the prime considera- 

 tion, there will be a supply of inferior tires to meet 

 this demand. But the man who wants a good auto- 

 mobile tire can supply that want more readily today 

 than ever before. 



Nor has there been any noticeable deterioration iii 

 other lines of rubber manufacture. There is as good 

 hose available today as ever, and as good footwear. 

 There is a certain well-known brand of footwear or, 

 the market in which the compound has not been 

 changed in thirty years, notwithstanding the extreme 

 fluctuations in the price of crude rubber during that 

 time. Some manufacturers, when the price of crude 

 rubber soared toward the three-dollar mark, may have 

 sought to put less of it in their compounds ; but, if in 

 doing this they lowered the quality of their goods they 

 have paid the penalty, for whenever any established 

 manufacturer has lowered the quality of his output. 

 he has done it at the expense of reputation — and of 

 sales. There is enough demand for good goods to 

 make it well worth the while of reputable manufac- 

 turers to maintain their standards, even though at 

 times they are compelled to forego profits. 



If the consumer finds that he is getting poor tires, 

 unserviceable hose, and rubber boots that won't stand 

 wear, he had better forthwith abandon the brand he 



is using and find out what brands will give service — 

 for there are plenty of them. Over 80,000,000 pounds 

 of crude rubber are now used in this country every 

 year. It must go somewhere. It would appear to be 

 a reasonable suspicion that it goes into rubber goods. 

 If it does, obviously there are a great many American 

 rubber products that are not altogether "rubberless." 



THE RUBBER CHEMIST. 



""pHE rubber chemist has at last come into his own. 

 *■ Fifteen years ago only a few rubber manufacturing 

 concerns employed an expert chemist, but all that has 

 been changed, and now with the exception of the small 

 manufacturers, the rubber chemist is a recognized mem- 

 ber of all rubber manufacturing enterprises. 



There are three reasons for this change. The first 

 is the great increase in the importance and value of rub- 

 ber manufacture in this country. In fifteen years' time 

 the value of the annual product of. our American fac- 

 tories has risen from $85,000,000 to over $220,000,000. 

 The second reason to which may be ascribed the rise of 

 the rubber chemist is the great development that has 

 taken place in the last decade and a half in rubber plant- 

 ing. Fifteen years ago the product of the rubber planta- 

 tions was so small as to be quite negligible. Last year 

 the product of the rubber plantations amounted to over 

 14,000 tons, and is likely in three years' time to be al- 

 most three times its present size. The third reason for 

 the rapidly increasing importance of the rubber chemist 

 is the prominent position that synthetic rubber now oc- 

 cupies, if not in commerce, at least in the thought and at- 

 tention of the rubber world. 



The work of the rubber chemist may be divided prop- 

 erly into two departments ; one concerned with the pro- 

 duction of crude rubber and the other with its utilization 

 in manufacturing processes. Before the advent of planta- 

 tion rubber, there was very little in the field of rubber 

 production that the rubber chemist could interest him- 

 self in to advantage. The natural home of wild rubber 

 among the inaccessible jungles along the Amazon, made 

 it practically impossible for the white man to give this 

 problem adequate study, but with the development of 

 plantation rubber the situation has distinctly changed, for 

 in the plantation the expert cannot only live with perfect 

 safety, but he can work with every comfort. 



The problem which confronts the plantation chemist 

 is one of considerable variety, covering the soil,, the 

 question of fertilizing, climatic conditions, topographical 



