262 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May i, 1904. 



yield at a certain rate, thousands of trees should yield pro- 

 portionately more. The laboratory test of the tensile 

 strength of steel suffices for estimating the dimensions 

 necessary for a gigantic bridge, and what has been done 

 with a handful of rubber trees is possible to be multiplied 

 with a great number, particularly since the experiments 

 with small numbers of trees have been in progress for more 

 than thirty years, in many localities, and all point to prac- 

 tically the same conclusions. 



It might be added that when a new invention in rubber 

 is made, the owner of it does not wait to make and sell 

 millions of specimens before determining whether the 

 article has merit. Generally, if one or two give good re- 

 sults, it is assumed that all of an unlimited number would 

 do equally as well, and the cost of manufacture is figured 

 out in advance, instead of waiting until the goods are pro- 

 duced in great quantities, and the bills for material and 

 labor are in hand. The leading planters of rubber have 

 proceeded upon precisely similar lines in setting out mil- 

 lions of trees, in the hope of'duplicating with so many the 

 results obtained from a small number here and there in the 

 past. 



ON LOOKING FOR NEW RUBBERS. 



T^HERE are perhaps 300 commercial grades or brands 



•*• of crude rubber known to the trade. While it is 

 true that many of these trade names are purely geograph- 

 ical designations, several of which are applied to rubber of 

 identically the same class and quality, still the number of 

 really different kinds of rubber marketed is large. Rubber 

 is derived from many parts of the world, and from a large 

 variety of trees, vines, shrubs, and even from the bark of 

 roots, these different plants yielding widely differing prod- 

 ucts. Not only this, but the latex of the same tree, treat- 

 ed by varying methods, will yield rubbers not of the same 

 quality. 



While some of these grades are readily interchangeable 

 in the factory, so that in the absence of a particular grade, 

 its place in a given compound may readily be filled by 

 another, there are very many other cases where in the pro- 

 duction of a certain article of manufacture, if its quality is 

 to remain uniform, and its cost the same, a particular kind 

 of rubber is essential. These considerations apply to the 

 lower grades no less than to the best sorts — to " Accra 

 flake " as well as to " fine old Upriver Para," which latter 

 grade was quoted in our last issue at exactly three times 

 as much per pound as the former. 



Of course these statements are mere truisms to the 

 manufacturer, who does not share the popular idea that 

 all rubber is rubber, and that if one lot brings more money 

 than another, it is due to the condition in which it is mar- 

 keted. But our object in writing is to point out that per- 

 haps the limit has not been reached in utilizing the lower 

 classes of rubber or rubber-like gums. 



The first rubber to be utilized to an important degree 

 was of the Para class, and so long as this sort was suf- 

 ficient to fill the demand, and prices remained low as com- 

 pared with present day figures, little interest was felt in 



rubbers of lower grades. There came a time, however, 

 when the industry was forced to adapt itself to the use of 

 pretty much everything in the way of rubber that could 

 be had. Indeed, it was found that for certain purposes 

 Africans, for instance, not only served quite as well as the 

 more expensive Paras, but even better. The combined 

 consumption of other rubbers has now come to exceed 

 that of Para rubber proper ; otherwise, the price of Paras 

 must by this time have gone up to figures entirely pro- 

 hibitive so far as many uses are concerned. 



Now it must be understood that, practically speaking, 

 the limit of production of native rubbers has been reached. 

 At any rate, if the demand should continue to grow, no 

 such increase of production can be looked for as will per- 

 mit a marked decline in cost. It is important, therefore, 

 to consider whether the utmost has been done in the util- 

 ization of the very cheap gums, the most important ex- 

 ample of which, thus far, has been Pontianak. The use of 

 this particular material is already very large, its extremely 

 low price permitting of the making of certain compounds 

 at a cost far below what would be possible without it, be- 

 sides which the gum has distinctive merit. 



Now if some of the other pseudo rubbers — and Pon- 

 tianak gum is by no means alone in this class — should be 

 exploited as carefully as this has been, it might be that 

 they would also develop distinctive characteristics, just as 

 higher grades of rubber differ one from another, and that 

 a new compounding material would be found that would 

 relieve the pressing demand for rubber and tend to lessen 

 its cost. This is a field that should appeal to the rubber 

 chemist, and in which he should have the earnest support 

 of the manufacturer. 



LITERATURE OF INDIA-RUBBER. 



THE GUTTA-PERCHA AND RUBBER OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

 By Penoyer L. Sherman, Jr., Ph.D. [Department of Interior. Bureau of 

 Government Laboratories. Chemical Laboratory. Bulletin No, 7 — 1903.] 

 Manila: Bureau of Public Printing. 1903. [3vo. Pp. 43 -(- maps and plates.] 



A MONOGRAPH on the distribution of Gutta-percha spe- 

 cies and the methods of extracting and marketing the 

 product, together with a summary of the work done in connec- 

 tion with Gutta-percha in the government laboratories. A new 

 method of refining gutta is described, which is expected to in- 

 crease its marketable value. 



The first rubber journal in France is Le Caoutchouc et la 

 Gu'.ta-Percha. a monthly organ of the Caoutchouc and Gutta- 

 percha and allied industries, including cable making, asbestos, 

 vulcanized fiber, celluloid, etc., the initial number of which ap- 

 peared March 15. The journal is devoted largely to technical 

 articles, and to reports on sources of rubber in America and 

 Africa, with full market reports. The director is M. A. D. 

 Cillard fils and the editor-in-chief M. Pierre Breuil, besides 

 which there is announced a list of principal collaborators, in- 

 cluding some of the best known writers in France on topics 

 connected with the scope of the journal, including MM. Ren6 

 Bobet and G. Lamy-Tomlhon. The annual subscription is 20 

 francs in France and 26 francs abroad. The offices are at 49, 

 rue des Vinaigriers, X, Paris. 



De Paracaoutchoucboom in Azie (The Pata rubber tree in Asia). 

 By A. H. Berkhout. [Review of the report by O. J. A. Collet noticed 

 in The India Rubber World, December 1, 1903 — page 80]. = De In- 

 dische Mereuur, Amsterdam. XXVI51 (December 22, 1903). Pp. 

 863-S64. 



