52 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1903. 



RUBBER INDUSTRY IN NEW JERSEY. 



FROM the three last annual reports of the bureau of statis- 

 tics of labor and industries of New Jersey — the latest of 

 which has just appeared — have been compiled the following 

 details regarding the India-rubber industry in that state. The 

 annual reports from this New Jersey office steadily gain in com- 

 pleteness, and it is believed that the returns here given cover 

 practically the whole rubber industry of New Jersey. It will be 

 noticed that in every respect the industry shows a growth, year 

 by year — in the amount of capital invested, the value of mate- 

 rials used, wages paid, employment of labor, value of product, 

 and so on. The points upon which the reports might be more 

 explicit are the classification of raw material used and of the 

 goods produced. 



1901. 1900. 



Number of establishments 30 31 



Total capital employed $7,144,745 $7,129,582 



Total value of materials used $ 9,522,713 $ 8,548,497 



Crude rubber $4,258,078 $4,949,833 



Scrap rubber 512,403 966,854 



Cotton goods 912,916 791,218) 



Compounds .. 1,800,110 80,565 V 



Other materials 2,039,206 1,760027) 



Total amount paid in wages $ 1,961,890 $ 1,811,521 



Total selling value of products $14,421,245 $13,239,328 



Bootsand shoes $1,583,385 $1,887,931 



Rubber tires 165,436 594.782 



Reclaimed rubber 568,260 958,013 



Belling and hose 7,230,289 5,649,807"] 



Mechanical goods 8io.'i50 807,415 



Druggists' goods 316,986 671,289 I 



Stationers' goods 364,822 376,57 2 f 



Molded goods — 283,600! 



Emery wheels 160,255 126,565 



Other goods 3,221.667 r,883,354j 



Number of private firms — — 



Number of partners in firms. . . — — 



Number of corporations 30 31 



Number of shareholders in corporations. 4,039 4,361 



Number of female shareholders 75 9 2 



Number of banks as shareholders 12 14 



Average capital invested by partners.. . — — 



Average invested by shareholders $'.769 $1,655 



Average capital per factory $238,158 $229,664 



Average materials used per factory. . . . $317,424 $275,759 



Average products per factory $480,708 $427,075 



Average wages paid per factory $65,396 $59. oSl 



Smallest number of employe's 4,151 3.628 



Largest number of employes 4,55o 4,3'° 



Total average number of employe's. .. 4.322 4,ci5 



Average number of male employe's .... 3,57o 3*3°7 



Average number of female employs. . . 752 7°° 



Average number of employes per factory. 144 13° 



Average earnings per year per employe. $453 93 $451.16 



Average number of days in operation. . . 287.33 285.39 



Average hours of work per day 9.93 9.26 



Proportion of business done to capacity. 82$ 82.42$ 



On the whole the rubber industry makes a better showing 

 with regard to the proportion of business done to total capacity, 

 and in regard to the extent of returns of capital, than the other 

 industries in the state. As classified in these reports, there are 

 eight industries having more capital invested than rubber, but 

 only five use materials of greater value and only six report a 

 greater value of products. 



THE PREPARATION OF CRUDE RUBBER. 



A LACK of uniformity in crude rubber of any given grade 

 -** often serves to perplex the most experienced factory 

 superintendent. It may be due to the different treatment, at 

 different times, of the latex of the same kind of tree, or to the 

 care or lack of care given to the rubber in storage or transpor- 

 tation. Perhaps, again, it may be due to the admixture of the 

 latex of different species in coagulation. Bearing upon the lat- 

 ter view are recent comments by two widely separated observ- 

 ers, as follows : 

 Herr Ernst Ule, writing in the Notizblatt of the Berlin bo- 



tanic gardens, in regard to rubber gathering on the river Purus, 

 in Brazil, says : " The quality of rubber depends very much 

 upon the mixture of the various kinds of latex. The latex of 

 Safiium, for instance, is seldom collected alone, but poured 

 into one vessel with the latex of Hevea Spruceana and that of 

 the genuine rubber tree, Hevea Brasiliensis." 



A writer in Le Moniteur du Caoutchouc (Brussels), on the 

 rubber trees of central Africa, says : " It is not without interest, 

 with regard to the latex of Ficus, to draw the attention of man- 

 agers of trading stations to the great danger from mixing it 

 with that of other species in coagulation. The mixing of latex 

 of Ficus and of lianes (creepers) is especially disastrous. In 

 fact, the Ficus product will ruin the liane rubber by causing an 

 obnoxious fermentation. The organic decomposition of much 

 African rubber has no other cause." He urges that managers 

 1899. of rubber camps, on finding rubber yielding trees 



. , 3 J with which they are unfamiliar, should, before 



$ 6,700,548 . . , , 



$ 8 205,344 mixing the product with any other, send samples 



$4,742,778 of the latex to Europe forexamination, after her- 

 684,352 r 



metically sealing it and adding a few drops of 



a.77 , 3, 4 ammonia to prevent coagulation on the way. 



$ i,739,9'8 Hitherto the rubber manufacturer has had to 



$1?904?9 9 6i De content with buying such rubber as the 



549,440 market afforded, with no knowledge of how it 

 871,5)9 



had been prepared, and with forcing it to give 



the results desired. It is not impossible that in 



9,11 '° 3 time manufacturers will be able to buy rubber 



fully authenticated as to the source of the latex 



2 from which it was prepared and the method of 



4 coagulation employed. It will then be possible 



3 ' for a manufacturer to order rubber specially pre- 



75 pared, from managers of rubber camps with an 



— established reputation, with some assurance that 



| 5 °'°°° the exact quality wanted will be forthcoming. 



18,260 

 $203,047 



$248,644 



$377,030 



$52,725 



WHERE THE CATALOGUES WENT. 



3,619 "T^HE story of the capture of an imaginary 



4,296 1 business contract, in one of the South 



American republics, told in the New York 



4.034 

 3.3'2 



722 Evening Sun, makes a mention of an effort to 



122 do business by sending out catalogues, which 



280*27 doubtless may have been duplicated in real 



g 97 transactions. According to the story, the United 



8l -97# States consular agent at a certain point, calling 



at the office of a local dignitary, "General Badojoz," got an 



inkling that certain supplies would be required, and a little 



later the advance sheets of the United States Consular Reports 



gave notice of the fact. 



" The same day eighty-three manufacturers wrote this con- 

 sular agent that they were sending their catalogues to him 

 under separate cover, and that their goods were without doubt 

 the best on earth. The consular agent was requested to place 

 this valuable data into the hands of parties interested. The 

 long suffering consular agent paid the overdue postage, and 

 placed the printed matter in the hands of Badojoz. Badojoz 

 placed it in his waste paper baskets. His janitress rescued it 

 and placed it in the hands of her brother, who kept the little 

 butter shop. Her brother wrapped up his butter in it and 

 placed it in the hands of his customers, who admired the mag- 

 nificent glazed paper and wondered what the dickens the print- 

 ing was all about. Badojoz's janitress's brother's customers 

 thus became the parties interested." 



The above writer omits to state that the catalogues, being in 

 English, had no meaning for those who received them. 



