82 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1903. 



of his appeal — the invitation to adopt the term " polyprene " 

 being extended to scientists only and not to the general public. 

 Apart from this misinterpretation of his words, which I regret, 

 I really do not see, in looking over my remarks again, that the 

 occasion warranted a reply in such a heated strain. It can 

 hardly have escaped the memory of my readers that I have more 

 than once referred with regret to the prevalent use of such 

 terms as "gummi" and "goma," and I do not see how any 

 reference I made could be construed into anything antagonistic 

 to the spirit of Dr. Weber's remarks. It is possible to recognize 

 the existence of defects without transforming one's self into an 

 agitator for their removal. As a mild rejoinder to the thought- 

 ful exhortation to temper my remarks with wisdom, might I re- 

 mind my critic of the expression, " what is desirable is not al- 

 ways expedient." 



On the occasion of the dinner held among the members at 



the Queen's Hotel, Manchester, on October 22, Mr. Lockhart, 



of VV. & A. Bates & Co., in the chair, a grat- 



india-rubber ifying sign of the increased unanimity being 



MANUFACTURERS' , . , 



association shown in the trade was the presence of a rep- 

 resentative of the Dunlop company. This 

 firm, it will be recalled, was the only one of any magnitude in 

 the trade which withheld its signature to the circular issued 

 last May announcing a rise in prices owing to the increased 

 price of raw materials. 



I understand that the recent purchase of the Anchor 

 Cable Co. works at Leigh, Lancashire, by Callender's Cable 

 Co. was due to a resolve on the part of the latter 

 trade com p an y to compete in the vulcanized rubber cable 

 business. Hitherto I need hardly say this firm's 

 cables have been insulated entirely with a special vulcanized 

 bitumen. =»=At the half yearly sale of condemned Postoffice 

 stores on November 11, the amount of Gutta-percha strippings 

 offered was 45 tons and that of rubber covered cable $% tons. 

 The respective prices for samples were 4 shillings and 6 pence. 

 The quantity of Gutta-percha offered corresponds very closely 

 to the average of recent years, the increased use of dry core 

 cable not having, as yet, at any rate reduced the amount of 

 Gutta-percha annually offered for sale by St. Martins.==The 

 fact that the War department have altered their specifications 

 for rubber in accordance with the representations of the India- 

 Rubber Manufacturers' Association is one that deserves to be 

 recorded in these columns as indicating a new departure. The 

 heat tests are now to be 2 hours dry heat at 280 and 4 hours 

 moist heat at 32o°F., being an increase of an hour in each case. 

 Moreover, the " best quality " rubber is to be stipulated for in- 

 stead of the " best Para " rubber as heretofore.==Brown sub- 

 stitute made from fish oil is now being made in England, 

 though I have no information as to the extent of its sales. 

 There is plenty of a cheap class of fish oil to be had in the mar- 

 ket but its objectionable smell (as evidenced where soft soap is 

 used) has militated in a number of cases against its use. - 

 The Pluviusin Co., of Mouton Green, near Manchester, are 

 finding an increasing sale for their product, which, however, 

 does not seem to have affected certain branches of the rubber 

 trade to anything like the extent prognosticated. It is rather 

 the leather industry that feels the competition. A company 

 making a somewhat similar product called " Toreid " has re- 

 cently been established at Vitry-sur- Seine, on the outskirts of 

 Paris, with a capital of 1,000,000 francs. 



I have been the recipient from an official source of several 



pamphlets dealing with Peru and its potential wealth, not the 



least interesting of which to me is entitled " La 



rubber industria de las Gomas en el Peru." According to 



IN PERU. 6 



this booklet the various climatic conditions pre- 



vailing render the country the most healthy in America, ideas 

 to the contrary being the outcome of ignorance. It is in the 

 mountainous zone that the important rubber gathering indus- 

 try flourishes, under the rules and regulations that concession- 

 aires have to comply with and which seem to be equitable 

 enough. Naturally enough it is somewhat of a sore point with 

 the authorities that the statistics relative to the export of fine 

 rubber and caucho do not nearly indicate the annual produc- 

 tion because of the large amount that finds its way to Mandos 

 by the Amazon and its tributaries, though this plaint is shared 

 with other South American states. It is estimated that the 

 figures of 619.904 kilos of Caucho and 382,503 kilos of fine rub- 

 ber which paid duty to the government in 1899 represent 

 only a third of the amount which left the country. The plan 

 of working the rubber forests as part of an organized branch of 

 economic botany is advocated and Peru would seem to offer a 

 good field for those proposing to embark in the cultivated rub- 

 ber business, though I should say that I am not aware how far 

 the prevailing transport conditions can be considered advan- 

 tageous. The Peruvian trees, it is said, attain in general the 

 height of 20 to 25 meters, the color of the flowing sap being in- 

 dicative of the quality of the rubber; thus if violet it is first 

 class, if red or white it ranks as second class. It may be that a 

 country which is desirous of attracting immigrants may be in- 

 clined to paint its advantages in somewhat too glaring colors, 

 but certainly from what I read of Peru and its varied botanical 

 and mineral wealth it seems a country deserving of the colo- 

 nists' attention. 



RUBBER EXPORTS FROM PERU. 



THE details below, from the Loreto Commercial, relate to 

 the shipments of rubber from the Peruvian department 

 of Loreto, having the Amazon river (or its outlet. The rubber 

 shipments for the department are classified in the tables as from 

 Iquitos, Caballo-Cocha, and the river Javary. Such rubber as 

 is collected in southern Peru finds an outlet, for the most part, 

 via the Pacific coast, and is not embraced in the present show- 

 ing. The table relates to the exports for two years: 



Grades. 



Iquitos. 



Caballo- 

 Cocha. 



Fine rubber kilos. 389.601 



Entrefine 42,885 



Coarse 224,436 



Caucho slab 59.707 



Caucho bail 509,655 



Weak rubber 4,019 



Total 1,230,303 1 



1902. 



Fine rubber kilos. 412,295 



Entrefine 25,752 



Coarse 155,989 



Caucho slab 73,041 



Caucho bill 623.976 



Weak rubber 8,636 



88,518 

 1,397 



44,639 

 9.387 

 7,667 



Javary. 



317,098 



1,792 



32,186 



2,246 



3,443 



Total. 



795,217 

 46,074 



301,261 

 71,340 



520.765 

 4 019 



1,778,086 



Total 1,299,689 142,179 336,218 



SUMMARY OF INCREASE (IN KILOGRAMS). 



Increase in Caucho output in 1902 . . . 139,901 



Increase in " weak rubber " 4,617 144.518 



Decrease in Rubber (Para soits) 105,108 



Net increase in exports in 1902. 



39 410 



One of the old-school druggists' sundries men refers to the 

 time when syringe bulbs brought from 24 to 27 cents each and 

 rubber tubing was $1.75 a pound. It makes one sigh for the 

 old times and the old prices. 



