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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1904. 



hunt rubber against their will, and of course people in civil- 

 ized lands to whom the use of rubber brings added luxuries 

 are not called upon for sympathy for their exiled fellowmen 

 whose work contributes so much to their comfort. At the 

 same time we feel that our readers will at least be inter- 

 ested, now and then, in such side lights on the business of 

 collecting rubber as explorers may happen to give us, 

 even if for no other reason than it helps to explain the 

 high cost of the chief raw material of their industry. One 

 other consideration is that, with the business of gathering 

 wild rubber attended by such conditions, which it seems 

 impossible to improve, the cultivation of the product in 

 more favorable latitudes receives its strongest encourage- 

 ment. 



Great and good news continues to come out of Colorado 

 in regard to the marvelous wild plant, lately discovered in that 

 state, and which is alleged to contain " good rubber, equal to 

 the best Para article." We learn from the able Gunnison 

 Champion that " this was discovered by a man whose hunger 

 led him to chew the roots of the weed." Our contemporary 

 does not state whether the result was relief for the starving 

 man, bui it is evident that rub- 

 ber good enough to eat must 

 be pretty good rubber. At the 

 same time, the taste of a fam- 

 ished person is not always 

 trustworthy, and it is possible 

 that the same individual, with 

 a well filled stomach, would 

 not value the Colorado rubber 

 so highly. 



THE LAST MARKED AD- 

 VANCE in rubber, while it 

 mystified even many of those 

 best acquainted with the trade, 

 was no cause of wonder to the 

 able Hartford Globe. Accord- 

 ing to our contemporary: 

 " Early in the year J. Pierpont Morgan took a hand in the 

 game, and made his influence felt by an immediate and persist- 

 ent rise." The " rise " in rubber being less " persistent " at this 

 time, we must infer either that Mr. Morgan got out of "the 

 game " all that he wanted at the time, or else that he has been 

 no more successful than certain lesser financial magnates in 

 an attempt to "corner" rubber. But is the Globe still con- 

 vinced that Mr. Morgan had anything to do with the market ? 



RUBBER RECLAIMING WORKS AT LITHERLAND. 



RUBBER WORKS AT LITHERLAND. 



THE illustration herewith represents a view of the works 

 of the Northwestern Rubber Co., Limited, of Litherland, 

 Liverpool — an enterprise in which American capital is interest- 

 ed to a certain extent, and one which is of interest to the trade 

 in general as introducing the production of reclaimed rubber 

 on a large scale in a new field. This plant is located on the 

 Leeds and Liverpool canal and has also convenient shipping 

 facilities by rail. The buildings embrace two principal struc- 

 tures of brick, each 240X68 feet, and respectively three and 

 four stories in height ; a power house 175x70 feet, a storehouse 

 100X50 feet, and two other buildings, respectively 77X44 and 

 100X50 feet. These dimensions are given to indicate that al- 

 ready the facilities possessed by the new company are exten- 

 sive, and the demand for its products have kept the plant fully 

 employed. The company own altogether sixteen acres of land, 

 which will afford ample opportunity for any further increase of 

 the factory. The president of the company is Mr. Arthur H. 

 Marks, of the Diamond Rubber Co. (Akron, Ohio), and the in- 

 ventor of the reclaiming process employed at Litherland. The 

 vice president and treasurer is Mr. William Alexander Smith, 

 vice chairman of the Byrant & May Co., match manufacturers. 



and director in the National 

 Telephone Co. and a number 

 of other British companies. 

 The directorate includes 

 Messrs. William B. Hardy and 

 O. C. Barber, who are direc- 

 tors also in the Diamond Rub- 

 ber Co., and Mr. Henry G. 

 Wright, of William Wright & 

 Co., rubber merchants of Liv- 

 erpool. The general manager 

 and secretary is Mr. Ernest E. 

 Buckleton, who, although an 

 Englishman, has a very wide 

 acquaintance in the United 

 States due to his connection 

 with the trade here for sev- 

 eral years. 



The mechanical equipment of the plant is very complete, 

 and has been kept busy in supplying orders from British and 

 Continental rubber factories. 



A CORRECTION FROM MANCHESTER. 



THE prospectus of one of the new rubber planting com- 

 panies in Ceylon, in pointing out reasons for anticipating good 

 profits, mentions the advantage which they expect to have over 

 the shippers of rubber from Brazil, where an export duty of 23 

 per cent, ad valorem is imposed. It might have been added 

 that there is no probability that the Brazilian rubber states will 

 cease to levy a tax on exports within the lifetime of the Ceylon 

 planters; it is practically their sole source of revenue to-day, 

 and there is no present prospect of anything to take its place. 



Regarding the extra tax on rubber at Manaos for the bene- 

 fit of the Banco Amazonense, the governor of the state was re 

 quested recently by the federal government to use his good 

 offices for the abolition of the tax, and he refused on the 

 ground that the bank is a useful institution. 



TO the Editor of The India Rubber World: We see 

 that in your notice of the opening of our Canadian 

 branch on page 97 in your December 1 issue, there are one or 

 two slight inaccuracies, which we shall be glad if you "will cor^ 

 rect. 



The correct name of the firm is I. Frankenburg & Sons, Lim- 

 ited, not Isidor Frankenburg Sons & Co., Limited, and the firm 

 was originally established about 1866, not 1876. Moreover, we 

 notice you say that the manufacture of leather goods has been 

 replaced by that of electric cables. We should like to point 

 out that we still continue our leather department, which, in- 

 stead of being superseded, has gone ahead very fast. We are 

 also now large manufacturers of rubber shoes and tennis shoes. 



We thank you in anticipation for making these corrections 



and remain, Yours faithfully, 



I. FRANKENBURG & SONS, LTD. 

 HHRtERT Standring, Secretary, 

 Sallord, Manchester, December 15, 1903. 



