December 1. 1919] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



133 



A-nA-Ptf^ 



Reg. United States Pat. Off. Reg. United Kingdom. 



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HENRY C. PEARSON, F.R.G.S., Editor 



Vol.61. 



DECEMBER 1, 1919. 



No. 3. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 

 SALVAGING RUBBER FROM THE DEEP. 



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ECOVERING TRE.'^SURE FROM SUNKEN SHIPS has always 



been a fascinating theme for the romancers and 

 the novelists, and yet it now promises to have its prac- 

 tical side. Among the millions of dollars of cargoes sunk 

 by the Germans in their campaign of ruthlessness on the 

 high seas were large consignments of rubber in both the 

 crude and the manufactured state. It is pointed out that 

 of all articles other than metals, rubber is best adapted to 

 remain submerged for a considerable time and yet be 

 serviceable when recovered. At last accounts, the Brit- 

 ish had succeeded in raising 210 ships and recovering 

 a large percentage of the cargoes, despite the painstaking 

 manner in which the Germans sunk them and endeavored 

 to render them useless for all time. 



Now that the salvagers can work without interruption 

 in vicinities where the depth of water does not preclude 

 such operations, there seems to be no reason why a large 

 amount of sunken cargoes may not be brought to the 

 surface intact. Entire ships have been raised, and a 

 5 vast number were sunk in depths where it is very possible 

 - to recover their cargoes. It is even said to be feasible 



in the case of the Lusitania, which went down in 270 

 feet of water with immense amounts of valuables in her 

 hold, although the ship itself will probably always re- 

 main where the marine murderers sent her. 



JAPANESE RUBBER AMBITIONS. 



Tii.\T J.\pAXE.sE RUBiJER .M.\NL-F..\cTURERs have been 

 taking advantage of the situation created by the 

 war is indicated by the activity which is displayed in all 

 branches of the industry throughout the Flowery King- 

 dom. Their accessibility to the rubber plantations of the 

 Far East has enabled them to secure raw material in suffi- 

 cient quantities to put full steam ahead in manufacturing 

 and the inventive, or imitative faculties of the Nipponese 

 have been given abundant opportunity for development, 

 as the list of inventions published in the current Japanese 

 rubber periodicals indicate. The "Gonm-Shimpo-Sha" de- 

 votes several columns in each issue to inventions credited 

 to enterprising citizens of the Mikado's realms, some of 

 them, doubtless but improvements, or adaptations of 

 American and English articles on the market, but their 

 being put forth with the Japanese trade-mark is sufficient 

 to give them more than an equal chance with the products 

 of their Anglo-Saxon commercial rivals. 



Automobiles are of course plentiful, but the pneumatic- 

 tired jinrikisha is in evidence everywhere. The demand 

 for jinrikisha pneumatic tires has been extraordinary, as 

 the reports of the tire firms indicate. There is a healthy 

 commercial rivalry between the rubber merchants and 

 manufacturers of Osaka and those of Tokio. Some very 

 interesting comments on the condition of the rubber in- 

 dustry in Japan are contained in "The Japanese Rubber 

 World" under the caption "Peace and the Rubber In- 

 dustry." 



"It is a fact," says that paper, "that rubber manufac- 

 turing and the 'industry in general is progressing rapidly 

 throughout Japan. We may congratulate ourselves that 

 the trade is of an enduring character. The price of rub- 

 ber articles is cheaper than similar articles fashioned of 

 leather, fabric or wood, particularly in regard to cloth- 

 ing. Particular attention should be paid by Japanese 

 business men and manufacturers to the rapid growth of 

 the plantation rubber industry. Enterprises of this kind 

 fostered by Japanese capital should be pushed with all 

 speed. Rubber in the future is destined to take the place 

 of many materials used in this kingdom and now that 

 peace is at hand we should do all in our power to prepare 

 for the conditions that will ensue with the establishment 

 of peace. Having been on a war basis for so long, the 

 world is unprepared for the peace situation. But the con- 

 ditions in the rubber business are good and the prospects 

 are excellent. .\ big change is destined to be wrought in 

 the rubber business in the future. It is safe to say that it 

 will take the surplus rubber supply of the world two 

 years to replace the lack of the raw material in Germant 

 and Austria caused by the war. Similar conditions ex- 

 ist in other parts of the world. 



