THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1. 1919. 



recede. The same was iriic of the SO or more types of fabrics 

 upon which the trade was dependent. As for tools, machinery, 

 building material, labor, all took part in the advance. 



To offset this which for the moment looked like calamity 

 there took place a rapid revolution of methods of manufacture 

 that is one of the most remarkable incidents of a remarkable 

 industry. 



PRODUCTION SPEEDED UP. 



The scarcity of skilled labor caused by the draft resulted in 

 the invention of lunidreds of machines that turned hand-made 

 goods into machine-made and if anything bettered the product. 

 Old machines were scrapped and everything that the best 

 mechanical engineers could offer to speed up production was 

 promptly adopted. Team work of man and machine was applied 

 in all lines of matuifacture. 



The chemist was called upon to add his assistance. An elastic 

 organic substance, rubber-like to a degree, of low cost, made 

 from waste material, was so treated that it could be incorporated 

 in the best rubber and actually added to its value. This in 

 itself saved thousands of pounds of rubber. The time consumed 

 in vulcanization was lessened by half by the use of catalyzers, 

 that is by accelerators, or hasteners, so that there was a notable 

 saving in steam and labor and an increase in production. 



Speaking of time conserved in vulcanization : for years the 

 great rubber shoe industry was handicapped by the so-called 

 dry-heat cure requiring seven hours of slow baking. A revolu- 

 tion in this was wrought by the pressure cure, taking but a third 

 of the time and incidentally allowing the use of a far wider 

 range of coinpounds and producing a better product at a lower 

 cost. 



The great changes, mechanical and chemical, while apparently 

 centering about the tire and footwear business, actually occurred 

 in a notable degree in all lines of hard and soft rubber manu- 

 facture. 



Working together the members of trade assured their supply 

 of crude rubber from England by pledging themselves to pur- 

 chase only for their own consumption. When war needs prac- 

 tically cut oflf their supply of zinc oxide, the notable tire tough- 

 ener, they promptly substituted a toughening black that was use- 

 less in munition work. When cotton promised to be scarce 

 certain of the big manufacturers planted thousands of acres of 

 cotton and built gins by the score. 



The labor situation in rubber, considering the general unrest, 

 was handled with wisdom. Strikes were few and of brief dura- 

 tion. Manufacturers kept ahead of the H. C. of L., as far as 

 their help was concerned, by successive increases of wages ; by 

 instituting factory stores, markets and war gardens and by pro- 

 viding housing facilities on a scale never before dreamed of. 

 By piece work, bonuses, profit-sharing, premiums, pensions, in- 

 surance and hospitals, they made work profitable and the worker 

 secure. Reading and recreation clubs were provided and a 

 degree of friendliness and cooperation between employer and 

 employe was the very definite and satisfactory result. 



.AH of these efforts helped to keep the price of rubber goods 

 down. In 1914, 1915 and 1916 rubber goods were on the aver- 

 age much lower than they were in 1913. In 1917 the constantly 

 increasing cost of all materials except crude rubber brought 

 prices up to the pre-war level. Since then there have been 

 advances aggregating about one-third of the rise shown in "all 

 other products.'' With it all the trade has prospered as never 

 before and with no profiteering accusations made against it. 

 THE OUTLOOK. 



As to the future there seems to be no need for uneasiness. 

 The American industry, besides being the biggest in the world's 

 rubber business, is by far the best equipped mechanically, chemi- 

 cally and in personnel. 



It is, of course, dependent upon England and to a degree upon 

 Holland for its raw product. England, however, never plays 



fast and loose with good customers, nor does Holland. Besides 

 which we have cotton, a raw material that England needs as 

 much as we need rubber. But beyond this is the ability of the 

 industry to adapt itself to shortages without stopping and to 

 provide for itself anything, anywhere, anytime. 



A SUGGESTED METHOD OF PACKING SMOKED SHEETS. 



Tliough the better plantations in the Far East use great care 

 in packing ribbed smoked sheets, which is a standard grade of 

 lilantalion rul>bcr, still the consumer is obliged to wash the 



Tbfi // ,-x:/ Bo c 





C/AfC^S£r£3 /^ "iS /^^£-S^^r- /=«CM,MS 





Present and Suggested Methods Compared. 



rubber, or at least to inspect it carefully, because dirt sifts in 

 and splinters from the wooden cases in which the sheets are 

 packed get mixed with the rubber. A method of packing, shown 

 in the accompanying cuts, has been devised by The Republic 

 Rubber Corp., Youngstown, Ohio, which should keep the con- 

 tents of the cases thoroughly clean and thus save tire manufac- 

 turers time and expense. The outer sheets are made to hang 

 over the sides of the case, and when that has been packed full 

 the laps are turned back over the rest of the contents. 



RUBBER FINANCES IN MALAYA. 



The Seaport (Selangor) Rubber Estate, whose plantations 

 are in Klang and Kuala Lumpur in Malaya, reports that in the 

 fiscal year 1918-1919 rubber amounting to 397,300 pounds was 

 collected, a shade less than the year before. The cost of pro- 

 duction f.o.b. at port of shipment was 18.84 cents a pound, 

 against 20.665 cents in 1917-18. The net sale price was 40.864 

 cents a pound. The profits for the year were $95,973.71 ; out 

 of these and those carried over from the year before a dividend 

 of 12 per cent was paid out and the remainder, $66,101.08, was 

 carried forward to the following year. 



The total planted area of the estate is 1,969 acres, of which 

 184 acres, planted in 1917, are not yet in bearing; the remain- 

 ing 1,785 rubber yielding acres were planted between 1905 and 

 1914. The crop for the year ending June 30, 1920, is estimated 

 at 550,000 pounds. 



