THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



385 



Thes 



ASSOCIATIONS MAY UNITE. 



ssociatioiis have been considering amalgamation, 



and the Rubber Club was established with that very object. 

 Apprehensive of the difference of opinion between manufacturers 

 and tradesmen, however, some hoped to organize a legal asso- 

 ciation, consisting of manufacturers only, while others desired 

 to establish an association of tradesmen. The Osaka-Kobe Rub- 

 ber Industry .Association finally applied independently to the 

 Government in October, 1919, for the sanction of the Department 

 of Agriculture and Commerce as the legal association of the 

 principal rubber tradesmen. It is expected that the Osaka Rub- 

 ber .'Association will also make a similar application at no distant 

 date. 



EUROPEAN NOTES. 



/^ WING to a fire in the printing office in London on January 29, 

 ^^ our esteemed contemporary, "The India Rubber Journal," 

 is obliged to defer publication for a week, as all the manuscripts 

 and materials were burned. A like calamity befell the "Waste 

 Trade World," which was published at the same address, 37 and 

 38 Shoe Lane, London. Its special export issue must be post- 

 poned. 



The British Rubber Tyre Manufacturers' Association, Lim- 

 ited, which controls the tire industry in Great Britain, has 

 made proposals for standardizing tires that are being considered 

 by the British Engineering Standard -Association which will re- 

 port on them shortly; they cover all classes of pneumatic and solid 

 tires and rims. The Association denies that it has adopted the 

 sizes agreed upon by a meeting of manufacturers in Paris, who 

 represented England, France, Italy and Belgium. 



The British Dunlop Rubber Co. through its subsidary, the 

 Dunlop America Trust Pool, Limited, formed to establish and 

 register Dunlop America Limited, holds 1,000,000 ordinary 

 shares, or 25 per cent of the ordinary share capital of the Ameri- 

 can company, according to the "'Financial Times" of London. 

 It will have the right to nominate a majority of the board of 

 directors, and any future issue of common stock will be sub- 

 ject to the right of the English company to secure 25 per cent 

 of it at par. The English company will receive a fee equal to 

 10 per cent of the cost of erecting and equipping the American 

 rubber mills and will also receive a royalty out of the net profits 

 of the American company, which will be 6 per cent if the 

 profits amount to $250,000 a year. 



PROPOSED LONDON RUBBER CLEARING HOUSE. 



London dealers in rubber and rubber shares are considering 

 the establishment of a clearing house for rubber on the lines of 

 the terminal markets now existing for coffee and sugar. Some 

 years ago an effort was made to include rubber among the com- 

 modities dealt in by the London Produce Clearing House, but 

 the trade was opposed to it. 



The present movement has been strengthened by a large 

 failure due to speculation at the close of 1919, when brokers 

 and dealers felt that greater security was needed in speculative 

 transactions. One section of the trade now favors a clearing 

 house, wliich would be convenient for handling speculation in fu- 

 tures, as dealings would have to be settled at short intervals and 

 actual buyers and sellers would be brought into contact. An 

 equally influential section, however, opposes it, because it facil- 

 itates speculation. The rubber men will meet soon and decide 

 the question. 



BELGIAN NOTES. 



Bunge et Cie., .Antwerp, one of the oldest houses in the rubber 

 business, has been converted into a joint stock company, Societe 

 Anonyme Bunge, with a capital of 30,000,000 francs in 3,000 shares 

 of 10,000 francs each. The directors are Edoiiard Bunge. Cicorgcs 

 Born, Willy Friling and Clement Swolfs and the managers are 

 Eugene Friling and Carlo Spruyt. 



From Belgium comes the report that the Brussels Compagnie 

 dc I'Hevea and the Anhverp Compagnie Financidre des Caout- 

 choucs are to amalgamate with the Credit Colonial et Com- 

 mercial of Antwerp, an export business with branches in Lon- 

 don, New York, and Buenos Aires, to be capitalized at 80,- 

 000,000 francs. 



ANTWERP EXHIBITIONS IN 1920. 



The Olympic Games will be celebrated at Antwerp this year, 

 under the patronage of King Albert. In connection with them, 

 an international exhibition of motor cars will be held from May 

 15 to June 13, under the patronage of the Syndical Chamber of 

 the Automobile and the Royal Automobile Clubs of Belgium. It 

 will include seven classes, as follows: (1) Complete motor cars 

 and chassis; (2) motor car carriage building and its elements; 

 (3) automobile trade; (4) tires and wheels; (5) manufacturers 

 of accessories, mechanical parts and separate pieces for motor 

 cars ; (6) accessories, mechanical parts and separate pieces for 

 automobile trade; (7) iron and steel works and foundries relating 

 to the automobile industry. 



There will also be held at Antwerp an international exhibition 

 of commercial and agricultural tractors, camions and motors, from 

 June 26 to July 25, and an international exhibition of sports, side- 

 cars, motorcycles, cycles and accessories, from August 7 to Sep- 

 tember IS. The Belgian Custom House will admit foreign ex- 

 hibits free and every possible facility will be given to foreign 

 exhibitors. All information and application forms may be ob- 

 tained from the special representative in the United States, James 

 Gustavus Whiteley, Belgian Consul, 223 West Lanvale street, 

 Baltimore, Maryland. 



JAVA'S ENGINEERING CONGRESS. 



Brief mention was made in the October number of The Indi.a 

 Rubber World of the General Engineering Congress to be held 

 at Weltevreden, near Batavia, Java, May 8 to IS, 1920, under 

 the patronage of the Governor-General of the Nelherland Indies. 



Among the papers promised that are of special interest to the 

 rubber industry are : 



"Life of Submarine Cables," by M. P. L. G. Hansen, M. E., 

 engineer at the Post, Telegraph and Telephone Service. "De- 

 velopment of the Submarine Cable System," (author not an- 

 nounced). "The Relation between Vulcanizing Time and the 

 Quality of Final Product in Rubber Manufacture," by Dr. O. de 

 Vrics, director of the government rubber experimental station in 

 the Netherland Indies. "Practical Use of Artificial .Accelerators 

 for Rubber Vulcanization," by A. Brzesowsky, chemical en- 

 gineer of the Netherland Indies rubber factory, Bandoeng. 



There will be papers also by Dr. P. van Leersum, formerly 

 director of the government rubber plantations, and L. A. van 

 Ryn, general manager of the Netherland Indies rubber factory. 



Following this congress, an industrial fair will be held at Ban- 

 doeng, where manufacturers of tools, machinery, bicycles, motor 

 cars, and domestic goods of all kinds, may exhibit their products. 



.Arrangements will be made for trips in Java, so that those at- 

 tending the congress may visit important engineering works, and 

 the places of interest of the island, like Buitenzorg, with its fa- 

 mous botanical gardens and museum, a rubber estate at Band- 

 jar, and the rubber factories at Bandoeng. 



The Societe Generale des EtabUssemenis Bergougnan whose 

 .American branch is the Bergougnan Rubber Corp., Trenton, New 

 Jersey, has been holding the annual convention of department 

 heads at Clermont-Ferrand, France. The company has manu- 

 facturing plants in France, Italy, Russia and the United States, 

 plantations in Indo-China and branches in all the countries of 

 Europe, in North, Central and South Africa, South .-\frica, South 

 .America, Canada, Mexico, India, the Straits Settlements, China, 

 Japan, .Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. 



