September 1, 192(1.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



837 



sheets. 33 marks; hard cured fine Para, 37.50 marks; Peruvian, 

 32 marks: block lialata, Venezuela, 66 marks; reclaimed rubber, 

 American, gray, 23 marks ; white, 22 marks ; black, 16 marks. 



Much interesting information about conditions in the German 

 rubber industry is contained in the recent report of the Kolnische 

 Gummifaeden Fabrik of Cologne. This firm is engaged princi- 

 pally in the manufacture of elastic bands. With the help of small 

 quantities of rubber obtained from governmental stocks in the 

 beginning of 1919, the works started again, being closed for sev- 

 eral years. Later larger supplies of rubber were obtained from 

 England and deliveries have been regular ever since so that the 

 factory is now working at full capacity. While rubber is obtainable 

 at fair prices, there are great difficulties in the deliveries of sup- 

 plementary materials such as solvents, cotton fabrics and fuel, 

 most of which still have to be imported. With the resumption 

 of international trading relations the factory has been able to 

 obtain good orders, although prices have fluctuated heavily 

 under the influence of the changing foreign money values. An 

 increase of the share capital of this company from 1,080,000 marks 

 to 3,000,000 marks is proposed. 



FINANCIAI, AND TRADE NOTES. 



The Asbest und Gummi Werke Alfred Calmon Aktiengesell- 

 schaft of Hamburg has increased its share capital frorfi 4,000,000 

 marks to 10.000,000 marks. 



The Deutsche Linoleum Werke, Hansa, in Delmenhorst, has in- 

 creased its share capital from 3,400,000 marks to 4.800,000 marks. 



Owing to the diflFicuIt\' of obtaining regular supplies of coal 

 several large industrial enterprises in Germany have recently ac- 

 quired their own coal mines. Among others, the Continental 

 Caoutchouc & Gutta Percha Co., Hanover, has asked the share- 

 holders for authorization to buy a coal mine in Westphalia. 



The Norddeutsche Gummi und Guttapercha Warcn-Fabrik, 

 formerly Fonrobert & Reimann Aktiengesellschaft, in Berlin, in 

 creased its capital from 1,500,000 marks to 3,000,000 marks. 



C. Mueller Gummiwaren Fabrik, Aktiengesellscharft, Berlin- 

 Weissensee, has increased its capital from 1,100,000 marks to 

 2,200,000 marks. 



The Bremer Gummiwerke Roland A. G., located at Bremen, 

 has changed its name to Bremer Gummiwerke Roland Aktien- 

 gesellschaft. The company has decided to increase its capital 

 from 1,200,000 marks to 2,000,000 marks. 



Erich Bonwitt, 68 Chaussee street, Berlin-Britz, is a wholesale 

 distributer of rubber, old rubber, and other similar articles. 



NEWS .OF THE GERMAN CABLE INDUSTRY. 



THE German cable industry, which is one of the most active 

 branches of the German electrical industry, passed through 

 a rather difficult time during the war. As an export in- 

 dustry of considerable importance it severely felt being cut off 

 from foreign markets, and for a while at least, the directors of 

 the cable manufacturing companies were inclined to take a rather 

 serious view of the situation. An improvement took place dur- 

 ing the beginning of 1915 when army orders began to pour in, 

 with the result that the industry .was soon occupied upon gov- 

 ernment work almost entirely, a condition that has contiimed up 

 to the end of the war. 



The German cable industry relies for its rublrer material en- 

 tirely upon foreign supplies, and it made only very small use of 

 reclaimed rubber manufactured in German factories before the 

 war. In fact, most- of the reclaimed rubber used by the larger 

 German works was of either English or American origin. New 

 rubber was soon practically unobtainable owing to the British 

 blockade, and the electrical industry therefore was compelled 

 to fall back upon substitutes of various characters. Old material 

 was used wherever possible, and a great many other materials 

 were tried with little appreciation, however, from the engineers. 

 So the acquisition of rubber is one of the principal problems of 



the German cable industry at the present time. The question 

 has been thoroughly ventilated in German technical journals and 

 associations, and it is generally expected that Germany will not 

 have difficulty in securing the necessary rubber at competitive 

 prices, provided always that the allies do not make true their 

 threat of the Paris Conference, to cut off Germany from the 

 raw material supplies or to supply raw materials to Germany at 

 higher cost than those sold to their own industries. To-day rub- 

 ber is purchased in small quantities by the German cable indus 

 tries in London and by way of the Netherlands. .(Mso limited 

 quantities of reclaimed rubber have reached the cable works by 

 way of the famous "hole in the West," the territory now under 

 occupation by the allies which forms a large opening for the in- 

 troduction of many articles of allied origin. 



The high prices that have to be paid for rubber and reclaimed 

 rubber introduced in this manner, have raised the prices of cables 

 very much and there is in fact at the present moment no stand- 

 ard price in Germany for any article, manufactured from im- 

 ported raw materials. Wages in the cable industry have risen 

 very rapidly since the armistice was concluded and are now, on 

 the basis of international exchange value, approximately three 

 times what they were before the war, and with no prospect for 

 firm rates until a stabilization of the exchange rate of the mark 

 has been effected. The eight-hour day, of course, is an accom- 

 plished fact in all cable works, and this, in addition to the very 

 much decreased efficiency of the labor force, has acted to reduce 

 materially the production. There are no special statistics avail- 

 able for the conditions in the cable industry. It has been shown, 

 however, that the average reduction of efficiency of the labor 

 force comprises about five-eighths of the former working per- 

 formance per employe. 



To help maintain prices on a profitable level and to assist 

 individual manufacturers in the purchase of raw materials, espe- 

 cially rubber, it has become necessary to continue the Verband 

 Deutscher Stark Strom Kabel Fabrikanten, which now includes 

 all the cable works of importance, as the formation of associations 

 of this character has been supported by the Government during 

 the war. 



The German cable industry is expected to be very busy during 

 the next year. Germany is now executing a very far-reaching 

 program of national electrical power development which is prin- 

 cipally based upon power production at specially suitable centres, 

 and the transmission of the power generated in this mamier to 

 the points of consumption by way of high tension cables. As 

 some of these giant generating stations will be situated in the 

 Rhineland and power will have to be transmitted as far as Ber- 

 lin, large cables will be required for that purpose. The German 

 plan of power generation contemplates also the erection of power 

 stations on several hydro-electric sites with the provision that 

 these stations, of which some are already in operation, will be 

 linked up with the large coal-fed generating stations, each sup- 

 porting the other. This will require also very powerful cables for 

 the exchange of power between the different stations. 



This work alone will provide occupation for the cable works 

 of Germany during the next few years. But additional work is 

 provided further by the necessity of renewing the under-sea cables 

 that have either been destroyed by the .Mlies or taken over as 

 the result of the peace agreement. The renewal of the German in- 

 ternational cable lines is at present one of Germany's most diffi- 

 cult modern problems. Everybody in Germany seems to agree 

 that the nation should own its own cable lines in the future. 

 But so far nobody is able to say who shall pay for the new in- 

 stallation and how it will be possible to secure the necessary 

 terminals, as these have been taken over, together with the 

 cables, by the ."Mlies. The cable works, however, are confident 

 that a solution of the problem will be found and that new cables 

 necessary to Germany's renaissance will have to be made by 

 the W(\rks. 



