52 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1907. 



NEW CABLE LINES FROM NEW YORK. 



THE laying of the new direct cable between New York and 

 Havana was completed on October 18. It was built for the 

 Commercial Cable Co. of Cuba by the India Rubber, Gutta 

 Percha and Telegraph Works Co., Limited, and laid by the latter 

 company's cable steamer, the Silvertowii. The steamer sailed 

 from London on Septetnber II for Cuba, where laying the cable 

 was begun. She started out from Havana on October 4 with 

 1300 miles of cable coiled in three circular tanks. She made 

 about 8 miles an hour, and by noon on the Sth 150 miles of cable 

 had been laid. On the second day out the Silvertown laid 185 

 miles, on the third day 160, on the fourth the same amount, on 

 the fifth 163, on the sixth 201 miles, and on October 11, when tho 

 Silvcrtozvn anchored out from New York long enough to buoy the 

 cables, it had paid out 145 miles more, or a total of 1164 miles. 

 The New York shore end, of heavier material, was laid by an- 

 other boat, and on the date first named above the Silvertown com- 

 pleted her work by splicing the shore end to the main cable at 

 the buoy. The new cable was, without ceremony, opened for 

 public business on October 21. 



In laying the new Havana cable the old barkentine rigged 

 steamer Silvertozun, which has been laying cables in all parts of the 

 world since 1873, has established a record for the work which 

 beats her own record, made when it laid the Pacific cable from 

 Honolulu to San Francisco, and also beat the best achievements 

 of the modern cable steamers. The Silverloivn is 350 feet long, 

 55 feet broad, and 36 feet 6 inches deep, fitted with engines of 



can Telegraph Co., a New York enterprise, have cable lines down 

 the Pacific coast from the isthmus of Panama to Valparaiso. 



M- 



itif 



>^ff^*^j^Sif M 



The C.^ble Steamer "Silvertown." 



[Engaged recently in laying the New York-Havana cable.] 



1800 HP. and Steams at a speed of lo'j knots; her tonnage is 

 rated at 4g3.> She lias carried at one load 2600 knots [=about 

 2900 miles] of sea cable. 



The Commercial Cable Co. of Cuba, incorporated in September, 

 1906, under the laws of New York, forms part of the system 

 which includes the Commercial Cable Co., with five lines across 

 the Atlantic, and the Commercial Pacific Cable Co., with a line 

 across the Pacific, touching at Manila — altogether about 25,000 

 miles of submarine cables — in addition to the land lines of the 

 Postal Telegraph Co. in the United States. For operating pur- 

 poses the officials of the Mackay Company — the holding concern 

 of all the corporations named above — look upon their land and 

 subinarine lines as forming one system. The new cable line to 

 Cuba, which has cost between $1,400,000 and $1,500,000, has been 

 paid for, it is understood, entirely out of earnings of the Mackay 

 companies. 



* * * 



Mention has not been made in these pages before of the cable 

 laid recently between New York and Colon, via Guantanamo, 

 Cuba, by the Central and South American Telegraph Co., of 

 New York. This was opened for commercial business on August 

 I, the laying having been completed on that day by the Colonia, 

 the cable steamer of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance 

 Co., Limited, of London. The operation of the new company 

 has rendered communication with the southern countries more 

 reliable, shortened the time, and lessened the cost. The length 

 of the new .cable is 2.263 knots. The Central and South .'\mori- 



CRUDE RUBBER INTERESTS. 



MR. IVINS'S STORY OF RUBBER. 



"T^HF. story of "Rubber as a World Product," told entertain- 

 •^ ingly in the Am.-ricmi Monthly Rcvinu of Reviews by Mr. 

 William M. Ivins, the eminent New York lawyer, who was some 

 time president of the General Rubber Co., and at times has sus- 

 tained other important relations to the rubber trade, covers the 

 history of rubber and its applications about as fully as could be 

 expected within a single magazine article. Naturally an article 

 of such interest has elicited some criticism, as for instance from 

 The Times of Ceylon, where Mr. Ivins says : "Cultivated rubber 

 as yet plays no real part in the world's markets, not more than 

 100 tons having yet come into consumption in any year," The 

 point of The Tinies's criticism lies in the fact Ceylon and the 

 Malay States alone had exported during the twelve months pre- 

 ceding the publication of Mr. Ivins's article about 670 tons of 

 cultivated rubber, in addition to a considerable aggregate sup- 

 plied by plantations elsewhere. 



The newspapers on the Amazon are yet to be heard from in 

 response to the statement by Mr. Ivins that "the mortality in the 

 state of Amazonas, in Brazil, for example, corresponds with 

 almost diabolical exactness to the number of tons of rubber pro- 

 duced, so that it is said that every ton of Brazilian rubber costs 

 a human life." Seeing that the state of Amazonas has long con- 

 tributed about 15,000 tons of rubber a year to the world's mar- 

 kets, it would be cause for wonder that the supply could be kept 

 up if Mr. Ivins's information were correct, seeing that the whole 

 population of the state is probably not more than 500,000, and all 

 the inhabitants are not all rubber gatherers. 



statistics of rubber production. 

 Gambi.\ (British Africa). 



Pounds. Pounds. 



a 1883 52,033 1903 125,446 



1884 257,285 1901 146,573 



1891 246,690 1902 65.283 



1893 45.298 1903 19.551 



1897 423.103 c 1904 30,934 



1898 481,020 1905 9,071 



b 1899 128,912 1906 10,454 



a — First exports recorded. 



/) — Unofficial fignres. 



c — In:Iu(iing I'uhljer in transit frii.m French posstssions. 



New Caledonia. 

 Pounds. Pounds. 



1899 3-352 1903 24,789 



1900 50,842 1904 37,617 



1901 36,324 1905 49.823 



1902 18,730 1906 80,984 



Prior to 1899 exports of 66 pounds were taken account of by 

 the customs department. 



notes. 



The newspaper A Provincia do Para reports that between the. 

 rivers .'Xraguaya and Tapirapi, on the eastern borders of the state 

 of Matto Grosso, Brazil, mangabeira rubber has been found in 

 great quantities, but thus far it has been neglected for the more 

 highly prized Ilevca rubber. 



;\Ionthly shipments of rubber (wild and cultivated) are being 

 made from the property of The West Coast Rubber Co. in Guate- 

 mala, to New York. The first shipment. 2,370 pounds, realized 76 

 cents a pound. 



A Rumii:R Nose. — .\ student in the dental department of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, after all the physicians there had 

 failed to repair the damage to the nose of a miner who had been 

 frost bitten, made impressions of the man's face and succeeded in 

 making a flesh-colored nose of vulcanite rubber, which is held in 

 place by heavy bowed glasses. .\ slight disfigurement of the 

 upper lip is disguised by a false mustache. 



