212 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1908. 



GUAYULE RUBBER NEWS. 



IT is reported that a large guayule rubber factory is to be 

 erected by the Big Bend Manufacturing Co., of San Antonio, 

 Texas, at Alpine, Brewster county, in that state, on the line of 

 the Southern Pacific railroad. The company referred to was in- 

 corporated under the laws of Delaware last year, for the purpose 

 of contracting to exploit the guayule rubber on the school lands 

 in Texas, under an act of the legislature which became effective 

 on July II, 1907. Bids for the privilege were opened on Sep- 

 tember 5, and the contract was awarded to the Big Bend com- 

 pany, of which James D. Crenshaw, a lawyer of San Antonio, 

 Texas, is president. It was very definitely set forth in the act 

 of the Texas legislature under which the school land guayule 

 contract was awarded that the contractor should not be "a party 

 to or a member of any trust, monopoly, or combination in re- 

 straint of trade." It is not on record, by the way, that the state 

 of Texas has any guarantee that the Big Bend company is not 

 hand in glove with the most pernicious of all "rubber trusts." 



* * * 



The location of the new Texas factory is to be not far from 

 Marathon, in the same county, where is the factory of the Texas 

 Rubber Co., headed by Otto Koehler, of San Antonio, Texas, 

 who is also president of the National Rubber Co., operating a 

 guayule factory in Mexico. Mr. Koehler, by the way, has been 

 referred to already as interested to an important extent in the 

 Para Recovery Co., whose plant at Bayonne, New Jersey, was 

 reported in the last issue of this journal as having undergone a 



change of control. 



* * * 



The Torreon Enterprise reports : "The force of men employed 

 at the plant of the Continental-Mexican Rubber Co. has been in- 

 creased and they are again running to full capacity both day and 

 night. The force they are employing is again normal. Some time 

 ago the company cut down its output and laid off a number of 

 men. It was, however, given out at the time that the decrease 

 was temporary, and due greatly to the fall in the price of crude 



rubber." 



* * * 



Adolph Meyer, who for some time has been at the head of 

 the department for the purchase of guayule shrubs for the Con- 

 tinental-Mexican Rubber Co., whose plant is located at Tor- 

 reon, has been made manager of the company's hacienda Cedros. 

 This is the largest guayule property in the world, and the hacienda 

 is devoted entirely to the production of guayule. Several 

 botanists of note are employed there in growing the guayule 

 plant from seeds and in transplanting the seedlings, and the 

 general control of this experimental work will be turned over to 



Mr. Meyer. 



* * * 



F. Ephr.mm, formerly of San Francisco, California, and now 

 of Torreon, Mexico, has filed charges against William Maganeu, 

 as manager of the National Rubber Co., and others connected 

 with that company, alleging infringement of patents granted to 

 Epiiraim covering processes for the utilization of guayule rubber. 



A BRITISH VIEW OF SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



[from "the FIN.^NCIER," LONDON.] 



'T'OUCHING the subject of synthetic rubber, we are still re- 

 ■^ ceiving letters from correspondents asking our opinion of 

 this bugbear. Regular readers of The Financier cannot fail to 

 be fully acquainted with our views on the subject, and it was 

 hoped that we had disposed of the question — if not finally, at 

 least for a considerable time to come — in our issue of January 24, 

 in which we reproduced an article from The Indi.\ Rubber 

 World, which admirably summed up the whole question. That 

 correspondent who asks our opinion of a synthetic rubber com- 

 pany, recently registered, with a capital of £100,000, of which 650 



shares of iio each have been issued, to carry on experiments, 

 we can only refer to this article. It is quite possible that he 

 might with greater profit put money into a scheme for extract- 

 ing rubber from the earth, such as is indicated in the following 

 story, culled from a Washington local paper, and reprinted in 

 The l-am.K Rubber World. [The article last referred to ap- 

 peared in the February issue of this journal — page 161.] 



HODGMAN HYDEGRADE CRAVENETTES. 



PROBABLY no other fabrics in the United States arc as 

 well known as the "Hydegrade," and no rainproortng 

 process anywhere near reaches in reputation the Cravenette proc- 

 ess, and furthermore, no manufacturer of waterproof clothing 

 has a name that is more widely known than that of Hodgman. 

 It is, therefore, of more than passing interest to know that A. G. 

 Hyde & Sons, proprietors of the Hydegrade fabrics, have formed 

 a close working alliance with the Summit Proofing Co., sole 



licensees in America for the 

 Cravenette waterp r o o fi n g 

 process, the arrangement be- 

 ing that the latter company 

 shall treat the Hydegrade 

 fabrics with the Cravenette 

 process to the exclusion of all 

 other domestic cotton cloths 

 resembling them. In addition 

 to this, the Hodgman Rubber 

 Co. (New York) have in 

 turn formed a close working 

 alliance with A. G. Hyde & 

 Sons whereby they are to 

 have the sole output of the 

 Cravenetted Hydegrade fab- 

 rics, and are already putting 

 on the market a wonderfully 

 attractive line of spring de- 

 signs. The finish and sheen of these goods is equal to that of the 

 best silk garments, while the wearing quality is superior. The 

 goods cover new zephyr weights for men, women, misses, and 

 children, made in the fashionable French militaire models, new 

 motor coat models, semi fitting backs, English box backs, with 

 cuffs, lapels, and pipings of contrasting colors. These garments 

 are all tailor made, are exceptionally smart, in addition to being 

 rainproof, dust proof and spot proof. They retail for from $5 to 

 $10, and with the three warrants of quality — Hodgman, Hyde- 

 grade and Cravenette — on the label, are sure to find a ready wel- 

 come in the .American market. 



HODGTVVAIN 



INE\A/ YORK: 



With regard to the projected international rubber exhi- 

 bition, a prominent rubber manufacturer in England writes The 

 L\Di.\ Rubber World: "-A.s far as I can see it is more a ques- 

 tion of exhibiting plantation rubber than the manufactured arti- 

 cle, but I am not in a position to give you quite accurate informa- 

 tion on this point, having heard very little of the proposed exhi- 

 bition." In other words the world at large are interested only 

 in seeing absolutely new developments in rubber in exhibitions, 

 which is exactly the position that The Indi.\ Rubber World took 

 in the March issue. 



Although the state of New Jersey values her roads so highly 

 that she refuses to allow automobilists to use chains for the 

 prevention of skidding, her present executive. Governor Fort, 

 is sounding the right note when he proposes a general tire tax 

 for all vehicles. He holds that it is unjust that automobilists 

 should pay so large a proportion of the road tax ; that all 

 vehicles using the roads should be taxed, the amount depending 

 upon the width and type of the tire. .\ law of this sort is 

 needed everywhere and would very soon result in vastly better 

 roads. 



