June i, tgoS.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



285 



mature rubber trees is inexpensive, and the leading plan- 

 tation companies now selling rubber seem not to have 

 been overcapitalized, ^^'hile there are no indications 

 that rubber will go much lower than now — for some 

 years at least — it is evident that the people who are pro- 

 ducing 121/2 cent rubber to-day need not worry about 

 selling prices during the rest of their natural lives. 



Conditions in America continue to be quoted abroad as the 

 cause of the general depression in the rubber industry. We do 

 not hear any similar reason given, however, for the unusual em- 

 ployment of operatives in the cotton industry of Great Britain, 

 where, according to a high authority, there were recently 30,000 

 weavers idle. It is possible that like conditions have produced 

 ]ike results in industries generally on both sides the Atlantic. 



Our old friend "rubber famine" has been discovered again — 

 this time by the New York Business and Finance, according to 

 which journal "the condition is serious." It is true that in many 

 localities the native supply of rubber is vanishing, but we are not 

 sufficiently gifted with foresight to behold with our contemporary 

 the disappearance of the last rubber tree, or to agree with it that 

 ■"the crisis will come with appalling suddenness and the vast 

 fabric of capital built on the product will fall to the ground." 

 We would adWse a more placid frame of mind, in view of the 

 ■near approach of the heated term. 



The ACTrarv cr the euectrical industry is a most encourag- 

 ing symptom cl the general business situation. It' is true that the 

 ■electrical companies have not escaped the effects of the recent 

 financial depression, but already they show evidences of rapid 

 recuperation, which means, of course, that the thousand and one 

 ■industries and businesses which call for the various applications 

 of electricity are in a healthful condition. It is this great di- 

 versity in the uses of electricity that forms so secure a founda- 

 tion for the suppliers of apparatus in this field. Not less inter- 

 esting than the amount of business done by the General Electric 

 Co. during 1907 — upwards of $70,000,000 — is the fact that this 

 sum relates to no less than 237,006 separate orders and contracts. 

 Every new development in electrical applications seems to open 

 the w'ay for countless others; the installation of a lighting station 

 in any town, for example, renders possible the supply of current 

 for all kinds of industrial and household purposes, for which 

 previously electricity was not or could not be used in that locality. 

 Hence the General Electric Co. will with equal readiness contract 

 to sell electric locomotives for the heaviest railway service, or 

 electric flatirons for the household laundry, or electric chafing 

 •dishes. These smaller articles, by the way, are coming to form 

 no mean share of the w-hole business in electrical supplies. The 

 tendenc}' is to employ electricity for every possible purpose, and 

 the list of possibilities is not likely to become exhausted until 

 human ingenuitv has reached its limit. 



The rubber industry in New Jersey came into existence 

 almost as early as anywhere else, and has now become one 

 ■of the most firmly established branches of manufacture in 

 that state, ranking tenth in respect of the value of products 

 in a list of 88 spccilled industries covered by the thirtieth 

 annual report of the New Jersey bureau of statistics. For 

 ■obvious reasons all such reports may be open to criticism 

 :as to their accuracy in matters of detail, while their general 

 indications may command full respect. One point which 

 seems to merit notice in the Xe'n- Jersey state reports is that 

 while the average holdings of shares in rubber corporations 

 in that state in 1899 was stated definitely at $18,260, the 

 number of stockholders had so increased by 1906 — from 356 

 to 4937 — that the average, while not specifically stated, ap- 

 parently is not over $2500, reference being had, of course. 



to par values. This tendency, it occurs to us, is a desirable 

 one. The wider the distribution of shares in any legitimate 

 permanent undertaking, and more particularly in an interest 

 liable to be affected by legislation, the more apt will the public 

 mind be correctly informed when any occasion for voting arises. 

 In a community where every citizen with a few hundreds of 

 dollars saved is part proprietor of a corporation, the proper 

 regulation of corporations by law is much more likely to be dis- 

 cussed intelligently than where the opposite condition prevails, 

 and the average voter is susceptible to the appeals of the political 

 agitator to pull down everything in the shape of a corporation, 

 regardless of its merits. On the whole, the manufacturing in- 

 terest is a profitable one, and why should not every citizen be 

 in a position personally to share in profits of this class? 



THE UNCEASING PATENT GRIND. 



■ I ■ HE patent office at Washington shows no sign of going out 

 * of business. During the last fiscal year (ending June 30, 



1907) the number of applications filed for patents was 56,514 and 

 the number of patents granted was 33,644 — not counting design 

 patents, reissues, trademarks, labels, and the like. The cash 

 receipts were $1,859,592.89, which provided for all expenses and 

 left a surplus of $275,103.19. All these figures are larger than 

 under the same heads in any former year. The number of 

 United States patents granted up to June 30, 1907, was 867,225, 

 «11 on file at the office in Washington, in addition to about 3,000,- 

 000 patents granted in various foreign countries, all of which must 

 be gone through in making any examination as to the novelty of 

 inventions for which new- patents are desired. Patent specifica- 

 tions continue to be in wide demand, the number of printed copies 

 distributed last year having been 2,117,847, the sales realizing 

 $86,433.88. That the patent office is not doing a losing business 

 is evident from the annual surplus of receipts over expenses for 

 the past 46 years. 



The library of the British patent office, established in 1855, 

 had been visited to the end of 1907 by 2,975,547 readers. It has 

 proved increasingly popular from the beginning, the number of 

 readers last year (148.198) having been larger than in any other 

 year. This library embraces the patent specifications of all coun- 

 tries and a very extensive collection of scientific journals, trans- 

 actions of societies, and text books. The India Rubber World 

 has been kept on file at this librarj- since the establishment of 

 the paper. The library is free to the public daily, and probably 

 is more largely resorted to by persons concerned with inven- 

 tions and patents and such matters than any other librar\' in 

 existence. 



The extent of the patronage of this library may be more fully 

 realized, perhaps, by considering that the total number of visitors 

 calling for books at the Astor Library (a branch of the New 

 York Public Library) during 1907 was only 185,994, including 

 S.491 who registered in the patent alcoves. It should be added, 

 however, that the Astor Library has a large department of ref- 

 erence books and a periodical reading room, which may be visited 

 without any registration, and the numerous readers in which are 

 not counted. The Astor Library has on file the full specifications 

 of all patents that have ever been granted in the United Statei, 

 Great Britain, and several other countries. 



The plant described as "The Rubber Plant of Southern 

 Europe" in The India Rubber World, March i, 1908 (page 

 iyy)~Atractylis gummifera— is mentioned in a French phar- 

 maceutical journal as one of the few recorded instances of a 

 plant of the natural order Composite containing a poisonous 

 principle. The fruit and receptacle are eaten without ill effect, 

 but several fatal cases of poisoning -with the root are on 

 record. .\ product of the plant, potassium atractylate. is non 

 toxic for fro.es, but is fatal to rabbits and dogs, producing 

 tetanic convulsions like strychnine. 



