294 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[June i, 190^. 



consists essentially of a skeleton of nitre cellulose built up with 

 nitrated castor oil, its composition is unchangeable, and I have 

 seen samples such as the covers of pocket books ten years old 

 and apparently as good as new. It is said, tliough I do not 

 vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that similar goods 

 consisting mainly of oxidized linseed oil do not exhibit anything 

 like the same wearing power owing to a liability to undergo 

 further chemical change. With regard to the leather substitutes 

 of the purely nitrated cellulose or collodion variety it was thought 

 at first that their manufacture and use would be attended with 

 danger from explosion. Although this does not seem to have 

 been the case, there is always the associated danger that the 

 evaporation of the camphor converts a non explosive nitro com- 

 pound into a body which is practically identical with gun cotton. 

 The London Synthetic Rubber Co. claim to have made decided 

 progress in the way of turning out the material indicated by 

 their title. I have not seen any of the 

 product personally, but a friend of mine, 

 who, by the way, knows nothing about 

 rubber, tells me that he has seen a sample, and that it was 

 strong and elastic. It appears that the price of production has 

 so far been too high for business purposes, and that it is recog- 

 nized that production at a shilling per pound will be necessary 

 for its successful exploitation. A considerable reduction, I am 

 assured, has been effected already, though they are still some 

 way off the shilling cost desired. Meanwhile it is stated that 

 the iioo shares, with £10 paid up, are quoted at £400 each. From 

 another source I gather that Peru is going to knock all other 

 rubbers, natural or synthetic, out of the market when the ar- 

 rangements now in hand in the upper Amazon valley for the 

 facilitation of freight and the augmentation of labor come to 

 maturity. No date, however, appears to have been fixed for this 

 development. Clearly, if one believes everything he hears, the 

 rubber plantation people may not have everything their own 

 way, after all. 



THE OLDEST RUBBER WORKER. 



SYNTHETIC 

 RUBBER. 



THE "TUNO" GUM SITUATION. 



A CONTRACT has been entered into between the government 

 of Nicaragua and R. J. La Villebeuvre, a resident of Man- 

 agua, giving the latter the exclusive privilege for 20 years of 

 gathering gum from the tree known as "tuna" or "tuno," in the 

 national forests, over the greater portion of the republic. The 

 government is to receive 2 cents (gold) for each kilogram 

 [=about $20 per ton] of gum extracted, however it may be dis- 

 posed of. The tree referred to is particularly abundant in the 

 district of Cabo Gracias a Dios. It is similar in appearance to 

 the native rubber tree {Castilloa clastka) and the product re- 

 sembles crude rubber, except that it is altogether lacking in 

 resiliency. The United States consul at San Juan del Norte says 

 that while considerable money has been spent in experimenting 

 with the tuno gum in the locality referred to, it has been with- 

 out practical results hitherto. Shipments have been made from 

 that port from time to time since 1885, but at no time in excess 

 of 5,000 pounds in one year, while prices have fluctuated between 

 7 and 25 cents per pound. The fact that this concession was 

 sought for and has been granted would indicate that some field 

 of usefulness had finally been discovered for tuno gum. 



There is now left no forest rubber in Nicaragua of any kind 

 not subject to some private monopoly. Some details under 

 this head appeared in The India Rubber World, March i, 1908. 



A crude rubber importer in New York advises The India 

 Rubber World that he is ready to execute orders for tuno gum 

 upon two weeks' notice, and that business was done in this gum 

 during the past month, at about 14 cents a pound. He says 

 that the gum has been in some demand, for friction work, but 

 that a twofold trouble existed — uncertainty in delivery and no 

 fixed standard of quality. Otherwise, he thinks that consider- 

 «ble "tuno" might be taken. 



P ROB ABLY the oldest man at work to-day in a rubber fac- 

 ■*• tory is Frank De Frate, who still makes water beds at the 

 Hodgman Rubber Co.'s factories in Tuckahoe, New York. Mr. 

 De Frate, who, by the way, is a grand uncle of the present 

 generation of Hodgmans, has been connected with the company 

 from the time when Daniel Hodgman first began business, 70 

 years ago, on Broadway, and has followed the Hodgman for- 

 tunes ever since. From the factory on Duane street to Lexing- 

 ton avenue and Thirty-third street, and from there to Twenty- 

 sixth street and East river, and then when Daniel Hodgman 

 bought the cotton mill building at Tuckahoe in 185 1, and inci- 

 dentally most of the surrounding country, Mr. De Frate was liis 

 right hand man. In those days he was, according to tradition, 

 stronger than any two other men in the factory, and able to do 

 the work of five. He was more or less of a fiery individual, but 



Frank De Frate. 



[Employed by The Hodgman Rubber Co. since their beginning, and still 

 at work, at 84 years.] 



only broke away from the place in which he was tremendously 

 interested on two occasions. Once he went to work for Horace 

 H. Day and remained there just one day. Another time he 

 actually got as far as Ohio, where he furnished a house for 

 himself and had begun to feel at home when Daniel Hodgman 

 dropped in on him, told him he had got to come back as he 

 needed him, and he promptly auctioned ofl[ his goods and 

 returned. 



At eighty-four, his present age, Mr. De Frate is still active, 

 and his memory of the beginnings of the rubber trade is sur- 

 prisingly accurate. He is wonderfully proud of the fact that he 

 does his full day's work six days in the week, and although the 

 management of the Hodgman factories have tried to pension 

 him, they are absolutely unable to make him accept a cent that 

 he does not earn, or to keep him away from the factories during 

 working hours. 



Singapore appears to be developing a considerable market for 

 automobiles, tires, and accessories, and the latest report is that 

 an automobile journal is being established there. Mention has al- 

 ready been made in The India Rubber World of a tire manu- 

 facturing plant in Singapore, besides which the "Silvertown," 

 "Continental," and some other leading brands of tires are actively 

 advertised in that market. For example, the well known Har- 

 vey Frost vulcanizer, an English production, is being exploited by 

 a well known Singapore commission house. 



