June i, jguH.\ 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



295 



A Stack of Old Rubber Shoes. 



[This illustration represents looo tons (3,000,000 pounds) of old rub- 

 ber shoes collected for reclaiming purposes. A mass three times this size 

 would represent the old rubber shoes collected and now held in continental 

 Europe, exclusive of Russia. A mass six times this size would represent 



WILL OLD RUBBER SHOES GO HIGHER? 



/^ NLY a short seven months ago old rubber shoes, which are 

 ^-^ the basis of the reclaiming business, sold for 135-2 and 

 even as hig'.i as 14 cents per pound. To-day they are selling at 

 7 cents, and a very interesting situation has resulted. In a word 

 it is this: The thousands of small collectors throughout the 

 country, believing that high prices will again rule, having col- 

 lected hundreds of tons of shoes, are holding them hoping for a 

 return to 13 cent prices. With every, wish for the prosperity of 

 this portion of the people interested in rubber reclaiming. The 

 India Rubber World is not able to see any statistical basis for 

 such an advance in price. 



Of course, the whole situation must be governed by the law 

 of supply and demand. A careful estimate of the amount of old 

 shoes consumed by the twelve leading rubber reclaiming com- 

 panies in the United States, shows that during the past six 

 months they have used 15,000 tons less than for any like period 

 during the past two years. This is due partly to the falling off 

 in the business of general rubber manufacture, but fully as much 

 to the remarkable drop in the price of crude rubber and to the 

 very general introduction of guayule gum. When it is remem- 

 bered that during the last year there was used 4,000 tons of 

 guayule in American rubber mills, and that each pound displaced 

 at least several pounds of reclaimed rubber, it will at once be 

 evident that in many lines old shoes are not as necessary as 

 they were. 



The situation is therefore this: Here in the United States there 

 are now at least 15,000 tons of old shoes held in small lots, with 

 the collection going on at the usual rate. There are in continental 

 Europe, outside of Russia, 3,000 tons that are liable to appear in 

 the market at any time. Beyond this, as no shoes have come 

 from Russia for some months past, there are 5,000 or 6,000 tons 

 that will be thrown upon this market if a rise in price takes 

 place, that is. if business for a year to come should become 

 normal. (It will probably be 30 per cent, less than normal.) 

 It would seem, therefore, with crude rubber lower than it has 

 been for years, with guayule rubber displacing hundt^ds of tons 

 of reclaimed rubber, with consumption less than normal, and with 

 big stocks of shoes already collected, and collections going on 



tlie amount collected and ready for shipment in Russia. A mass fifteen 

 times this size would represent the amount now collected and unsold in 

 the United States.] 



at the rate of 35,000 tons a year, that there is little hope of 

 higher prices for old shoes. 



THE GILBERT-BESAW PROCESS. 



CO much of interest has developed in the trade concerning what 

 *^ is known as the Gilbert-Besaw reclaiming process that a 

 brief description of what it is will be timely. 



In the first place the process is not patented, but is secret. 

 It is applicable to the recovery of any sort of rubber scrap, 

 whether cured in open steam, in molds, or in dry heat. Accord- 

 ing to the statement of the inventors no acid, or alkali, or any- 

 thing that can be in any way injurious is added. The reclaim- 

 ing — that is, as far as cracking, grinding, and removing iron, 

 brass, and sand. The machinery for treating the waste rubber 

 for the removal of fiber and for devulcanization, however, is 

 individual to the process. The time occupied in devulcanization 

 is about one-quarter that used in existing processes. No residuum 

 or oily matter of any sort is added to the product, either before 

 or after devulcanization. The results of this process, for in- 

 sulation purposes, in reducing the acetone test, is of itself in- 

 valuable. 



The American rights are controlled by the New Jersey Rubber 

 Co., at Lambertville, N. J., with the single exception of the 

 Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., who have shop rights. Messrs. 

 Gilbert and Besaw are planning soon to arrange with manufac- 

 turers abroad to take over the process. 



The cost of collecting chicle and laying it down at El 

 Carmen, on the gulf coast, in the state of Campeche. Mexico, 

 is stated in the Bolctit: de la Asociation Finaiiciera Internacional 

 at $500 (Mexican) per metric ton, and the selling price at 

 that port is about $1,000 (Mexican) per ton. At current 

 rates of exchange these figures work out at about 11 cents 

 (gold) per pound for cost and 22 cents for the price realized. 

 The Boletin, in reporting on some properties near El Carmen 

 on which chicle trees are abundant, intimates that by export- 

 ing chicle directly to consuming markets the margin of profit 

 might be increased considerably. 



