July i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



341 



THE COMING RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



fSee The India Rubber World, June i, 1908, page 287.] 

 ■ I 'HE work of organization of the International Rubber and 

 ^ AlHed Trades Exhibition, to be held in London September 

 14-26 next, has made steady progress from the time of its 

 inception, and all indications point to its complete success. In 

 the first place, the expenses were guaranteed by the original 

 group who formed the nucleus of the present management, and 

 it is understood that the returns from the exhibition spaces al- 

 lotted will exceed the original expectations. In fact, early in 

 the work of preparation it was necessary to look for a more 

 commodious building than the one first selected, and obtain 

 the Olympia, the largest exhibition hall in London. The broad 

 scope of the exhibition and the widespread public interest in 

 rubber which has been developed in recent years, particularly 

 in Great Britain, seem to justify the hope that the attendance 

 will be large. 



The enterprise is by no means to be a rubber planting exhibi- 

 tion alone, as was true of the Ceylon Rubber Exhibition of 1906. 

 Such, indeed, was never the thought of the promoters of the 

 Olympia show, but rather to embrace every phase of the rubber 

 interest — crude rubber, manufacturing, and rubber machinery, 

 with all allied subjects. Not unnaturally the rubber planting in- 

 terest, in view of the success of the Ceylon exhibition, was the 

 first to respond actively to the prospectus of the forthcoming 

 show, but other departments of the rubber trade have gradually 

 given assurances of their support, until now no department is 

 without liberal representation. It was, in fact, the demand for 

 space from the rubber machinery makers that led to the selection 

 of so large a hall as the Olympia. 



To-day every country in Europe manufacturing machinery 

 adapted to use either in the rubber goods factory or on rubber 

 plantations is represented in the list of exhibits assured for the 

 Olympia. Likewise leading manufacturers of rubber goods have 

 contracted for space, so that the exhibition is certain to be rep- 

 resentative of rubber from every viewpoint. \Vliat will be the 

 share of America in this important exhibition remains to be 

 seen, since the correspondence with the various firms on this 

 side of the Atlantic has been conducted from the London head- 

 quarters, and a longer time has been necessary for results to be 

 attained than in the case of the European houses. 



Visitors to the Rubber Exhibition may be prepared to see 

 rubber plants growing, in every stage from the earliest ; sections 

 of mature rubber trees and photographs of entire trees; an 

 exposition of all the methods of tapping rubber trees that have 

 been devised to date, including specimens of tapping devices; 

 demonstrations of the various practices in coagulating rubber ; 

 specimens of crude rubber in all known forms, whether "plan- 

 tation" or "wild"; modern factory practice in the conversion of 

 crude rubber into finished products ; and an array of manu- 

 factured goods into which rubber enters. The rubber manufac- 

 turer will there have an opportunity to study in all its phases 

 the development of the raw materials ; the producer of rubber 

 will be able to see what the manufacturer wants in the way of 

 raw materials and by what steps his produce is turned into ar- 

 ticles of commercial utility. 



The India Rubber World has mentioned already the prom- 

 inence of the president of the International Rubber and .\llied 

 Trades Exhibition — Sir Henry Arthur Blake, g. c. m. g., who pre- 

 sided at the Ceylon Rubber Exhibition while governor of Cey- 

 lon, prior to which he had been in the service of the British 

 empire as governor successively of the Bahamas, Newfoundland, 

 Jamaica and Hong Kong. 



The list of vice presidents embraces a number of gentlemen of 

 note in the development of important interests, including Sir 

 William T. Thiselton-Dyer, k. c. m. g., long director of the 

 Royal Gardens at Kew ; Sir Harry H. Johnston, K. c. M. c., the 

 eminent .African administrator; the Hon. Mr. John Ferguson, 

 <c. M. g., of Ceylon C editor of the Ccylou Observer) ; Professor 



Wyndham Dunstan, ll. d., of the Imperial Institute ; and H. Kerr 

 Rutherford, Esq., chairman of the Rubber Growers' .dissociation 

 (London), and one of the pioneers in rubber culture in the 

 Far East. 



The various active committees embrace such men as Sir 

 Daniel Morris, K. c. .M. c, commissioner of agriculture for the 

 British West Indies ; Gustave Van den Kerckhove, the Belgian 

 rubber expert ; Lieut. Colonel Prain, the present director at 

 Kew; Dr. D. Spence, of the Liverpool University; Dr. Pehr 

 Olsson-Seflfer, of Mexico; J. Hancock Nunn, Esq., and Alfred 

 Du Cros, Esq., English rubber manufacturers; Dr. Werner Esch 

 and Dr. Fritz Frank, German rubber chemists; Monsieur A. D. 

 Gillard, of Le Caoutchouc et la Gutta-Pcrcha (Paris); and 

 others equally prominent in connection with rubber interests in 

 various countries — every name on the list being an additional 

 testimonial to the earnest and substantial character of the un- 

 dertaking. 



One result of the exhibition may be expected to be a new 

 impetus to the international trade in rubber goods, already so 

 important. It will offer the first opportunity which many of 

 the visitors will have had to see compared the kinds of goods 

 tnade and used outside of their respective countries. Many 

 such visitors doubtless will be able to acquire new ideas, both for 

 introduction at home and to aid in the wider distribution of their 

 products abroad. Hereafter, even more than in the past, compe- 

 tition in the sale of rubber goods will be betw-een countries as well 

 as between factories in any given country, and such an exhibi- 

 tion as that at the Olympia will prove more educational than the 

 great international general exhibitions of recent years. Our 

 London contemporary, in its June i issue, refers to the growing 

 volume of the American rubber trade in terms which might 

 prove surprising to those American firms which have been con- 

 cerned in the past only with the home trade. 



The Indla Rubbkr World will be represented by an exhibit at 

 the Rubber Exhibition, and its Editor is scheduled for an ad- 

 dress on the .-Xmerican rubber industry, illustrated by lanterns, 

 and has been requested to give an illustrated lecture on the 

 rubber plantations he has visited. 



The London India-Rubber Journal says: "No doubt one of 

 the most interesting lectures delivered at the International Rub- 

 ber Exhibition to be held at the Olympia will be the one to be 

 given by Mr. Henry C. Pearson, Editor of The Indl\ Rubbeb 

 World, New York, entitled, 'Synthetic Rubbers as I Have Seen 

 Them.' " 



The committee of the Motor Club (which has one of the 

 largest club houses in London, at the corner of Coventry and 

 Whitcomb streets, near Piccadilly Circus) have most kindly con- 

 sented to make visitors to London taking part in the Rubber Ex- 

 hibition honorary members of the club. All that is necessary 

 will be to send name and address on arrival in London to the 

 manager of the exhibition to enable him to notify the secretary 

 of the Motor Club, who will then issue the usual notice. 



CEYLON AND THE LONDON EXHIBITION. 



At a meeting of the Committee of the Planters' Association 

 of Ceylon (Kandy, March 13), attended by 59 members, it 

 was resolved, in relation to the International Rubber and 

 Allied Trades Exhibition to be held in London : 



"That the Ceylon government be informed that this com- 

 mittee is of the opinion that the colony should be strongly 

 represented at this exhibition, and that a sub-committee be 

 appointed to act with the chamber of commerce in arranging 

 details." 



The chairman and secretary of the Association, therefore, 

 and five other members wxre appointed as such sub-com- 

 mittee. 



A pl.\nt.\tion laborer in the Kalutara district, Ceylon, for 

 stealing rubber worth 50 rupees [=$16.22], was sentenced to 

 rigorous labor for three years. 



