Ja.nlakv 1, 1916,] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



171 



before the contents of the vessel have had time to cool 

 I again close the cock of the blow-off pipe E and force 

 in steam until a pressure of say 125 pounds and a tem- 

 perature of 383 degrees F. have been reached, by 

 maintaining which for a period of from 12 to 36 hours 

 the rubber will be devulcanized. 



Before the steam is thus applied the defiberizcd waste has 

 been thoroughly washed first with hot and then with cold 

 water. It is the subjection uf this thoroughly cleaned waste 

 directly to steam under pressure which, as Mitchell's patent 

 states, "devulcanized" the rubber. We are unable to see how 

 such a process can be held to anticipate Marks' process, or 

 even to approach it so closely as to negative invention. 



As to the defense of alleged prior uses it seems unnecessary 

 to add anything to Judge Hazel's discussion of this branch 

 of the case.- 



The only witness available to show what process defendant 

 employs was a detective; such process being carried on in 

 secret. We concur with Judge Hazel that his testimony made 

 out at least a f<rima facie case of infringement. Inasmuch as 

 defendant introduced no evidence to show either what its 

 process was or what it was not (Badische Anilin v. Klipstein, 

 125 F. R., 543), we think infringement was sufficiently proved. 



INSURING RUBBER PROFITS AND COMMISSIONS. 



IT is generally acknowledged that insurance can be written cov- 

 * ering almost every known risk. That the importer can be 

 insured against loss of profits accruing from sales of crude 

 rubber, and brokers protected against loss of commissions, is 

 comparatively new to the American rubber trade. 



Should an insured rubber shipment be lost in transit, the im- 

 porter is protected and collects the full value from the insurance 

 company. That is all very well as far as the value of the goods 

 is concerned, but it does not satisfy the customer for whom 

 the goods were bought under contract. The order must still be 

 filled. In the meantime something may have sent rubber prices 

 sky-rocketing and the importer is obliged to fill his contract with 

 rubber purchased at a higher price, resulting in a substantial loss 

 instead of the expected profit. 



To guard against this he insures his importation at an increased 

 price over the value of the goods or, in other words, insures his 

 profits. So. too, the rubber broker insures against loss of com- 

 missions due him on shipments of rubber in transit that may 

 never reach their destination. 



If rubber manufacturers could also insure themselves against 

 loss in manufacture, such as blistering, over and under cure, 

 general damage in making up, etc., as well as against claims for 

 wear, returned goods and adjustments, the insurance cycle would 

 be nearly complete. 



CRUDE EUBBEH AS PASSENGERS' BAGGAGE. 



Some idea of the desperate straits to which Germany has been 

 reduced by the British rubber blockade was obtained when a 

 search by members of the neutrality squad of the United States 

 secret service, of the baggage of a woman passenger to Holland 

 on the steamer Ryndam, revealed the presence of nearly 3.500 

 pounds of crude rubber. It was subsequently learned that the 

 rubber had been purchased through a dealer in New York. 

 by agents of the rubber department of the Deutsche Bank, 

 Berlin, a government institution. Its purchase and shipment 

 were in accordance with a scheme worked out by one Max 

 Jaegar, an accredited agent of the bank, which, with the arrest 

 of Jaegar and the Ryndam's passenger, has been nipped in the 

 bud. The offense with which the prisoners will be charged 

 is failure to manifest goods exported to foreign lands in the 

 course of trade, for profit. It is asserted that had the first ship- 

 ment been successful, other passengers with similar consignments 

 would have followed at regular intervals. 



CONTRABAND RUBBER SHIPMENTS BY PARCEL 

 POST. 



■"PHE seizure by British authorities of parcel post mail, on 

 ■'• steamers flying the flag of a neutral nation, has caused many 

 protests against this interference with the sacredness of the 

 mails as guaranteed by international postal conventions to which 

 Great Britain is a party. This is not, however, the main ques- 

 tion involved. ■ 



When the rubber manufacturers of the United States under- 

 took, in consideration of being supplied with plantation rubber 

 from British possessions, to gurantee that such rubber, either 

 crude or in manufactured form, should not pass into the hands 

 of an enemy nation, the engagement was accepted in good faith 

 by Great Britain. Under the circumstances, it would have been 

 a breach of faith on the part of those who had signed the guar- 

 antees to connive at or close their eyes to deliberate attempts to 

 evade the agreement. .And, moreover, the discovery that rub- 

 ber in considerable quantities was being thus diverted might 

 cause an immediate re-establishment of the "embargo,'' with ef- 

 fects on the American industry that can readily be imagined. 



-A profitable traffic in shipping by parcel post is undeniable, 

 when rubber bought in New York at approximately 80 cents per 

 pound is sold in Berlin at $12 per pound, at a cost for trans- 

 portation of 12 cents for 11 pounds. The protest against the 

 seizure of the parcel post rubber no doubt emanates from those 

 engaged in this profitable l)usiness. 



RESULTS OF THE INTERDICTION OF RED CROSS RUBBER SUPPLIES. 



The refusal of the British to allow the shipment of rubber 

 goods for hospital purposes to Germany and Austria, referred to 

 m the last number of The India Rubber World, is already bear- 

 ing fruit. Miss Emma Duensing, a young woman of German 

 birth, a graduate in nursing of the German Hospital, \ew York, 

 who had served six months in Porto Rico, during the Spanish- 

 .American war and a year in the Philippines, as a volunteer nurse, 

 lost her life while nursing the wounded at Oppelin. Silesia. Miss 

 Duensing contracted septic fever, it is believed as a result of lack 

 of the protection rubber gloves would have afforded her in han- 

 dling an infectious case. 



MUCH LITIGATED RUBBER. 



An interesting case, in which the price of imported rubber fig- 

 ures, was recently decided by the Appellate Division of the Su- 

 preme Court in New York. The Mansfield Tire & Rubber Co., 

 Mansfield, Ohio, contracted to purchase from Rossbach & Bros. 

 24 tons of brown crepe at 98 cents, and 9 tons at $1.05 per pound, 

 delivery to be made monthly from the date of contract, August, 

 1912, until September, 1913, on requisition. The price of rubber 

 increased materially and the rubber company claimed that deliv- 

 eries were not made as required and that the sellers sought to 

 change the terms of payment, to which they would not consent. 

 Deliveries then ceased until the following May, when the price of 

 rubber declined heavily. The rubber company then refused to 

 accept tenders of the rubber made at the contracted price, on the 

 ground that the contract had been violated by previous non- 

 delivery of the goods by Rossbach Bros. Thereupon the latter 

 firm brought suit against the rubber company for $34,226, in the 

 Supreme Court, New York, claiming that this represented the 

 difference between the contract price of the rubber and the price 

 they had eventually been compelled to accept for it, viz., 47 cents 

 per pound. After a trial that lasted a week, during which the 

 facts and evidence were fully presented by each side, the jury 

 brought in a verdict in favor of the rubber company, with costs 

 against the plaintiffs, on the ground that the plaintiffs had broken 

 the contract when they failed to deliver the rubber. 



The plaintiffs carried the case to the Appellate Division, which 

 affirmed the verdict of the inferior tribunal. 



