December 1, 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



167 



RATTAN TIRES. 



.Reclaimed rubljer does fairly well for tire casings, but is 

 practically useless for making inner tubes. Its price, as already 

 stated, is very high for the service it gives, and this has led 

 to many attempts to create substitutes for rubber tires. 



Bicycles equipped with tires made of woven rattan were seen 

 recently on the streets of Berlin. They are said to provide 

 resiliency equal to that of solid rubber tires, but not so great 

 as that of pneumatics. The sad thing about rattan tires is that 

 rattan is not a domestic product ; it is scarce and costly, al- 

 though it may be possible to obtain adequate supplies of it 

 through Turke). 



LIQUin GLOVES. 



Our newspapers have been giving much space to what they 

 term "liquid gloves" that are worn by army surgeons and 

 their aids when performing operations or dressing open wounds. 

 Before the surgeon begins an operation he sterilizes his hands, 

 as usual, and then rubs over them an antiseptic solution of 

 cellulose, which dries rapidly, forming a thin artificial skin 

 which is entirely flexible though not so pliable as very fine rub- 

 ber, which it much resembles. After the operation the cellulose 

 can be removed quickly with warm water and certain chemicals. 



From what can be learned about these "liquid gloves" they are 

 not altogether salisfactoryy and are used only for short opera- 

 tions when suitable rubber gloves are not available. They are 

 not sufficiently durable to enable one to undertake long opera- 

 tions with them, and when left any length of time on the hands 

 they cause them to become numb and swollen. Though the 

 daily papers have spoken of "liquid gloves" being in general 

 use among army surgeons, this is hardly correct. It would be 

 nearer the truth to say Lhait these gloves are used mostly by 

 nurses and assistants who formerly used no gloves at all. 

 Ri:i;r.ER companies and war loans. 



Our rubber manufacturers continue to be large subscribers 

 to war loans. The Continental Caoutchouc & Gutta Percha Co.,. 

 of Hanover, subscribed 5,500.000 marks [$1,309,0001 to the last 

 war loan. Other companies subscribed in proportion to their 

 wealth and importance. 



THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA. 



By A Special Correspondent. 



THERE is a strong analogy between the economic and indus- 

 trial problems of Russia today and those of the United 

 States at the time of your Civil War. Fifty-two years ago your 

 country was struggling for national existence, you had a colossal 



SocliiTE K.\UTSCHUK WoRKS, RlC,\. 



w-ar debt, your currency was much depreciated. Yet you were 

 on the morn of your most remarkable period of itidustrial and 

 commertial development. 



In the present war Russia is struggling for national life and 

 is undoubtedly at the same time opening a new era of industrial 

 development and material prosperity. Russia, unlike most of 



the other countries engaged in this great war, has behind her 

 huge undeveloped resources, just as the United States had half 

 a century ago. and the drain of the present struggle stimulates 

 us in developing these resources. 



You Americans seem to know remarkably little about Russia. 

 Of first-hand information you have very little, and you are too 

 much inclined to imagine Russia as she was prior to the Russo- 

 Japanese war. You forget to note the fact that between 1901 

 and 1914 Russia's industries had increased enormously; that 

 her trade had doubled and that, as a consequence of both, the 

 money in Russian banks and in circulation multiplied from $918,- 

 000,000* to $1,938,000,000*, an increase of about 111 per cent. 

 During the ten years between the Russo-Japanese war and 

 the present war, Russia's wealth was actually doubled. Bearing, 

 this absolute, fundamental fact in mind, you will be able to. 

 imagine the momentous occurrences in Russian economic life, 

 in connection with the present war. . ''; 



EFFECT OF WAR ON INDUSTRIES, 

 Since the outbreak of the war most of our industries have 

 been mobilized and are working for military purposes only. 

 This mobilization has meant much to all our industries and es- 

 pecially to the middle-class and small industrial undertakings 

 which have been obliged to adopt efficiency methods they never 

 before dreamed of. It is impossible to state the quantities of 

 goods of all kinds that have been produced here for the army, 

 but I may mention an instance where one organization alone, 

 from the beginning of the war up to August, 1915, produced 

 three million pairs of army boots and more than a million pairs 

 of snowshoes ; a production all out of proportion to anytliing it 

 had done before the war. 



Our unprecedented industrial activity of the past two years 

 has made domestic trade well above normal in spite of the fact 

 that millions of men have been taken away from their homes. 

 The buying power of our population has increased remarkably 

 both in the cities and the rural districts. 



RUBBER FOOTWEAR. 



The increased prosperity of the masses and the impossibility 

 of spending money for into.xicants, which are prohibited, have 

 led to its expenditure for wearing apparel. Every good Rus- 

 sian who can afford to do so wears rubber shoes of some kind or 

 another. Our great rubber companies owe most of their pros- 

 perity to the manufacture of footwear which, prior to tlie war, 

 they supplied to millions both here and abroad. 



When the war came our rubber companies had large stocks 

 of footwear on hand and very little got out of the country be- 

 fore the export embargo went into effect. Although there was 

 a temporary stoppage in the manufacture of these goods, their 

 production is now near normal and nothing is going abroad. 

 Russia today is probably consuming 150,000 pairs of rubber shoes 

 each day. 



RUBBER FACTORIES. 



(Germans, who lurmerly controlled and operated most of our 

 rubber factories, have been entirely eliminated and this great 

 industry is centering in Mo.scow, the old Russian capital. 



The Russian-.'Vmerican India Rubber Co., "Trciigolnik," still 

 retains its factories in Petrograd, and the rubber reclaiming 

 plant in Odessa, owned by an American concern, is, as far as I 

 can learn, still in operation there, but the Russian-French India 

 Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works, "Prowodnik," have 

 definitely removed their entire equipment from Riga and are now 

 in full operation in their new Moscow establishment where they 

 are employing more than 25,000 people, mostly Russians, who 

 have been trained to take the place of the "Baltic labor" that 

 was formerly employed in Riga. The Imperial Government con- 

 tributed 12,000,000 rubles [$6,180,000] towards the cost of the 

 new plant. 



The plant which the French Etablissements Bergougnan had 



"These figures are based on normal exchange of rubles. 



