December 1, 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



169 



ders have recently been shipped to Europe for military purposes. 

 Even the Chinese, who had boycotted Japanese goods, were 

 obliged to buy them in great quantity. Jinrikisha tires were 

 exported to tropical lands where bicycles are almost unknown 

 and some of them were probably re-exported to Europe for other 

 uses by the Allied armies. Of the total tire exports, 60 per cent 

 was jinrikisha tires and the other 40 per cent bicycle and auto- 

 mobile tires in nearly equal quantities. The firms engaged in 

 this business are the Dunlop Rubber Co. (Far East), Limited, 

 the Toyo Rubber Co., Limited, the Mitatsuchi Rubber Manu- 

 facturing Co., the Kakuichi Rubber Co., the Nihon Rubber Co., 

 Limited, and other works. Automobile and bicycle tires for 

 export were made principally at the Dunlop works. 



Jinrikisha pneumatic tires for export are 900 by 50 millimeters, 

 not the 43-inch size common in Japan. Automobile- tires for 

 export are mostly pneumatics 34 by 3 and 28 by 3, although 

 some consumers order by metric measure. Bicycle tires for 

 export are 28 by iy2 and 26 by VA, not 1^ as in Japan. Wired- 

 on tires are made only by the Dunlop Rubber Co. (Far East), 

 Limited. 



Despite the high prices of crude rubber and compounding 

 ingredients since the war, the export prices have remained rela- 

 tively low, as follows : 



Jinrikisha tires (including tube), per pair, 20 yen ($10.00). 



Automobile pneumatic tires, each, 35-80 yen ($17.50 to $40.00). 



Bicycle tires, per pair, 5-13 yen ($2.50 to $6.50). 



Tubes for bicycle tires, per pair, 1.30-2.00 yen ($0.65 to $1.00). 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN MALAYA. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 

 ""PHOUGH war has had little or no effect on the rubber planta- 

 ••• tion industry of Malaya, there are a good many who say 

 that because of the war it is necessary to make preparations for 

 the future. It is in the coming trade war, which the Allies are 

 steadily bent upon, that the need of combination and organiza- 

 tion in the industry will be felt. The chairman of a prominent 

 rubber company recently referred to the entire lack of these im- 

 portant qualities while emphasizing that the need for them was 

 never so apparent as to-day. 



The purchasing of rubber, he pointed out, is getting more and 

 more into the hands of powerful and aggressive groups who are 

 adept in the art of depressing the market for a month or two 

 before they make their heaviest purchases. For the trade war 

 which is to follow upon the declaration of peace, practically every 

 great industry is already taking steps to organize its plan of 

 campaign, with the one great exception of the rubber plantation 

 industry. The Germans, on their side, are not idle. They have 

 already formed central societies which will buy for each large 

 mdustry, and as regards rubber the German Empire is going to 

 need an immense tonnage of the commodity when the war is 

 over. Many manufacturers of rubber goods contend that for 

 every pound of nevf rubber used in manufacturing rubber goods 

 two pounds of recovered rubber are also employed. That stock 

 of recovered rubber has run out in Germany, and the require- 

 ments of the country will be very great indeed when there is an 

 opportunity to supply them. 



It is suggested that a very simple means of helping to 

 strengthen the rubber plantation industry is to popularize and 

 extend advance contract sales, and thus reduce as far as possible 

 the amounts of unsold rubber arriving on the market at any one 

 time. As previously pointed out, when at the end of last year 

 a number of companies found that with the rise in the price of 

 rubber the advance contracts they had necessitated selling at 

 less than the current market price, many thought that the ad- 

 vance contract policy was not a good one to continue. The idea 

 that this method circumvents the schemes of powerful groups 

 v;ho can depress the market a month or two before buying is a 

 new one, and it is certainly seems worthy of some consideration. 



The Planters' Association of Malaya, the organization of the 

 planting community, touched upon a large question at one of its 

 recent meetings, when the secretary reported the result of his 

 interview with the Chief Secretary to the Government on the 

 subject of the alienation of planting land. Particulars of appli- 

 cations for such areas, said to have been made on behalf of 

 various American companies, were given, and it was rightly 

 observed that the question was a broad imperial one, upon which 

 the association was hardly called upon to express an opinion. 

 In so far as it went, however, the secretary's statement disclosed 

 an attitude of distinct hostility to such alienation of land in 

 e-visting circumstances, and there is probably a widespread, 

 though unexpressed, feeling to the same effect in many other 

 parts of the country. The government has given an assurance 

 that no such alienations have taken place, and with that the 

 planters may rest satisfied. No doubt the matter will be allowed 

 to lapse until it is known how definite action one way or the 

 other will coincide with the Imperial interests of the nation. 



The industry in Malaya, by the way, has good reason to be 

 grateful to the Federated Malay States Department of Agri- 

 culture, which is continually conducting investigations with refer- 

 ence to the improved production and subsequent treatment of 

 rubber. Lectures on the subject are constantly given to planters 

 in various states, and at a recent one, B. J. Eaton, agricultural 

 chemist, detailed some highly interesting experiments with re- 

 gard to the variability of plantation rubber. After describing 

 the vulcanizing process, discovered independently by Goodyear 

 in America and Hancock in England, Mr. Eaton gave a review 

 of the results attained by the Federated Malay States Agricultural 

 Department. These showed that the principal variability of plan- 

 tation rubber was in respect to the rate of vulcanization in the 

 case of first-grade rubber, and that differences in strength after 

 vulcanization were of a much smaller degree. 



As regards the uniformity of fine hard Para, Mr. Eaton sug- 

 gested that this was due to the fact that a ball of hard Para took 

 about two months to prepare, and thus a daily variation in the 

 late.x or the treatment to which it was subjected was averaged. 

 One method of insuring uniformity in estate practice could be 

 effected by mixing a sheet from each day's latex in each box 

 over a period of a month or more. 



The method of preparing rubber by keeping it in the form of 

 coagulant for six days before machining proves to be very valu- 

 able from the viewpoint of rapid vulcanization and of quality. 

 It is interesting to know that one of the leading American manu- 

 facturers recently asked for a consignment of about half a ton 

 of this type of rubber for testing purposes. 



NEW RtTBBER EXPORTING CONCERN IN BRAZIL. 



Stowell & Cia. is the name of a new concern with headquarters 

 at Para and a branch office at Manaos, State of Amazonas, which 

 will devote itself exclusively to the purchase and exportation 

 of rubber, as agents for Heilbut, Symons & Co. of London and 

 Liverpool, and Arnold & Zeiss of New York City. The members 

 of the firm are T. B. Stowell, Albert Suter and Henri Voegeli, 

 Mr. Suter having charge of the principal office at Para, and 

 Mr. Voegeli being manager of the Manaos office. This new 

 concern has no connection with the firm bearing a similar name 

 in Liverpool. Messrs. Stowell Bros., Para, and Stowell & Sons, 

 Manaos, which are branches of Stowell & Co., Liverpool, Eng- 

 land, state that they continue their business as heretofore and 

 that there is no change nor alteration in their firm names or 

 business. 



RUBBER EXPORTS FROM THE IVORY COAST. 



Exports of crude rubber from tlie Ivory Coast during the 

 first six months of 1916 amounted to 503,358 pounds, against 

 145,871 pounds exported during the corresponding period of 1915, 

 showing an increase of 357,487 pounds. 



