THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1914. 



peas houses. The new banking law will enable them !■ 

 get the money necessary for tins feature, if they should 

 it. For reasons not necessary to be described, the 

 feeling toward us in Spanish-America is better than for 

 a lung time past. If the American manufacturers go into 

 this magnificent market with the proper spirit and man- 

 ner — their children and their children's children will 

 enjo) the profits of that trade. 



THE WAR AND THE ENGLISH RUBBER TRADE 



WHAT effect the war has had upon the rubber 

 trade in Germany can only be surmised, as the 

 channels of communication between that country and 

 the outside world are to a great extent closed, but 

 it can safely be conjectured that, outside of those lines 

 that would contribute to the efficiency of Germany's 

 militar) and naval operations, the rubber trade of that 

 Empire is in a state of at least temporary paralysis. 

 The effect of the war on the rubber trade in England 

 is described in considerable detail in the letter which 

 appears in this issue from our regular English corre- 

 spondent, lie states, as would naturally be assumed, 

 that the companies engaged in the manufacture of rub- 

 ber flooring for tents, motor tires for transport wagons 

 and ambulance-, rubber sheeting, elastic bandages for 

 hospital use and other articles used by the army and 

 by the Admiralty are running on government orders 

 that keep them at full capacitj during the entire twen- 

 ty-four hours, but other companies whose products are 

 intended for use in peaceful vocations are generally 

 operating only on part time. This is due, to a certain 

 extent, to the large number of men who have been 

 withdrawn from work in the factory to go with the 

 forces m the field — in one case a thousand employes 

 having left a company for military service — but even 

 greater extent this idleness is due to the decreased 

 demand For merchandise generally. 



The English manufacturer- appear to have all the 

 rubber that 1- needed under the present conditions of 

 the trade, and with the exception of one chemical — 

 zinc oxide — the English supply of which lias come 

 largely from Liege in Belgium, the supply of com- 

 pounding ingredients promises to be ample. Bui the 

 present situation in England is another illustration of 

 the fact that while war excites certain lines of industr) 

 — those that contribute to military equipment — to 

 feverish activity, the effect upon all other lines is dead 1 

 cniiiL; and in time disastrous. 



MR. COWEN AND THE MARKS PROCESS. 



IX the very interesting lecture delivered by Mr. L. J. 

 Plumb before an English commercial school in Eng 

 land recently, the speaker said, speaking of the Marks 

 alkali process: "It is probable that he received his 

 first knowledge as to the effect of caustic soda on rub- 

 ber from bis superior, Mr. Robert Cowen. As early 

 as 1890 Alt'. Cowen in private conversations had dis- 

 cussed the possibilities of using caustic soda for re- 

 claiming, and there is no question but he made a num- 

 ber of experiments along these lines." 



It happens that the editor of The India Rubber 

 Wori i' was a close friend of Robert Cowen and, living 

 in Boston, was a very frequent visitor at the factory of 

 the Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Co. When the 

 little laboratory was first installed and the young men 

 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 brought in, lie met them all and their work was thor- 

 oughly gone into. Air. Cowen was a fine machinist 

 and an inventor, but he was not a chemist. As the 

 writer remembers it, he was wholly in favor of the 

 acid process for reclaiming. When Mr. Marks suc- 

 ceeded with his alkali process and went on record as 

 to its great future value, it was put down as a bit of 

 youthful enthusiasm not to fie taken seriously. When 

 Mr. Marks resigned to join the staff* at the, laboratory 

 of the Revere Rubber Co. his alkali process was not 

 even considered. It was not until he had made a suc- 

 cess of it that others were said to have suggested it. 

 to have experimented along the same lines or to have 

 anticipated him. Were Robert Cowen alive today he 

 would in his frank way give Mr. Marks full ciedit for 

 his process. 



A WAR TAX ALTHOUGH NO WAR. 



Nl ITWITHST W 1 UNG the Government's determina- 

 tion to maintain strict neutrality during the present 

 disturbed conditions in Europe, it cannot altogether 

 escape the effect of those unhappy conditions. Customs 

 receipts have fallen off to such an extent that the Admin- 

 istration ha- been compelled to cast about for sufficient 

 revenue for the efficient operation of government func- 

 tions. The measure before the Senate Finance Com- 

 mittee — known as the War Tax Revenue Bill — which is 

 designed to raise a yearly revenue of about a hundred 

 million dollars, lays a particular burden upon the brewer, 

 wine grower, tobacco producer and purveyor of amuse- 

 ment. On the rubber manufacturer as s lU ;h no special 



