182 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1, 1915. 



The Rubber Industry of Germany. 



Till-, peculiar position of Germanj today hemmed in by 

 enemies ..ii almost every side and shut off from nearly 

 all ci' those parts "i tin world with which commerce has 

 hitherto been carried on makes thai country particularly inter- 

 esting at the present ti rm.-. 



Type ok Modern German Rubber Factory 



Though iii.m \ people in the rubber trade may have had rather 

 a hazy idea of Germany's position in the industry of the world, 

 it probably will surprise no one to know that for many years 

 previous to the outbreak of this unhappy war Germany had 

 stood second to the United States in the extent of its rubber 

 manufacture. In tin matter of rubber exports it led the United 

 States alrrfost three to one, the German exports of rubber manu- 

 factured goods last year amounting to $32,000,000, while those 

 from tile United States amounted to only a little over $12,000.- 

 000. In the early part of the present year Germany could count 

 oimi rubber manufacturing plants, of which number 150 were 

 companies of large size and importance in the trade. These 



The first rubber factory was started in Germany in 182"-, near 

 Berlin. This was just about the time that the first attempts 

 were being made in this country to utilize the product of the 

 South American rubber forests. The first German factory was 

 devoted to the manufacture of rubber thread and elastic fabrics, 

 but. as Goodyear's vulcanization proc- 

 ess had not then been discovered, the 

 success of this early venture was 

 probably no more marked than was 

 the case in the various factories that 

 sprung up in Xew England from 

 1830 to 1840. 



Rubber footwear was first made in 

 Germany in 1.S50. in a factory built 

 at Mannheim, by the Etablissement 

 Hutchinson, of Paris, which, in turn, 

 by the way, was founded by Hiram 

 Hutchinson, an American. In the 

 same year the manufacture of insu- 

 lated cables was started, a line in 

 which Germany has been pre-emi- 

 nently successful, the cable works in 

 that country being for many years 

 past the largest in the world. In 

 1850 the lust German factory for the 

 manufacture of hard rubber was 

 started, being devoted to the making 

 of combs by a process secured from Conrad Poppenhusen, of 

 the India Rubber Comb Co. of New York. 



Hut just as the growth of the rubber industry in the United 

 States was very slow up to the time of the Civil War, simi- 

 larly, rubber manufacture developed slowly in Germany until 

 the Franco-Prussian War, after which, in company with every 

 other German industry, it advanced with marked rapidity. 



Before 1880. German rubber manufacturers confined them- 

 selves almost exclusively to mechanical and surgical goods, 

 druggists' sundries, footwear and garments, but with the advent 

 of the pneumatic tire for bicycles, in the 80's. tire making was 

 introduced into a number of the German factories, and with the 





Oxe of the Great German Submarine Cable Works. With Cable Steamer in Foreground. 



plants gave occupation to over 40.000 workmen and were annual- 

 ly turning out manufactured goods to the value of about $80,- 



000,000: 



The growth of the rubber industry in Germany has practically 

 paralleled the development of the industry in the United States. 



appearance of the automobile this industry in Germany be- 

 gan to grow with tremendous rapidity, until it consumed nearly 

 one-half of the crude rubber used in German factories. Last 

 year the tire product of that country amounted to $38,000,000 in 

 value, of which tires to the value of $14,000,000 were exported. 



