Julv I, 1915] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



535 



companies had consolidated through the purchase on the part of 

 the Russian-American Co., of the controlling interest in several 

 smaller companies and half of the capital stock of the Prowod- 

 nik company, but it subsequently appeared there was no merger in 

 the sense of lost identity, but simply a merger in the sense of a 

 mutual understanding and a general community of interest, in- 

 cluding tin- Russian-American company, the Prowodnik and two 



1906 the volume again exceeded sixteen million pounds, and 

 has since increased quite uniformly, being 20,000,000 pounds in 

 1912, nearly 29,000.000 pounds in 1913 and 24,000,000 pounds in 

 1914 — notwithtsanding the outbreak of the war and the partial 

 shutting off of supplies. 



While the importations into the United States of manufac- 

 tured rubber goods from Russia have never been large, our 



Soldier's Rubber Sleepim, Bag. 



smaller concerns, nameh — C. Weyerbusch & Co., of Moscow, 

 and the firm of Leopold Neuscheller & Co. The object "t this 

 merger was the elimination of wasteful competition. 



As far back as 30 years ago the Russians began to find an ex- 

 port market for their shoes. Their shipments to foreign countries 

 amounted in 1888 to 355,000 pairs; in 1895 to 2,700,000 pairs, and 

 a few years later reached 3.222,000 pairs ; almost the entire vol- 

 ume. Hi considerably over 90 per cent., of these exports going to 

 Germany. Possibly this does not seem like a very large figure, 

 but it is very much larger than the volume of American rubber 

 font wear exports in any single year. 



The industry, however, was not confined exclusively to shoes, 

 by any means, as by the year 1890 the product of the Russian 

 factories included clothing, hose, packing, belts, and other me- 

 chanical goods, surgical rubber goods, sponges, molded goods, 

 toys, insulated wire and other articles in which rubber consti- 

 tutes a large or a principal part, the machinery fur which was 

 obtained partly from England and partly from the United States, 

 the I'nrrel Foundry & Machine Co., of Ansonia, Connecticut, hav- 

 ing been called on for many mixing and other mills for Russian 

 plants. 



The manufacture of automobile tires has progressed steadily in 

 Russia during the last ten years. The 

 home consumption of pneumatic tires is 

 not large as comparer! with America, as 

 the number of automobiles in Russia is 

 still comparatively small, but there has 

 been a constantly increasing demand for 

 solid tires for horse-drawn vehicles, more 

 of these being used in Russia, probably, 

 than anywhere else in the world. 



1 luring the last four or five years, and 

 especially since the outbreak of the war, 

 Russia has devoted quite a little energy 

 to the construction of dirigibles and aero- 

 planes. The Russian government owned 

 Fourteen dirigibles at the time the Ger- 

 mans started to invade its borders. 

 Early in September last the war depart- 

 ment announced that it had decided to 

 order additional dirigibles and over 300 

 aeroplanes. The larger part of this order 

 bad to be filled outside of the country. 

 but some of the balloons and a number of the aeroplani 

 been constructed in Russia. 



In a general way it may be stated that the growth of the 

 rubber industry in Russia during the last twenty-five years has 

 shown a constant increase. In 1891 Russia consumed ten million 

 pounds of rubber; in 1898 the volume had increased to sixteen 

 million pounds, valued at six million dollars. During the next 

 two vears there was something of a recession in the volume con- 

 sumed, although the value rose to ten million dollars, but h_\ 



RUBBI R ( nVEREIl 



Knaps m k. 



Hard Rubber Ink Well, 



Rubber Eraser. 



importation of rubber scrap has been of considerable volume 

 for many years. The following table shows the amount and 

 value of these importations during the last ten years: 



IMPORTS OF RUBBER SCRAP IXTO THE UNITED STATES 

 PROM RUSSIA. 



Pounds. Value. 



19041905 6,788,582 $401,843 



I ''115-1906 7.891,040 485,942 



1906-1907 7,766,304 678,462 



1907-1908 4,694,731 427,662 



1908-1909 3,299,367 274,864 



1909-1910 8,880,562 792,438 



1910-1911 7,119,625 638,367 



1911-1912 5,220,921 404,159 



1912-I9U 7,468,274 619,594 



1913-1914 5,018,555 453,522 



Both the large Russian rubber companies, the Russian-Amer- 

 ican at St. Petersburg and the Prowodnik at Riga, have ade- 

 quate equipments for reclaiming rubber. As far back as 1899 

 the Russian-American company sent the Birmingham Iron 

 Foundry, of Derby, Connecticut, an order for reclaiming ma- 



R ruBER Lap Robe. 



ehinerv amounting to 100 tons in weight, including grinders, 

 slmters, crackers, vulcanizers and blowers, while the Prowod- 

 nik plant is capable of producing from 40 to 50 tons of reclaimed 

 rubber a day. 



