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NA LORE 
[ DECEMBER 27, 1906 
230,000 acres, upon which, taking the present Ceylon 
figures, the eventual yield will be about 400,000 cwt., or 
20,000 tons, about a quarter of the probable world’s con- 
sumption at that date; and planting is going on at a very 
rapid rate. 
The market for a short time looked askance at the 
biscuits, but they speedily came into favour, and have for 
a considerable time been receiving a higher price per lb. 
than the best wild rubber of the Amazon. But this must 
by no means be taken to mean, as it often is taken, that 
the plantation rubber is better than the ‘‘ wild,”’ for the 
latter contains about 20 per cent. of moisture, while the 
former is dry, so that in reality the wild rubber is getting 
about 16 per cent. more in price. Examination of the 
two qualities will at once show the reason for this differ- 
ence; the plantation rubber is not quite so elastic, and 
when much stretched does not at once return, as does 
the wild rubber, to its exact pristine shape. What the 
reason for this difference may be is the great problem now 
before the scientific institutions working at the chemistry 
and botany of rubber in the tropics. 
During the last four years the prices of rubber have 
continued to rise until they have now reached a height 
previously undreamt of. The result has been that the 
early pioneers of rubber cultivation have reaped enormous 
profits, amounting to as much, in some cases, as 60l. per 
acre per annum, and this has still further stimulated the 
rush into rubber planting. 
The one topic of conversation in planting circles in the 
East is now rubber, and almost everyone, whether a 
planter or not, has invested in the industry, with the 
result that shares have risen very considerably, being, in 
the case of companies owning bearing rubber, now from 
three to eight times their par value. With this degree of 
interest excited in it, it is hardly surprising that a proposal 
was made that Ceylon, the country in which most rubber 
was cultivated, should hold a rubber exhibition, and this 
was actually held in the famous Royal Botanic Gardens 
at Peradeniya from September 13 to 27. 
Buildings upon a fairly extensive scale were erected in 
Kandyan or mountain-Sinhalese style, and a large display 
of every kind of rubber was obtained, mainly, of course, 
from Ceylon and Malaya. There were also exhibits of 
tapping knives of every kind, and two large sheds were 
filled with the machinery that is rapidly coming into use 
upon rubber plantations. A very successful feature of the 
exhibition was the series of lectures upon every branch 
of rubber cultivation, shipment, and manufacture that was 
given during its progress, and which will shortly appear 
in a book, which should be at the hand of everyone 
interested in rubber. 
The bulk of the Ceylon exhibits were in the form of 
biscuits, the form originally adopted by Mr. Parkin in 
the laboratory having been long adhered to. The Malayan 
were in the form of sheets of larger size; but the most 
conspicuous things in the show, from this point of view, 
were some large blocks of rubber exhibited by the Lanadron 
Estate, in Jahore, made by pressing what is known as 
crepe rubber (obtained by aid of a washing machine) into 
solid blocks by powerful hydraulic pressure. Not only 
does this form offer less surface to oxidation, but it packs 
more closely and thus saves freight, and it also sells for 
more upon the market. 
The tapping knives for Para rubber exhibited much 
ingenuity, but not those for the other rubbers. It is worth 
pointing out here that persons interested—and who is not? 
—in introducing rubber cultivation into other countries 
should keep a sharp eye upon the development of the 
tapping knife in Ceylon and Malaya. Recent experiments 
in the West Indies, for instance, were carried out with a 
knife long since discarded in Ceylon, and the verdict was 
against this knife and in favour of the hammer and chisel, 
which form a very primitive tool indeed. 
Some of the most interesting exhibits in the whole show 
were the samples of vulcanised and coloured rubbers, 
rubber and fibre mixtures, and other things shown by Mr. 
M. Kelway Bamber, Government chemist in Ceyion. ‘These 
were referred to by Prof. Dunstan at the meeting of the 
British Association at York, and have aroused universal 
interest. Several technical papers have already given vent 
to the view that they can never be put to practical use, 
NO, 1939, VOL. 75] 
because each manufacturer has his own processes, which 
he will keep secret, for mixing and otherwise treating the 
rubber, apparently assuming that it is hopeless for the 
mere scientific man to find out such matters, or even to 
improve on them, or for one company, old or new, to 
take up the new process. Others, going on insufficient 
knowledge, have said that it is not possible to work with 
chloride of sulphur, or to mix other substances with the 
latex. In actual fact, the process is very simple, so simple 
that it seems a marvel that no one has found it out 
before. Instead of first drying the rubber into lumps or 
sheets, then macerating it, and mixing it with sulphur 
or other vulcanising material and colouring matters, these 
things are done in the milk, when the sulphur compounds 
will, of course, mix with the caoutchouc in a way that it 
is hopeless for any other method to equal, and when any- 
thing that can be wetted can also be easily incorporated, 
more especially colouring matters. In this way, by sub- 
sequent coagulation, a rubber is produced containing the 
vuleanising, colouring, and mixing reagents or substances 
in complete admixture. This can then be worked up in 
the ordinary way into any article that may be required, 
and finally heated, when it becomes vulcanised. Some of 
the most interesting exhibits shown by Mr. Bamber were 
the mixtures of rubber and fibre. The fibre is mixed with 
the milk in large quantity, the mill being previously 
sulphurised, and the mass is then dried, compressed under 
very great hydraulic pressure, and heated, resulting in a 
solid brick or tile containing but a very small proportion 
of rubber, and yet strong and elastic enough for the pur- 
poses of tiling or other uses. 
This method of vulcanising will doubtless have to be 
modified in detail, but in principle is absolutely new, and 
is much simpler, and also much cheaper, than the present 
one. 
Taking it altogether, the creation of the now great 
rubber industry, and its rapid progress from very rough 
and crude methods to a highly progressive and scientific 
spirit, is entirely the work of the botanical departments 
of Ceylon and Singapore, and they may justly pride them- 
selves upon the result. 
Recent Important Literature of Rubber. 
“Para Rubber.’”’ By W. H. Johnson. (London.) 
Price 7s. 6d. A very good account of the industry as it 
was in Ceylon a few years ago, but already more or less 
out of date. 
“Para Rubber.’’ By Herbert Wright. Second edition. 
(Colombo: A. M. and J. Ferguson.) The best and most 
up-to-date account of the industry. 
“©The Book of the Rubber Exhibition of 1906.” 
By 
J. C. Willis, M. K. Bamber, and E. B. Denham. 
(London: Dulau and Co.) Price 7s. 6d. To appear 
shortly. This book will contain the lectures given at the 
exhibition by numerous specialists, carefully revised and 
edited, many pictures, reports of judges, and other valu- 
able features. J. ‘©. Wirris? 
METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. 
“i OLD Waves and Frosts in the United States " is the 
title of an important bulletin recently issued by the 
chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau. The work was pre- 
pared by Prof. E. B. Garriott; it includes a chronological 
account of historical cold periods in the United States 
since 1717, but deals more especially with the frosts that 
occurred from 1888 to 1902 inclusive, the conditions of 
which are illustrated by 328 charts. We have occasion- 
ally very cold spells in our own country, but these can 
scarcely be compared with those frequently experienced in 
the United States; as Prof. Moore has elsewhere pointed 
out, the area and intensity of cold waves depend upon the 
size of continents and their distance from the tropics. The 
author of the paper considers that the cold of the northern 
interior of the American continent is chiefly due to air that 
flows over that region from the northern Rocky Mountains, 
where its moisture has been precipitated, and to the process 
of radiation in its passage over Canada. The high baro- 
meter caused by the stagnant state of the air in this locality 
; is one of the conditions that produce cold waves, another 
