x85 



the synthetic dye. The writer's intimate and long connection with 

 the industry and thorough knowledge of all the practical details of 

 working a factory will, he trusts, give some assurance that the data 

 on which this statement is made have been carefully collected and 

 considered." 



Indian Planters Gazette, March 12, 1910. 



Synthetic camphor is another product which has been said to 

 interfere with the production of the natural article. It is made from 

 pinene, a carbon compound of essential oil of turpentine. This which 

 is the only source of real artificial rubber is of limited supply and 

 fluctuating price. The artificial camphor however is not the same 

 as the real article as it gives an unpleasant musty smell to clothes 

 when used for keeping off moths. None of these synthetics are in fact 

 the same thing as the natural products and cannot be used for all the 

 purposes for which the natural substance is required though for 

 certain purposes they can be used as a substitute. Both indigo and 

 camphor are used practically for one object only the first as a dye, 

 the second as the manufacture of celluloid and pegamoid (a subs- 

 titute for leather). Rubber is used for many purposes and it is not 

 probable any synthetic rubber would do tor all while the price at which 

 rubber can be made to pay, practically precludes most of the suggested 

 synthetics which could not be reduced in price so as to be cheaper. — Ed. 



POSITION OF THE RUBBER MARKET. 



" The bulk of British capital invested has gone to the Middle 

 East. Last year eighty-nine new companies were formed, with a 

 total capital of ten millions sterling, of which six and half millions 

 was offered for subscription ; but already this year forty-four new 

 companies have been floated, with a capital of 54,780,001, of which 

 4283,5001. has been issued, and at the time of writing they are being 

 floated at the rate of a dozen a week in order to catch the boom. 

 With planting on so gigantic a scale the present phenomenal high 

 prices for raw rubber are bound to decline at some time, but nobody 

 can say when. The intrinsic merit of the rubber position at the 

 moment is that consumption is close up to production, hence the 

 present record prices, for manufacturers do not as a rule lay in heavy 

 stocks of a materia! that does not improve with keeping. How 

 narrow the margin is between production and consumption may be 

 gleaned from the fact that (according to a well known rubber-broker's 

 annual report) the world's out-put last year was about 69,000 tons, 

 against 65,000 tons in 1908 and 69,000 tons in 1907; while the 

 consumption was estimated at about 68,000 tons in 1909, 65,000 tons 

 in 1908, 60,000 tons in 1907, and 65,000 tons in 1906. The world's 

 visible supply at the beginning of February 1910 was 5.059 tons 



