Oct. 1906.] 



287 



Saps and Exudations. 



and it seemed to him that they should first of all sulphurise the latex and then work 

 it straight off into any manufactured form they desired. Whether thereby they 

 would be able to count upon a considerable gain in strength, of course, was a matter 

 for future determination. No one knew much about it at present, but the manufac- 

 tured article did not appear to be equal in strength to the raw rubber as it came 

 from the grower or collector in the jungle ; but one had to remember that the 

 manufactured article mainly consisted of adulteration if he might use the teim. 

 (Laughter.) He recently saw in the first page of a standard work on rubber manu- 

 facture Jean Jacques Rousseau's remark, that adulteration was used to such an extent 

 as almost to lose all the properties of the raw rubber. It was by that process of 

 adulteration that we were able to get rubber goods comparatively cheaply. One 

 paid very little more for the manufactured rubber than for the raw product. It 

 seemed to him that we should be able to make these additions out here instead of 

 leaving it to the home manufacturers. 



"flying at the throats of the manufacturers." 



Mr. Smithett (London) :— There is one thing, I think, that planters should con- 

 sider in regard to this question of vulcanisation, and that is, that they are flying at 

 the throats of the manufacturers. The rubber output from Ceylon and the Straits 

 Settlements and the Malay States is a very small thing at present, and it will be 

 some years, even taking Mr- Wright's figures yesterday, before it will be equal to, or 

 at any rate, supplant the wild rubber. The wild rubber comes in the natural state 

 to England and the manufacturers know how to deal with it, and there is nothing 

 that the manufacturers object to so much as having the article partially prepared 

 for them, We saw this, as the other judges and people present from London will 

 bear me out, in the manufacturers' objection to crepe ; they are getting over that 

 objection gradually now, but they objected to it because it was washed rubber. 

 Anyhow for a good many years, it will be advisable, until Ceylon and the Malay 

 Archipelago can control the rubber market, that they should send as pure an article 

 as possible, and not to try, if I may say so, the experiments in sending the manufac- 

 tured article or even partially manufactured article, which would simply annoy and 

 worry the ordinary manufacturers. I think the lecture has been very interesting, 

 and while I think Mr. Bamber has earned our best thanks for it, I should like to give 

 this word of warning. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Ryan :— As a wholesale producer I coincide with what Mr, Smithett has 

 said. It never pays the wholesale man to go behind the retail trade. That is the 

 one lesson which all Exhibitions have taught us ; that is— give eveiw man his little 

 bit of jam. (Laughter.) If you try to take away the jam, you make him your 

 enemy instead of your friend. Our business is growing rubber. At the same time 

 there is no harm in our making experiments calculated to improve our manufacture. 

 (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Bamber said he wished it to be clearly understood that he did not think 

 planters would ever go in for this individually on their estates. What he did think 

 might happen was that some manufacturers from England or America, or possibly 

 Germany, might buy the latex up out here and make their sulphured rubber. 

 He did not think it was a process for the planter but for the manufacturer, who if 

 he saw a saving in labour, time or money would undobtedly take it up in the 

 near future. 



Mr. Zacharias said he was sure they were all very much indebted to 

 Mr. Bamber for his illuminating lecture that day. He quite agreed with Mr. 

 Smithett that until the supplies of rubber produced in Ceylon and Straits 

 were very much larger than they were at present, the vulcanisation process 



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