and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. -October, 1911. 383 



These might easily he reproduced in the 

 Colombo Museum or, better still, in the Arcade 

 or one of the Colombo hotels. 



Rubber Pavement. 

 Much interest was shown in the exhibits ot 

 Rubber Pavement, but it must be stated frankly 

 that we are a long Way off seeing this in general 

 use even were rubber to go to 2s 6d per lb. As 

 far as the unbiassed critic can judge it is hope- 

 less, when wet, as far as horse traffic is concerned 

 and not at all easy to steer a motor over under 

 the same conditions without considerable danger 

 of side slip. In any place also where oil or petrol 

 is likely to be split rubber pavement is clearly 

 impossible. Under cover, however, and in such 

 places as Railway waiting-rooms, vestibules and 

 passages where people coming in from without 

 with muddy boats and where luggage is noisily 

 dumped, a rubber pavement is the ideal flooring. 

 It has been in use for some time at the iNorth 

 British Station Hotel, Union Street, Glasgow, 

 and is there an established success. 



It should not be beyond the resources of the 

 Ceylon Government to lay a small experimental 

 patch at the Colombo jetty, at Maradana station, 

 and at JSanuoya. I am quite sure that manu- 

 facturers would be only too willing to co-operate 

 by placing their goods on view at the nar- 

 rowest margin of profit — where the ultimate 

 advertisement would be so directly to their ad- 

 vantage. 



Failing Government initiative (and in these 

 cases the attitude of the Ceylon Government has 

 been compared aptly to that of the Griffin on the 

 west front of Amiens Cathedral which stoppeth 

 up one ear with its tail, while it buries the other 

 in the mud) the Planters' Association might take 

 at least the pour parlers in hand. 



Synthetic Rubber. 

 So far as practical demonstration is concerned 

 this remains exactly as it was two — nay — ten 

 years ago. There was on show a row of bottles 

 of volatile, translucent, evil-smelling fluids of a 

 benziney, turpentiney type, a half-dozen or so of 

 photographic developing dishes with what looked 

 like American chewing gums in various stages of 

 mastication, some ounces of inferior-looking 

 rubber which speedily gave way under the per- 

 petual pulling about, aud that was all ! State- 

 ments were made that the rubber could be made 

 for 6d to 8d per lb. from starch, sugar or sawdust, 

 but there was not one tittle of evidence to go 

 before a jury beyond the mere ipse dixit of the 

 puppet who was in charge of the stall. A prac- 

 tical demonstration was given which produced, 

 in the course of some 3 or 4 days, about a couple 

 of pounds of the inferior rubber alluded to, but 

 I have heard of no valuation of the resulting 

 product, either raw or vulcanised. No ! as far as 

 synthetic rubber is concerned the Ceylon Rubber 

 Planter can go to sleep for a year or two yet 

 without risk of his slumber being disturbed by 

 the synthetic nightmare. It must also be re- 

 membered that it would take many years of cau- 

 tious practical experimenting before a manufac- 

 turer would daro to apply this now product to 

 any major work, such as a deep-sea cable or a 

 largo generating plant. The slightest rise in 

 price of turpentine, the fall of real rubber to 2s 



6d pnr lh, ( heavy capital expenditure on machi- 

 nery, danger from fire in the pruducing factory 

 — factors of this kind are all dead against that 

 alnaschar-like visions of the logroller of synthetic 

 rubber. 



Vulcanisation of Rubber on the Estate. 



There are, however, not wanting signs that at 

 some not distant date something may be done 

 to vulcanise rubber before shipment from 

 Ceylon and Malaya. The process is so exces- 

 sively simple, and it so effectively prevents the 

 daily alteration in quality and appearance of 

 unvulc mised rubbor of all grades (except block 

 or very thick sheet) which now oecv.rs, that it 

 only requires a steady and continuous effort on 

 the other side of the water to ensure a steady 

 London demand. Out and out the best sample 

 of rubber >n the show was a vulcanised piece of 

 thin sheet from Gikiyanakande. This was vul- 

 canised in England, but it remained unaltered 

 throughout the three weeks it was on show 

 while unvulcanised estate samples were altering 

 from day to-day under the influence of heat, 

 light, oxygenation and enzymes. Even in the 

 case of Block rubber stride of discolouration 

 would appear, showing molecular changes even 

 in the hoart of the component sheets of the 

 block. 



A Practical Proof. 

 When I was in Bombay a couple of vears ago a 

 steamship owner told me fchnt he had had some 

 honeycomb rubber ma"s and staircase flutings 

 made from estate rubber vulcanised in Singa- 

 pore, and that the articles produced were no 

 dearer than, and lasted three times as long as, the 

 British-made article. However much such a 

 statement may need to be discounted, it opens 

 up a vista of possibility which would justify as 

 much expenditure as we Ceylon Planters spend 

 on pushing Ceylon tea in America and elsewhere. 



Packages. 



In the matter of packages it was a case of 

 "Eclipse first and the rest nowhere" as there 

 was nothing to compete with the 'Venesta" 

 packages. 1'he perfectly smooth interior of the 

 birchwood veneer adapts them specially for use 

 for packing rubber. I presume that by this time 

 all Rubber planters are aware that it is the inside 

 of the rubber package that requires the most 

 careful planing as any splinters or roughtags 

 become incorporated with the surface of the rub- 

 ber, are exceedingly difficult to remove and (if 

 present) may cause a considerable loss in price. 

 All this is obviated by the -'Venesta.'' In the 

 case of tea where freights are low ma \y planters 

 have failed to find that the saving in freight on 

 Venestas pays for the extra cost over the 'Momi' 

 or the country package, but where (as in an 

 account sale before me while I write) freight 

 from Port Swettenham amounts to 75s per ton, 

 and the Port rate, &c, to 37s 6d, a saving of 10 

 per cent on 112s 6d per shipping ton is a factor 

 not to be neglected. There are still complaints 

 that the "Venestas" are difficult to cooper up 

 again when once openBd, but in the case of rub- 

 ber this is obviously of far less importance than 

 with tea. There is, perhaps, more validity in the 

 complaint that thy batten round the inside rim 

 of the "Venesta" makes it difficult to turn out 



