Lrums, Resins, 



494 



[December 1911* 



ton in 1911. The first International 

 Rubber Exhibition was in many ways 

 unique in character, and served as an 

 introduction to the public of this coun- 

 try of one of the most remarkable veget- 

 able products in the world. It is true 

 that a rubber exhibition had already 

 been held in Ceylon in 1906 under the 

 auspices of Sir Henry A. Blake, the then 

 Governor, with very important results, 

 but it may well be affirmed that the dis- 

 play over which he presided at Olympia 

 three years aso came as a surprise to all 

 but the very few interested in rubber, 

 either as merchants, planters, or manu- 

 facturers. We ventured to express our 

 wonder, after a careful tour through the 

 Exhibition of 1908, how it was that man- 

 kind in the past had ever been able to 

 exist without India-rubber, and the 

 more we reflect upon this question, and 

 see all the varied and useful manufac- 

 tures brought together on this second 

 occasion, the more firmly do we feel 

 convinced that "life without 'rubber' 

 would indeed be a blank," at any rate in a 

 civilized community. 



It seems a far cry from the rude elastic 

 "gum ball" of the Indians it) Haiti, at 

 the time of first landing of Columbus, to 

 the gaily-painted toy in our English 

 nurseiies, but within t liis compass we 

 have the whole range of the history of 

 india-rubber brcugbt vividly befoi e us. 

 Miny notable inventions had to be 

 perfected before the crude rubber of the 

 savage became transformed into the 

 vulcanized substance used for our 

 modern playthings, and these evolutions 

 are fully elucidated at the present Ex- 

 hibition. It may confidently be claimed 

 that the entire industrial development 

 of the use of india-rubber has become 

 possible through the invention of Good- 

 year in the United States in 1839 and of 

 Hancock in this country in 1844. The 

 discoveries of these two men were appar- 

 ently quite independent, but they 

 enabled rubber, treated with sulphur, 

 to be employed for a wide range of use- 

 ful purposes, and practically laid the 

 foundation for the whole modern system 

 of using this material. 



We find, moreover, that within the 

 brief period of a decade mighty changes 

 have been effected in the sources of our 

 rubber supplies and in the methods of 

 preparing the raw substance for use, 

 cultivated rubber threatening to take 

 the place of the wild forest trees former- 

 ly employed. Only a few months before 

 the opening of the previous exhibi- 

 tion of London the rubber trade expe- 

 rienced one of the most severe crises 

 ever known in its history, and the value 

 of the best rubber from the Amazon 



district was reduced by approximately 

 50 per cent. This was said to be caused 

 by financial depression in the United 

 States of America, which country was 

 always a large buyer of the raw mate- 

 rial. Then came about the formation of 

 numerous plantation companies in the 

 Straits Settlements, Ceylon, Southern 

 India, and throughout the Middle East 

 followed by the truly wonderful " rubber 

 boom," during which prices of the raw 

 materia] reached five times the value at 

 the period of the former crisis. It can- 

 not be said that the increased price of 

 rubber was responsible for the move- 

 ment in favour of planting the Hevea. 

 Exporters had long predicted the speedy 

 exhaustion of the South American and 

 African sources of supply, and almost at 

 the same time rumours were rife con- 

 cerning the profitable nature of the 

 yield from rubber plantations. Com- 

 panies followed one another in quick 

 succession, in whose prospectuses hopes 

 were held out of wonderful gains to be 

 derived in the not distant future by the 

 judicious rubber planter. 



Some of the assurances of the company 

 promoter were indeed magnificent, but 

 it soon transpired that profits of 200 and 

 even 3U0 percent, were being realiz d by 

 those who hid been early in th^ fi^ld in 

 the rubber planting movement. Then 

 the public "tell over one another" ia 

 their eagerness to invest in the new 

 Golconda with the result that estates, 

 good, bad aud indifferent, were sold for 

 rubber plantations, many of them at 

 greatly inflated prices. Rubber concerns 

 quickly became fashionable, and there 

 were few among the investing public 

 who failed to secure shares in some 

 company or other— sometimes with dis- 

 astrous results. 



As Sir Henry Blake truly states in his 

 introduction to the catalogue of the 

 present Exhibition, many millions of 

 pounds have been invested in rubber 

 since 1908, and it is not difficult to 

 believe that the shareholders in the new 

 companies will be disposed to learn all 

 that they can about the product upon 

 which they have staked so much wealth, 

 and about the machinery used in its 

 manufacture. 



In the various collections brought to- 

 gether in the Agricultural Hall it 

 becomes possible to study the behaviour 

 of the latex from the moment it fl >ws 

 from the incision in the tree stem down 

 to the time when, in the form of sheets, 

 cakes, or blocks, it leaves the plantation 

 for shipment to the manufacturer in 

 some far-off land ; then to trace its con- 

 version into vulcanized rubber for use 



