477 
is often given to goods prepared in other ways, such as enemas and 
india-rubber balls, by painting with or dipping in a rubber solution 
heavily loaded with pigments. 
ELECTRICAL USE. 
34. Rubber as an insulator of wires for cable use is being 
rapidly discontinued, owing primarily to the high price of raw 
rubber. For sea cables rubber has never been much used, gutta 
percha of course being superior, but land cables carrying telephone 
wires and which at one time were insulated with rubber are now 
being largely insulated with dry paper. Heavy cables for electric 
light supply are demanding for use in their manufacture^ less and 
less rubber every year, its place being taken by papier-mache and 
cellulose pulp. For the flexible wiring containing a single or a few 
strands of wire, such as are used in houses for electric bells, lights, 
and telephone communication, rubber is still employed, paper here 
is inadmissible because it is less flexible and also when exposed t£> 
the air becomes damp and an inefficient insulator. The wire is 
coated with raw unvulcanised rubber by wrapping a narrow strip, 
cut from thin sheet, round the wire and pressing the adhesive edges 
together. This is done by a machine w'hich feeds the rubber slip 
from a spool on to a travelling wire, the pressing together of the 
edges is done by running the wire coated with the strip through 
guides and between wheels. Paper when used as an insulator is 
wound round the wire spirally. The use of rubber for electrical 
purposes in the form of ebonite fittings is considerable, but a great 
extension of the electrical application of rubber consequent on any 
reduction in the price of the raw material must not be expected. 
THE INDIA-RUBBER MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
35. This Association, which was formed seven years ago to 
promote the interest of the rubber trade and “ especially with re- 
ference to legislation and to difficulties in the general conduct of 
the business, ” is one exclusively of firms possessing india-rubber 
works, and includes 25 of the india-rubber manufacturing firms of 
Great Britain. General meetings take place once a month in 
Manchester, and on June 21st and again on July 20th I attended 
the meetings and gave addresses on Plantation Rubber and the 
Progress of Rubber Planting in the East. Samples of washed 
plantation rubber and of rubber latex, both from Hevea brazilien- 
sis, and from Ficus elastica, were shown, and photographs to 
illustrate modes of tapping and the growth of the trees were ex- 
hibited and described. This opportunity of meeting the heads and 
representatives of large manufacturing interests, and of putting the 
problems of rubber cultivation and preparation before them from 
the planters’ point of view, was of the greatest value, and the views 
which I had been gradually ascertaining were perfectly confirmed. 
At the same time, the interest taken in England in rubber growing 
was stimulated by having the conditions under which that work is 
done expounded. I should recommend that communication be 
established between the United Planters’ Association and the As- 
