The record-union., 1896-12-20
INDIA. RUBBER AGE.
Gigantic Growth Of the Rubber In
duStry.
1t is Said England Proposes Turning
India Into Great Rubber
Forest.

l
Age" The aptness of this expression
does not at first impress itself. One
has heard the end of the nineteenth
/ century described as the Iron Age
and the Age of Electricity" But con-
sideration shows that the term India
rubber Age is something more than
witticism descriptive of modern
elasticity. The part played among us
by rubber is quite as important as that
| of either iron or electricity; and the
| field which rubber covers is, if humber.
notably vaster than the fields covered
by those two other great agents of civ
| ilization. Rubber has indeed become
a necessity, where electricity and iron
are merely desiderata. Hence the
justification of the French savant and
his "Indiarubber Age"
| Some slight idea of the gigantic
growth of rubber industries may be
CLEANED from the following remarks of
a New York vehicle factory: We have
| fitted 5000 carriages with rubber tires
| in New York City alone during the
past two years, and there are scores
of firms competing with US.
Moreover, we have put rubber tires
on at least $4,000 vehicles in other
parts of the country, and yet the move
ment only took commercial shape four
years ago. 1t began with the livery
| stables which keep cabs and carriages
for hire. The keepers of such vehicles
found out that when parties of two or
more wanted to go to the theater or
| to dance they could not speak softly
| as they wished to do. The granite
pavement caused this noise, and when
| the rubber tires were introduced peo-
| pie discovered that they could at length
enjoy drive in comfort First private
carriages We're thus equipped, and then
| the livery stable keepers were obliged
in self-defense to follow suit Now
even the livery vans have their rubber
| tires
| OF course, the ubiquitous bicycle has
done much to send rubber impOrtations
| careering upward. Rubber importers
| are quite sure that the gradual rise
in the price of Para rubber for the last
| rev years is due to the demand for
pneumatic tires for bicycles. A writer
| in the London Times has recently
carefully estimated the output of BIZ
| cycles in the United States for the
present year at 100000, and of Great
| Britain at 10000. Each of these bcy-
cles VIII require two pneumatic tires
or altogether 100000 pounds of Para
rubber. There will thus be $500, 900
| pounds OF Para rubber consumed out
OF total production for the Amazon
basin of 40, ,613 pounds for the year
1879. Thus, roughly speaking, s per
cent. of all the Para rubber now pro-
duced goes into bicycle tires.
| 1t is only In bicycle tires and in fine
mackintoshes that the better grades Of
| Para rubber are used pure For all
other purposes either inferior qualities
Of Para rubber are taken, or the better
grades are blended with rubber from
| other parts of the world, such as Cen
| trail America, Africa and the East In
| dies. The total quantity of rubber ex-
| ported from these countries amounts to
little more than half that derived
| from the Amazon basin. The defect Of
| all inferior rubber is their tendency to
grow soft after a certain amount of
wear
| The rubber shoe industry consumes a
very large quantity Of rubber there be-
! ing several large factories in New Eng
land which can each make 10000 pairs
of rubber shoes a day. Some idea of
| the total output may be gathered from
the annual auction sales of rubber
shoes in Boston last November. when
10000 cases of shoes We're sold for
S50O,OOO, representing some 1000. 600
pairs of shoes. Large as this number
| may seem, it only represented sec
| onds,' as the perfect goods were dis
posed of in the ordinary way.
During the year 1894 the public school
n nf
| tons of rubber ink erasers while those
| of Brooklyn used two TONS 1t has been
calculated from the books of a. large
manufacturer that the school children
Of town of 1900 inhabitants use
S,64O rubber bands every year: larger
| towns and cities using proportionate
quantities.
Less than half the bulk Of the white
rubber which we see in tubing. ink
| erasers, cheap toys and other articles
consists OF the pure gum, whiting and
tale being added to give these goods
their characteristic appearance and to
! make them resist oxidation longer. An
enumeration of the various uses of rub
Der In the arts would fill a large vol
ume. Thus. the surgeon is able to per-
form bloodless operations by using Es-
| march's bandage; he uses an atomizer
to spray disinfectants; he uses rubber
tubing to drain wounds and rubber
syringes to irrigate them, and some
times he orders rubber hot water ba
for his patients. The dentist uses a
rubber base in which to fix a set of
| false teeth The electrician wears rub
Der gloves when he wishes to insulate
his hands from the danger of a chance
current, and mixes rubber with all the
insulating material for wires above
water.
There is hardly a business man and
no Postoffice in the country which has
not more than one rubber stamp. Every
billiard table has rubber cushions.
Nearly every working horse in the
| country has a rubber sheet to protect
him In wet weather. There must be
20.0OOOOO men and boys in the United
States to-day wearing elastic suspend
ers. and at least an equal number of
women and girls who wear elastic gar
ters. Every theater has its rubber gas
bags, while nearly every house has at
least one rubber mat. Rubber betting
is extensively used in machine shops.
while rubber valves and washers are
common adjuncts of water pipes and
steam filings. Tortoise shell combs ex-
ce'pt as ornaments, have been entirely
superseded by those made of hard rub
ber. Vulcanite mouthpieces are now far
more common on pipes than those made
of amber or bone
Noiseless rubber tires for cabs and
carriages have already driven steel
n a ho. .lyr