The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-17
THE DEMAND FOR RUBBER.
New Uses Found Daily and no Sub
stitute Known.

From the New York Sun.
Very considerable discussion has been
started among the manufacturers and
dealers in India rubber goods by the pos
sibility, recently suggested in the Sun, of
obtaining a supply of the wonderful gum
from Southern Florida. AS was said the
other day, the annual consumption of the
crude gum is between 100000 and 7O,O00,-
600 pounds and about two-thirds of this is
now supplied by Brazil. The other third
comes from various parts of the tropical
and sub-tropical world, and from time to
time new fields are opened as the older
ones are worked out. It is well known
that the trees are sacrificed in the gath
ering of the gum, as the savages, who
alone are employed to gather it, make
no effort to save any tree after tapping
it, but, on the contrary, suffer it to bleed
to death, thereby destroying enormous for
ests. No effort has yet been made to re-
pair this waste excepting in British India.
In that country Great Britain, ever in
telligently alive to her material interests,
has undertaken the growing of caoutchouc
trees on large scale for the reason that
the forests there were exhausted, just
as they have been elsewhere. Many years
ago a goodly fraction of the worlds sup
ply (Which was much smaller then than
now came from the British provinces in
India, and the gum from them was the
best in quality that came to the market.
Trade statistics were not kept then so
carefully as they now are and just how
great this supply was cannot be stated.
1t was large enough, however, to make
England miss the revenue from it, and
when the supply practically ceased the
home government undertook to restore it.
AS to the methods employed and the meas
ure of success attained, little or nothing
is known in this country, but nowhere else
in the world, 50 far as Is known to the
trade here, has any similar effort been
made.
If. therefore a considerable supply can
be found in Florida, and If discretion and
intelligence can be made to take the place
of the barbarous methods Of the savages,
the discovery is likely to be of the utmost
Importance. 1t is true enough that new
forests have been recently attacked in
Africa, and it is expected that the supply
from the dark continent will be sufficient
for all needs for years to come. but he
would be a bold man who would declare
that the forests are inexhaustble. And
Florida is near enough to make a big diff
ference in the cost of transportation.
The necessity for new sources Of sup
ply is we'll understood in the trade, though
no immediate anxiety is felt. Doubtless
there is enough caoutchouc in the world
to meet all the demands of the present
generation. Possibly there is more than
this and the next will use up. But the
demand is increasing at a rate that Is
not realized excepting by the dealers ana
manufacturers. It is less than half CEN
fury since combs and Overshoes were the
principal articles manufactured Forty
years ago a supply of 100000 pounds
would have been considered enough for
two or three years ahead. To-day more
caoutchouc is used in the hard rubber aD-
planes Of electrical science than was
used in the worlds entire industry gem
Grafton ago. The same statement holds |
true about the soft rubber used in bicy-
Gle tires. Few persons outside the trade |
realize this, and still fewer realize how
rapidly, even now, the uses are multiply |
ing to which this wonderful gum is put.
There isn't a week." said the represen- !
tative of one of the great rubber compa |
MES, that there are not propositions |
made to US to manufacture, from rubber. |
from one TO a dozen different articles that |
are not now known in the trade. Some of |
these are patented but more are not. |
Many are articles in common use, but they |
have never yet been made of rubber, and |
the advantages Of the material are so APP |
parent that the new departure is propos- !
ed. AS a matter of course, only a frac- |
tion Of these propositions are entertained. |
For the most part they involve the use |
of new appliances in manufacturing, and |
there is not sufficient money return APP |
parent to justify large outlay. There are, |
constant additions to the list of /
rubber goods and there is no reason to |
suppose that the list will not continue to |
grow.
when l said that some Of these arti- |
cles were patented" he continued. you /
Of course that the original |
patent on the manufacture or the vulca- |
nizing of rubber has expired, and that /
there is no restriction on the old Goodyear |
process, which was simple enough 1t is |
still possible, however, under the rules Of |
the patent office, to secure protection for |
any novel and useful application OF the |
substance, just as 1t is with any other
substance.
india rubber, as It is stnl commonly |
called, and as II will PROBABLY continue TO
be called for all time, is in some respects
unique. Elderly people remember when
the principal known use OF the gum was
to erase pencil marks from paper As
the gum came from India It was called l
India rubber. and the name has stuck
5oodyear's invention or discovery was
simply that by cooking the gum together
with sulphur In certain proportions,
new substance was formed which had
properties totally unlike any other known
substance in nature. Then began the dis