Commercial Geography Part 39

[38] The process of vulcanizing was made practicable during the ten years ending in 1850. It was invented and perfected by Goodyear in the United States and by Hanc.o.c.k in England; for ordinary purposes, where both strength and elasticity are required, about five per cent. of sulphur is added. The addition of about fifty per cent. changes the rubber to a hard black substance known as "ebonite," or "hard rubber."

[39] In 1823 a Scotchman, Mackintosh, applied the discovery, that rubber gum was soluble in benzine, to the water-proofing of the cloth that bears his name. This invention was about the first extensive commercial use to which rubber had been put.

[40] From the fact that most of the dwellings in the United States are built of wood, the United States is a very heavy consumer of turpentine.

[41] A slender strip of metallic lead was used instead of graphite in the first pencils made. The use of graphite did not become general until about 1850. The hardness of a pencil is regulated by mixing clay with the powdered graphite.

[42] These percentages are on the supposition that the ores are chemically pure; the percentage of metal actually obtained is somewhat less.

[43] These percentages are on the supposition that the ores are chemically pure; the percentage of metal actually obtained is somewhat less.

[44] These percentages are on the supposition that the ores are chemically pure; the percentage of metal actually obtained is somewhat less.

[45] These percentages are on the supposition that the ores are chemically pure; the percentage of metal actually obtained is somewhat less.

[46] The limestone has no essential part in the smelting of the ore except to produce an easily-flowing, liquid slag; hence it is called a _flux_. Some ores smelt and flow so easily that a flux is not required.

[47] Under ordinary circ.u.mstances about two tons of coal, or three-quarters of a ton of c.o.ke, are required to produce a ton of pig-iron.

[48] Terne plate is sheet-iron coated with an alloy of lead and tin.

[49] Heredity is likewise a factor. The seeds of knotty, scraggly trees are very apt to produce trees of their own kind and _vice versa_.

[50] This sum represents more than ten times the amount of gold coin now in existence. Less than five per cent. of the business of the great industrial centres is a cash business. Even if the money existed, the transfer of such immense sums would greatly r.e.t.a.r.d commerce. In order to effect a speedy settlement of payments, clearing-houses are established.

At the clearing-house the representatives of the various banks meet daily and liquidate the checks drawn against one another; and although the total yearly volume of payment aggregates the sum mentioned above, the _balances_ for a year are but little more than two billion dollars.

Even this does not always represent cash payment, for a bank that is a debtor to another at the close of one day may be a creditor for an equal sum on the next.

[51] These roads are financed by the Northern Securities Company and form a link in the Hill-Morgan lines. Their intercontinental traffic is large.

[52] Their dividing line is the centre of a street.

[53] The brand consisted of any specific device, such as an initial, a monogram, or a conventional form that might be easily recognized. The device was registered and imprinted with a red-hot iron on the flank of the animal. Ear-marks, such as notches or similar devices, also indicated ownership.

[54] In many cases Government land, not owned by the rancher, has been fenced in. No objection was made, however, until the sheep-grazier came.

He demanded the removal of the fences, claiming that he had an equal right to graze his herds on public lands. But inasmuch as a range once grazed by sheep is ruined for cattle-growing, the quarrel between the grazier and the rustler has become one in which both the grazier and the rustler turned upon the sheep-owner.

[55] It is one-third of their capital stock plus the bonded indebtedness.

[56] The high lat.i.tude of the wheat-region, which in most cases is too cold for the growing of food-stuffs, in this region is tempered by occasional warm winds known as "Chinook winds." These winds are the saving feature of wheat-growing. They prevail also in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

[57] Freight rates from Coatzacoalcos to San Francisco are already fixed at $6.50 per ton; by the transcontinental railways they vary from $12 to $15 per ton.

[58] The entire Cuban crop is comparatively small, being but little more than one-eighth that of the United States.

[59] Vegetable ivory is the seed or nut of a species of palm (_Phytelephas macrocarpa_). The kernel of the nut gradually acquires the hardness and appearance of the best ivory, for which it is employed as a subst.i.tute.

[60] The leaves of this shrub (_Erythroxylon coca_) contain a stimulant substance that in its effects is much like the active principle of coffee. They are much used by the native laborers to ward off the feeling of la.s.situde that comes with severe labor in a tropical climate.

A native porter will carry a load of one hundred pounds a distance of sixty miles with no food or rest, but merely chewing a few coca-leaves.

The plant yields the substance _cocaine_, now in demand all over the world as an anaesthetic in eye and throat surgery.

[61] More than a score of species of the tree from which this bark is obtained grow in the higher eastern slopes of the Andes, but a very large part is obtained from the tree, _Cinchona calisaya_. The medicinal substance, quinine, is extracted from the bark, and in the past half-century it has become the specific for malarial fevers. So great is the demand for it, that the cinchona-tree is now cultivated in India, Java, and Mexico.

[62] Only a very small proportion of the Panama hats in the market are genuine. Many of the imitations, selling at retail for ten dollars or more, are serviceable hats; most of them, however, have but little worth.

[63] Nitre, or "nitrate," is a native nitrate of potash, or nitrate of soda. The latter, commonly called cubic nitre or Chile saltpetre, is the kind occurring in Chile. Inasmuch as it is very soluble, a plentiful rainfall would soon leach it from the ground and carry it to the sea.

The nitrate is thought to be of vegetable origin.

[64] The pod of a shrub (_Caesalpina coriaria_); it contains a considerable proportion of tannin and is used for tanning leather.

[65] The pericarp or pod contains about twenty-four prismatic-shaped nuts.

[66] The cattle for Cuba and Brazil must be shipped in open pens in crossing the tropics. With the exports for Europe the case is different.

If it is summer at the one port it is winter at the other, but it is always summer in the tropics, and cattle-ships fit for one zone are not fit for the other--hence the great difficulties in shipment of live animals to Europe.

[67] For this reason Great Britain is practically a free-trade country.

A protective tariff on imported food-stuffs and materials to be manufactured would hurt rather than protect British industries.

[68] This is equivalent to the imposition of a tax on all the sugar consumed at home.

[69] Most of the lithographic stone is obtained at Solnhofen.

[70] This is a little greater than the average ton-mile rate on the New York Central Railroad between New York and Chicago.

[71] The name Zuider, or Zuyder, means "south"; it was so named to distinguish it from the North Sea.

[72] Some years ago many of the most valuable vineyards were destroyed by an insect pest known as the _phylloxera_, introduced from California.

The trouble was overcome by replanting with American vines, the roots of which were immune to the pest. On these roots were grafted the choice French vines, the leaves and twigs of which were immune. In this manner the vineyards were restored with vines that are proof against attack, and the wine output has reached its normal amount.

[73] It is cultivated as an ornamental tree in the Southern States and in California.

[74] A small vein of coal occurs near Freiburg.

[75] The St. Gotthard tunnel is almost nine and one-half miles long; the Arlberg tunnel is six and one-half miles in length. The tunnel now nearing completion under the Simplon Pa.s.s is more than twelve miles long. Five railways cross the northern frontier into Germany, and German commerce profits most by them.

[76] Persian rugs are the finest. As a rule the designs are floral and many of them contain legendary history worked in fantastic but beautiful patterns. Among those of especial merit are the Kermanshah tree-of-life fabrics, now somewhat rare. The rugs of Tabriz and Shiraz are also of high value. In general, Persian fabrics are characterized by very fine weaving, a short pile, and elaborate designs. Turkoman rugs are usually a rich brown or maroon in color, and are apt to contain slightly elongated octagonal figures. The Bokhara and Khiva-Bokhara, or Afghan rugs, are the best examples. The Baluchistan rugs are usually very dark in color, with bright red designs and striped ends of cotton warp.

Turkish rugs are made almost wholly in Asia Minor or Anatolia. Large carpets of American and European designs are made at Ushak and Smyrna.

"Smyrna" rugs are made in Philadelphia.

[77] The most valuable Kermanshah rug, now no longer made there, is the tree-of-life prayer-rug, an ill.u.s.tration of which is shown on p. 350.

The design is emblematic of the story of the Garden of Eden.

[78] In 1900 the aggregate value of the wheat exported to Great Britain was only 2,200.

[79] Since the treaty of 1901, which forbids the importation of fire-arms, a number of large plants for the manufacture of fire-arms, smokeless powder, and fixed ammunition have been established on the lower Yangtze.

[80] The islands are mainly in the belt of prevailing westerly winds.

More rain, therefore, falls on the west than on the east coasts.