180 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



March i, 1907. 



RECLAIMED 

 RUBBER. 



in the list under notice is the 24.2 per cent, of resin for Mozam- 

 bique rubber, previous figures being 3 per cent, by Terry, 3.2 per 

 cent, by Weber, and 8 per cent, by Clouth. It rather looks as 

 if different grades were tested. In one or two other cases dis- 

 crepancies almost as startling are shown, and it seems clear that 

 close attention cannot yet be paid by the practical man to any of 

 the figures published. 



According to sundry evidently inspired articles which have re- 

 cently appeared in the daily press, the new Anglo-Continental 

 Rubber Co. have solved a problem of the 

 greatest importance towards the solution of 

 which little or nothing has been hitherto 

 done. -A good many of the statements I have read do not err 

 on the side of accuracy with regard either to the past or the 

 present of the reclaimed rubber industry. But not to labor this 

 point, it is understood that the new company, which is stated t<^ 

 have a capital of £.300,000, is already erecting a factory 

 in Paris and has a London one in contemplation. The main 

 point about the process, which is the invention of a Swiss chemist, 

 is the solution of the waste rubber in some special solvent and 

 the reprecipitation of the rubber by alchohol. It differs therefore 

 from the processes usually followed in that the mineral matter 

 is separated from the rubber and any canvas insertion also. There 

 is nothing new in procedure of this sort, except in the value of 

 the rubber obtained, this having been testifie.! to by Mons. Rene 

 Bobet, a French expert authority. Up to the present the pro- 

 cesses involving the solution of the rubber in some organic sol- 

 vent and its reprecipitation have not been proved successes, partly 

 owing to the cost of the chemical treatment and also because the 

 rubber has been deteriorated in quality by the chemical treat- 

 ment. With these few remarks I shall quit the subject until an 

 opportunity is afforded of judging the quality of the rubber pro- 

 duced by this new process. 



Now that a prominent Russian rubber factory is making re- 

 claimed rubber and selling it in England, am I to presume 

 that the old time exportation of old goloshes from Russia to 

 America has died out?* It may or may not be generally known, 

 that the Russians use a better quality of rubber for their uppers 

 than the Americans do, this being the cause of the eagerness 

 with which the latter imported the old Russian goloshes until the 

 export duty put on a year or two ago put a spoke in the wheel 

 of the business. The agents in this country for the Russian re- 

 claimed rubber will have no need to proclaim the merits of their 

 goods from the house tops, but all the same they will find plenty 

 of competition. For example, there will soon be the output of 

 the new Leyland works, recently referred to in these notes, to be 

 reckoned with . 



This should prove a better season than last one for the rubber 

 boot dealers. The heavy snow at Chriptma-; caused a rush on 

 the shops all over the country and I heard 

 of several dealers being sold out of stocks in 



THE WINTER IN 

 GREAT BRITAIN. 



London. Enquiry at the headquarters 

 of ti'e United States Rubber Co., in Farrinndou -street, showed 

 that extreme activity in business was experienced at Christmas. 

 A dealer at Kings Lynn, according to the newspaper reports, ap- 

 pears to have done a good stroke of business, as well as obtain- 

 ing a good advertisement, in fitting out the royal guests at Lan- 

 dringham. The second spell of cold weather, at the end of Jan- 

 uary benefited the skate dealers rather than the rubber shops as 

 the frost was unaccompanied by snow. There has been a con- 

 siderable demand this winter by ladies for the fishing boot type 

 on the ground that it is much more eiifective than the ordinary 



• The impoits of waste rubber into the United States by no means show 

 a tendency to decline. The official statement of weight (in pounds) of 

 such imports for the past three calendar years has been: 23,742,451 in 

 1906; 24,190,040 in 1905, and 16,839,274 in 1904. It is too early yet to 

 learn how much of this came from Russia. But during the fiscal year 

 ended June 30, 1906, the imports direct from Russia were larger than in the 

 preceding year, though not up to the record figures in 1903-04. — The Editor. 



golosh. The usual complaints were rife in London with regard 

 to the laxity of the authorities in removing the snow, but it 

 really is a big problem. The method now generally adopted is to 

 sprinkle salt on the snow and then to flush it into the sewers by 

 hose pipes from the street mains. While this is in operation it 

 is almost impossible to cross the streets for the rivers of mud, and 

 the trouble is augmented when the sewers get choked up. In the 

 provincial towns carting away the snow is the process still gener- 

 ally adopted. 



It is such a long time since I heard anything of Fenton rubber 

 that I was surprised to be told by an acquaintance that he had 



met Mr. Fenton recently, and was told that 

 FENTON. an improved rubber substitute would shortly 



be on the market. Fenton's original patent 

 was taken out in 1896 and is now, therefore, nearing the end of 

 its life. Unless I am very much mistaken it did not prove an 

 unqualified success, and there is certainly room for a new patent 

 involving improvements.. 



BALATA AND THE CUSTOMS. 



nPHE customs authorities of the United States continue to be 

 •*• confronted by questions growing out of the importation of 

 balata, either raw or manufactured. The New York Leather 

 Belting Co. recently protested against an assessment of duty on 

 balata belting at the rate of 35 per cent ad valorem, claiming that 

 the goods should have been admitted at 20 per cent. The board 

 of general appraisers at New Yoik sustained the assessment, in 

 support of which reference was made to several prior decisions by 

 the board. It happens that balata is nowhere mentioned in the 

 Tariff act. The question arising at one time as to the rate to be 

 charged on manufactures of balata, it was decided that in view of 

 the similitude of balata to gutta-percha, the rate on manufac- 

 tures of which is 35 per cent, this rate should apply to goods 

 in which balata is the component article of chief value, and this 

 has since remained the attitude of the local authorities. Im- 

 porters, however, contend that balata goods should be dutiable 

 only at 20 per cent as "unenumerated manufactured articles." 

 [See The Indi.\ Rubber World, April i, 1902 — page 230.] 



No final decision has been reached as yet in the matter of the 

 various protests against the payment of duty on raw balata. It 

 will be remembered [see The India Rubber World^ November I, 

 1903 — page 44] that the collector at Norfolk, Virginia, was first 

 to assess a duty on an importation of balata — on the ground that 

 he found it nowhere mentioned in the Tariff act — as an un- 

 enumerated raw material, the rate on which is 10 per cent. The 

 importer protested, urging that balata on account of its similitude 

 to india-rubber or gutta-percha, both of which are admitted free, 

 should have similar treatment. The board of general appraisers 

 at New York sustained the Norfolk collector, having already gone 

 upon record in dealing with imports of manufactures in a decision 

 that balata was a different substance from the other gums 

 named. 



Subsequent protests were made in connection with imports of 

 balata at New York, and evidence adduced to prove balata to be- 

 long to the same class of commodities as india-rubber and gutta- 

 percha and also to indicate that such was the belief of the framers 

 of the Tariff act, thus explaining the failure to enumerate balata 

 specifically. The customs appraisers, however, failed to be con- 

 vinced, and the matter has been carried to Washington. 



The product called "aluminum flake," and marketed as a 

 substitute for zinc in the rubber manufacture, is meeting a ready 

 sale. It is understood that the Aluminum Flake Co. (Akron, 

 Ohio) already are selling to about fifty rubber factories, in addi- 

 tion to some of the best paint companies. During the last half 

 of igo6 the company named sold more than 1.500.000 pounds of 

 aluminum flake. 



