300 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[J I NE 



1903. 



those whose knowledge of the circumstances is very super- 

 ficial. Ouite recently a buyer of motor tires told me that he 

 would purchase anywhere rather than from the Dunlop they 

 acted so unfairly to their competitors. Efforts, therefore, to 

 counteract such opinions cannot be considered superfluous. 



Tins motor tire, with which Sir William Tomlinson, Bart., 

 of Preston, is prominently connected, is now being manufac- 

 tured lor the company by The Dermatine ('<>.. Lim- 

 M * l !^ lf> ited, of London, certain points on which some little 

 friction occurred with regard to the earlier manu- 

 facture having now been amicably adjusted. 



Just before the date of posting comes the announcement in 



the form of a circular from the India-Rubber Manufacturers' 



Association that a 10 per cent, rise has been 



rise in price of agreed upon in the case of packing, belting. 



MECHANI3AL , , . . ,, • i 



rubber goods a n °se, owing to the increase in the price of 

 raw rubber. With regard to the reception of 

 this notice by buyers I may have something to say next month, 

 but I cannot think that when they consider the situation they 

 will feel that they have legitimate cause for grumbling. The 

 feature of the announcement is the fact that such prominent 

 firms as Warne's, the Silvertown, and the North British, who 

 have hitherto remained outside the Association, and are not yet 

 enrolled among its members, have yet signified their intention 

 to follow the initiative of the Association and to abide by the 

 decision for a 10 per cent, advance. 



I HAVE recently seen a sample of a carnation colored substi- 

 tute to all appearances the ordinary flocculent white substitute 

 dyed with some coal-tar color. The coloring 

 UR E T matter is fast to water but bleeds freely in naphtha. 

 The makers are Messrs G. W. Laughton & Co., 

 of Bradford, Manchester, and the idea is to enable a manufac- 

 turer to produce a red rubber of a superior color and at a cheap- 

 er rate than by the old fashioned use of mineral coloring mat- 

 ters. 



1 ! 1 IE recently this important Italian firm, referred to in my 



last notes, has opened a branch establishment in Villanueva y 



Geltru, 25 miles from Barcelona, Spain. The 



s ' works are for the manufacture of electric cables 



PIRELLI &. CO 



only, and the general rubber manufacturing 

 business is not to be taken up for the present at all events. The 

 site of the works covers 3^ acres, employment being given at 

 the present time to 200 men. The 300 HP. utilized is gener- 

 ated by two condensing steam engines, transformed into three- 

 phase current by alternators and thus distributed to the motors 

 driving the machinery in the different points of the works. So 

 far Spain has not possessed any electric cable factory and the 

 rubber manufacture proper is represented only by a small con- 

 cern in Barcelona. It may be mentioned, by way of reference 

 to what is now ancient history, that the cables from Spain to 

 the B.Uearic isles, as well as many of those from Spain to Mo- 

 rocco, were laid by Messrs. Pirelli, the contracts being obtained 

 in competition with the old established English firms. Mem- 

 bers of the Institution of Electrical Engineers who joined the 

 recent trip to north Italy express themselves as highly grati- 

 fied with the hospitality extended to them by the firm, though 

 those with whom I have conversed are somewhat in error in 

 imagining that Italian merchants generally possess that know- 

 ledge of the English tongue which enables the Messrs. Pirelli 

 to put the untutored Englishman at his ease. One hears so 

 much about the progress which Italy has made of late in elec- 

 tric traction and lighting that it will not be without interest to 

 say a word as to cost. Milan is splendidly lighted by electric- 

 ity, but not at a particularly cheap rate ; I have not got the ac- 

 tual figures by me, but the cost of the light per unit is much 



BRITISH 

 NORTH BORNEO. 



more than is the general case in our large towns. The high 

 cost of coal for gas making has of course been a great stimulus 

 to the electric lighting of Italy, and I suppose that as long as 

 the electric light is cheaper than gas there is no great disposi- 

 tion to supply it at cut prices. In England the competition be- 

 tween the two sources of light must continue to exist to the 

 advantage of the consumer. 



CONSIDERING the very limited area of the tropics from which 

 supplies of Gutta-percha can be drawn, I anticipate a success- 

 ful future for the chartered company recently 

 formed in America to work certain lands in 

 British North Borneo for Gutta-percha and 

 rubber. It is to be hoped that now in this area at least a stop 

 will be put to the wasteful methods which have hitherto been 

 practised by the natives in obtaining the Gutta-percha milk 

 for sale to the Chinese merchants. And not only is there wan- 

 ton waste by the collector, but there is also a good deal of 

 fraudulent blending done during the coagulation of the 

 " su-su," as the milk is called. It has long been recognized 

 both by government officials and by those engaged in the ex- 

 ploitation of gutta that strong remedial measures were neces- 

 sitated in the interests of the trade, but as a prominent official 

 told me a year or two ago, the difficulties in the way of reform 

 have proved too difficult to surmount. They had, he said, 

 posted up stringent notices as to what was and what was not 

 permissible, but it was not possible to engage a sufficient num- 

 ber of police to follow the collectors into the recesses of the 

 jungle in order to see that the edicts were obeyed. In spite of 

 the undoubted developments and possibilities of the Marconi 

 system of telegraphy, there does not as yet seem any decline in 

 the demand for Gutta-percha for this purpose, and anything 

 which tends to the conservation of its sources of supply is mat- 

 ter therefore for congratulation. 



From what I hear from a merchant doing business at Khar- 

 toum, the export of rubber via Egypt is likely to show a con- 

 siderable augmentation in the near future. The 

 rubber from qua ij ty f t he rubber is very good, a recent lot 



THE SOUDAN. 1 ■» ' & 



having made 3 shillings 6 pence per pound. At 

 first loss was occasioned by inexperience, the merchants not 

 being able to distinguish between sound rubber and a more or 

 less worthless resinous product offered them under the name 

 of rubber. " Now we understand the business," said a merchant 

 recently ; it is to be hoped that he is not over confident for the 

 raw rubber business contains many pitfalls even for those who 

 have had a long and varied experience in this branch. 



SOME WANTS OF THE RUBBER TRADE. 



[2S<>] [T ROM England : " Some friends of ours, to whom we 



•*■ supply a very large quantity of solid cab tire, desire 



us to put them in communication with American makers of 



electric wire welding machines. Can you give us some help?" 



[287] From a rubber jobbing house : " We should like a list 

 of the different parties in the United States who manufacture 

 solid and inflated rubber balls, of every description." 



[288] " Can you give us any information as to whether 

 there is a rubber hose made which would not be affected by 

 gasoline? Many automobilists desire to use a rubber hose 

 attached to the nozzle of air pump for filling their automobile 

 reservoirs, but we learn that gasoline passing through the hose 

 will in time decompose the material." 



[2s9] From a New York house : " We should like the names 

 of buyers of second hand tires to sell again, not reclaimers." 



[•i!)0] A hard rubber factory desires to know who has bat- 

 tery jar scrap for sale, and at what price. 



