\> I ST I, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



375 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



GORDON BENNETT 

 CUP. 



I^HE numerous firms who in one way or another have 

 found themselves involved in loss owing to this unfor- 

 tunate affair will naturally not have much of a com- 

 plimentary nature to say concerning the principal 

 actors. There are. however, those who have not been hit by 

 the failure and who can therefore view the sit- 

 echoes of the uation with equanimity, who are ready enough 

 kramrisch testify to the benefits which the firm have 



FAILURE. } . , 



conferred, though perhaps without set purpose, 

 upon the rubber manufacturer. I think I am correct in saying 

 that the advent of this firm upon the raw rubber market and 

 their eagerness to secure business had a good deal to do with 

 breaking up what was formerly practically a monopoly at Liver- 

 pool. With the methods employed by the firm I am not at 

 present concerned; I am merely indicating their sequence. 

 That this has resulted in rubber being sold at lower prices is 

 admitted by manufacturers, and as I have said those who have 

 not been hit by the failure are disposed to testify to the 

 amelioration which the firm effected in the conditions formerly 

 affecting the purchase of raw rubber. There are now four or 

 five times as many rubber merchants than there were twenty- 

 five years ago, and the competition thus induced has naturally 

 been welcomed by the manufacturer. 



It cannot be said that the result of the Irish motor-car race 

 is particularly gratifying to the British, and least of all to the 

 Dunlop company. Of course the fact that a 

 particular set of racing tires failed to acquit 

 themselves creditably is no proof of general 

 inaptitude in this branch of the rubber manu- 

 facture, but still it is unfortunate that the occurrence should 

 have given plausible grounds for detractors of the Dunlop com- 

 pany to discourse at large on the inferiority of these tiies com- 

 pared with the Michehn and Continental makes. Just as a 

 success in this race is a wide advertisement of a favorable char- 

 acter, so does a failure act in a like degree, but in the reverse 

 direction. With their experience behind them it is somewhat 

 difficult to understand how the Dunlop company should supply 

 tires so susceptible of punctures as proved to be the ease in 

 this race. 



The number of people who have read, though perhaps only 



casually, a somewhat sensational article in the London Daily 



Mail on root rubber in West Africa, is no doubt 



greater than of those who have read the earlier 



R UBBER 



comprehensive article on the subject in the May 

 issue of The India Rubber World. The subject is undoubt- 

 edly of interest, but there does not seem to be any reason at 

 all for the London daily to talk about an impending revolution 

 in the rubber trade. This remark has proved somewhat stag- 

 gering to a good many readers, to judge by the queries which 

 have been put to me ; probably if the writers were questioned 

 it would be found that they could not discriminate between the 

 trade in raw rubber and that of the manufacture. But of 

 course practical people do not as a rule pay much attention to 

 newspaper scientific articles, and probably the one under dis- 

 cussion would not have attracted so much attention if the 

 opinions of Mr. John Holt, of the Liverpool shipping trade, had 

 not found expression therein. I take it that we now know the 

 fons el origo of a certain quality of rubber long on the market, 

 about which ignorance formerly prevailed. This is of course 



interesting ; whether it is important remains to be seen. If the 

 knowledge can be utilized to good effect by those concerned 

 with rubber planting, its importance will be demonstrated, 

 though even supposing that the plant can be cultivated to ad- 

 vantage there does not seem any cogent reason why a revolution 

 of any sort should be apprehended, all the more as no claim is 

 made that the rubber is equal to Para or even approximate to 

 it. I note that in a letter to The Engineer (London) Mr. J. T. 

 Wicks says that seven years ago Messrs. Hecht Fi'-res. the well 

 known rubber merchants of Paris, explained to him the method 

 followed by the natives in gathering the Benguela root rubber, 

 so here we have another proof of the want of novelty in recent 

 announcements concerning this rubber. 



WITHOUT attempting anything like an adequate comment 

 on what Dr. Weber has recently said on this subject in a con- 

 temporary, yet the impoitance of the matter in- 

 oxidation v i tes a s hort reference. It certainly seems to have 



OF RUBBER 



been generally thought that vulcanized rubber was 

 more susceptible to the actinic rays than is raw rubber. His 

 experiments show that this is not the case. In experiments of 

 this sort it is of the first importance that the conditions shall be 

 identical, and the particular condition of the thicknessof thetest 

 piece is quite the most important. He lays stress upon this, and 

 it is from disregard of this obvious condition that I imagine the 

 discrepancies among previous experimenters are due. At the 

 same time, it should be borne in mind that though thin films 

 of rubber are of the greatest value in determining scientific 

 theories, the figures they yield have but a limited practical 

 value, owing to the fact that in so many applications of rubber 

 the depth or thickness has to be reckoned with as a far more 

 important factor than the superficies. With regard to the ef- 

 fect the mixing rollers have in reducing the resistance to 

 atmospheric oxidation Dr. Weber's figures are quite startling, 

 though not altogether unexpected in their trend. So long ago 

 as 1865 Dr. W. A. Miller found that on exposure to sunlight 

 masticated rubber was much more adversely affected than un- 

 masticated. On the other hand, Mr. W. Thomson, on the re- 

 sult of a single experiment, expressed the view in 1891 that 

 overmastication was not a source of injury to the rubber. As 

 far as I have gone into the matter, Dr. Weber's results are 

 what I should have expected, and it behooves manufacturers 

 to see that rubber is " washed " no more than is absolutely 

 necessary. 



The recently issued Report of the Chief Factory Inspector 



discloses a rather serious state of things with regard to a branch 



of the trade which has not hitherto come in 



rubber works (or ob i oquy suc h as has long attached to the 



HYGIENE. ^ , , . . . 



cold cure process. It appears that lead poi- 

 soning is somewhat rife among the girls employed in rubber 

 boot and shoe factories, the source of contagion being litharge 

 in the varnish which is used in making joints. As a rule in 

 rubber works, women and girls do not come in contact with lead 

 compounds, and with regard to the men engaged in the mixing 

 room, precautions are now in general operation to minimize the 

 danger from saturnine poisoning. With regard to the effects of 

 lead on individuals there is plenty of evidence to show how 

 variable is its nature, some people being affected to a much 

 greater extent than others. Idiosyncrasy evidently plays a prom- 

 inent part, and it would seem highly desirable for factory owners, 



