September 



• y°3-l 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



411 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



IN the course of a retrospect of the rubber industry, delivered 

 at the recent Congress of Applied Chemistry, at Berlin, 

 I >r. C. O. Weber indulged in a tirade against the use of 

 such terms as " Caoutchouc," " India-rubber " and " Gum- 

 mi." They were designated as childish and absurd, and it was 

 suggested by the author that the term " poly- 

 prene,' expressive of the chemical constitu- 

 tion of the body, should be adopted instead. Now it is evident 

 that if the old terms which now convey definite impressions to 

 the sellers as well as to the units of the vast army of buyers are 

 to suffer substitution by a chemical word, it will be necessary 

 to educate the public in chemistry, otherwise the change would 

 merely mean the substitution of one parrot cry by another. At 

 the present time the vast majority of those concerned know 

 little and care less as to how many ethylene bonds are con- 

 tained in each rubber hydrocarbon molecule, and any attempt 

 to effect a reform in nomenclature — a reform which, from a 

 scientific point of view is, I admit, eminently desirable — would 

 probably be resented as an unwarrantable tax. I think before 

 pushing the matter to extremes it would be desirable to bring 

 forward some conclusive evidence that the progressof the chem- 

 ical side of the industry has indeed been hampered by a popu- 

 lar but inexpressive nomenclature. I do not feel sure that any 

 paralysis with which the industry has been seized is traceable to 

 this cause, and certainly I should expect those few who have 

 at any time paid attention to the chemistry of rubber to have 

 made themselves fully acquainted with the fact that from a 

 chemical point of view the use of the terms gum in America 

 and gummi, gomme, gomma, etc., on the Continent was quite 

 erroneous and misleading, Seeing that in applied science the 

 market is the master and the chemist the servant, I do not 

 look forward with any great degree of confidence to the reali- 

 zation of Dr. Weber"s aspirations, however much I may be in- 

 clined to sympathize with the spirit which prompted their 

 expression. Those who are opposed to any change will doubt- 

 less point to many words which are mere concatenations of 

 letters but which undeniably answer in every respect the pur- 

 poses for which they are requisitioned. 



The recent case in which an American government analyst 

 found sulphur in crude rubber is not without importance. In 

 this particular case perhaps a little free sulphur 

 has got into the rubber in the coagulation process, 



TRIUMPHS 

 OF ANALYSIS. 



and it would of course be absurd to classify the 

 rubber as " manufactured." But this question apart, it is notice- 

 able that analytical researches carried on with precision have 

 of late shown that plenty of substances contain foreign bodies 

 in minute quantities whose presence was quite unexpected. 

 Where these discoveries lead to accusations of negligence or 

 fraud it will be recognized that the cases assume serious 

 aspects. With regard to sulphur in rubber, if the element is 

 found in the free condition, it must have been added, but if 

 sulphur is found as a result of an oxidation test there is no evi- 

 dence of its addition because sulphur is a normal constituent 

 of plants and is probably to be found in varying amounts in the 

 leaves and other parts of the rubber trees as a constituent of 

 the protoplasm. The wide occurrence of arsenic in nature was 

 not suspected years ago, and to-day when it has been found to 

 be a constituent of yolk of egg and other bodies too numerous 

 to mention, to prove poisoning by arsenic is anything but the 



BALATA. 



easy task it was supposed to be only a few years ago. Again 

 there have been numerous prosecutions for adding salicylic 

 acid to jam, but this acid has recently been found to occur as a 

 normal constituent of strawberries. I see that Dr. Weber has 

 recently announced that he has discovered copper in raw rub- 

 ber and the details of his analyses will undoubtedly prove of in- 

 terest. If such proves to be more universal than particular the 

 point will prove of great assistance to counsel for cloth manu- 

 facturers in disputes as to the premature decay of waterproofed 

 cloth. It has long been known that copper pigments are found 

 in the feathers of certain species of birds but the metal is cer- 

 tainly not on the somewhat limited list of elements which en- 

 ter into the composition of plants. As chemical research will 

 undoubtedly prove a more general distribution of the elements 

 than has been supposed to be the case it will be important to 

 have quantitative results so as to form standards of purity to 

 satisfy the demands of law and commerce. Thearsenicin rub- 

 ber goods question died out with the same rapidity which 

 characterized its appearance as it was shown that the amount 

 present was quite negligible from a hygienic standpoint. It 

 will be incumbent now on the discoverer of copper in rubber 

 to give figures, which I fully imagine will prove quite reassuring 

 to the trade. 



It is noticeable in recent consular returns that the Guianas 

 seem to be returning to their old position as large producers of 

 Balata, a position from which they were ousted a 

 few years ago by Venezuela. Of course business gen- 

 erally in the latter country has been upset during the last 

 twelve months, and the more stable political conditions exist- 

 ing in the Guianas put those who are engaged in exploiting 

 their resources in a more favorable condition. I notice that 

 the " Statesman's Year Book " refers to the exports of Balata 

 from Venezuela as Gutta-percha, which is of course an inac- 

 curacy, though one which is not by any means confined to this 

 important publication. It has been suggested that some de- 

 tails with regard to the use of Balata in Great Britain would be 

 of interest, but owing to the conservatism shown by those 

 firms, chiefly in the belting trade, who use the bulk of the im- 

 ports, it is not easy for an outsider to write accurately on the 

 subject. , 



Under this headline an interesting paragraph appears in the 



July issue of The India Rubber World. It is concerned 



with the intention or desire of the American 



data wanted i nstitute of Electrical Engineers to collect 



ON INSULA T ION. , , • 7 ... 



particular items of trade information for cir- 

 culation among the members. From what I understand as to 

 the fraternity existing among American manufacturers, there 

 is nothing surprising in this departure of the American Insti- 

 tute. It is not quite clear to me whether the publication of the 

 notice in The India Rubber World is tantamount to an in- 

 vitation to foreign firms to join in this gratuitous dissemina- 

 tion of useful knowledge, but if this is so I am much afraid 

 that from England, at all events, the response will be very 

 meager, that is, from firms actually engaged in manufacture. 

 Consultants might be willing to give publicity to facts in their 

 possession, but our manufacturers of electric cables have the 

 reputation of being exceedingly reticent as to the details of 

 their several businesses. And one can hardly blame them for 

 this attitude, since it is recognized that business is carried on 



