October i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



11 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



THERE are distinct signs of animation in this parlous 

 branch. A manufacturer told me the other day that he 

 had had more inquiries the previous week than during 

 the whole of last year. Perhaps this may be somewhat of 

 an exaggeration, but this does not falsify my opening sentence 

 altogether. A good deal, it is said, will depend 

 ^^^ upon the weather of the next few weeks. With 



WATERPROOF ^ 



TRADE. regard to the motor clothing business, the whole- 

 sale firms say it is not large enough to attract 

 them, and it is mostly in the hands of middlemen who buy the 

 proofed cloth and make it up into the style of the moment. The 

 macintosh coat is now being generally worn by owners of motor 

 cars in preference to the leather one which is now the regular 

 uniform of the professional driver. A material which is in con- 

 siderable favor is that known as Burberry, being the product 

 exclusively of a Hampshire firm of this name. Next to the mac- 

 intosh coat it has the reputation of high waterproof properties, 

 being in this respect considerably superior to the ordinary rain- 

 proof cloths. If unfavorable weather really is the one thing want- 

 ed to cause the waterproof trade to flourish, the wet August we 

 have just experienced ought to have given the desired stimu- 

 lus. 



To satisfy the inquisitiveness of a motorist friend, 1 have been 



investigating the substance sold under this name as part of the 



motorist's outfit. It is intended for filling up 



MASTIC cracks in tires, and is found of considerably more 



MICHELIN. .,,,,. . • . J 



Utility for this purpose than is the ordinary rub- 

 ber cement. The main featureabout it is its extreme stickiness. 

 I cannot account satisfactorily for this as there is but little res- 

 inous matter present. It rather looks as if the rubber had been 

 partially melted. It contains a little over S per cent, of litharge, 

 but no sulphur. Except as a drying agent in reducing tackiness 

 I don't quite see the object of the litharge. With regard tothe 

 utility of this mastic, I don't find unanimous approval among 

 motorists, but there seems no doubt that it is superior to ordi- 

 nary solution in the case of vulcanized rubber, and if put into a 

 crack soon enough, it must certainly be beneficial in prevent- 

 ing the ingress of water and dirt. 



No general arrangement with regard to an advance in prices in 



consonance with the high price of rubber has been come to. and 



the makers of rubber faced cards speak in lugu- 



^'^^ brioustones as tothe position. Messrs. Horsfall& 



CARD-CLOTHINQ ^. , , ., . , , ■,, -j , 



INDUSTRY. Bickam, of Manchester, though still outside the 

 associated Yorkshire firms, are, it is understood, 

 quite in agreement with them as to prices, but the antagonistic 

 position taken up by the few other outside firms makes it im- 

 possible for any formal advance to be notified, as in other 

 branches of the rubber manufacture, where practical unanimity 

 has prevailed. The rubber face is still considered the best arti- 

 cle for the cotton mill, but in thecase of wool either the compo- 

 sition card or the plain felt is in general use. The oil used in 

 the ordinary process of wool spinning is of course destructive to 

 the rubber card, though less in the case of the vulcanized than 

 the unvulcanized. The use of oil refers more particularly to 

 the Bradford district the principal seat of the woolen industry. 

 In Messrs. Hallani & Sons' woolen mills in Manchester and 

 Stockport the dry or French process is in sole use, no oil being 

 here used in the spinning. The cards used are plain felt, though 

 in this case if it were thought advantageous to have the greater 



elasticity given by rubber no objection could be urged on the 

 score of oil as is the case at Bradford. It is now the rule to 

 thoroughly free from oil Bradford goods which are intended 

 for waterproofing purposes, and I have not heard for a long 

 time of any trouble arising between the woolen manufacturers 

 and the waterproofers on this score, though 20 years ago acri- 

 monious correspondence was not infrequent. The weaving of 

 woolen cloths is now at Bradford as well as elsewhere without 

 the agency of oil, the warps being merely sized and this innova- 

 tion on the practice of old times has relieved the waterproofer 

 of his former anxiety. A point of some importance to the users 

 of rubber faced cards is to prevent the steel points from be- 

 coming rusty. Owing to the well known destructive action of 

 oil upon rubber there has naturally been much hesitation in 

 using anything of an oily nature. I am informed, however, 

 that recent experiments have resulted in finding an oleaginous 

 body which answers the purpose well and which has no de- 

 structive effect upon the rubber. To nickel plate the steel, it 

 appears, would be an expense which the business will not 

 stand, though it suggests itself as eminently desirable. 



" The object of the present invention is to reclaim waste vul- 

 canized India rubber, and render the same available for employ- 

 ment in the capacity of rubber previously un- 

 RECLAiMED used." Thus Messrs. Gregory and Thorn, in a 

 p^TE^TS recent British patent. After reading the patent 

 through I have come to the conclusion that 

 though the object of the invention is nodoubtcorrectly describ- 

 ed, the results are any thing but conclusive as to the object having 

 ever been attained. Briefly described the process consists in 

 grinding the rubber to crumb, boiling it in dilute hydrochloric 

 acid to extract the mineral matters, drying the rubber, and then 

 dissolving it in a mixture of aniline oil and naphtha. The solu- 

 tion is passed through a strainer and is then, we are told, ready 

 for any purpose for which it is intended. I am quite in the dark 

 as to what these uses for such a solution are. Supposing as 

 stated that the solvent will readily evaporate at the ordinary Km- 

 perature, this can only refer to the naphtha and not the aniline, 

 which is an oily liquid boiling at 363 F. Surely some process of 

 separating the rubber from its solution is necessary, and when 

 this is done I fully expect it will be found that the separated 

 rubber is of much the same value as the original ground crumb, 

 and that it has not been devulcanized to any appreciable extent. 

 The authors say that they do not claim the use of aniline as 

 a solvent as a novelty, but only in their mode of application. Of 

 course it may be that some vital part of the process has been 

 withheld from the public eye in order to baffle the schemes of 

 infringers ; certainly as I have seen it in print I cannot see that 

 the patent has any value. Of course aniline as a solvent for 

 waste rubber is not novel. I understand that the chief reason 

 for its abandoment was the expense. Complete solution of the 

 vulcanized rubber in an oily liquid isthe principle of the patent 

 taken out by Robinson Brothers & Clift. The liquid they use 

 is what is known as heavy bases, a residue in the preparation of 

 pyridine from coal tar. In this case, the mineral matters fall to 

 the bottom of the solution vessel, and there seems no object in 

 previously removing them by hydrochloric acid according to 

 Gregory's patent. Moreover in Robinson's process it is not sug- 

 gested that the oily solution of rubber should be utilized, but 

 the rubber is completely separated from solution by chemical 



