October i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



15 



The India Rubber— Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



IN my last notes I made some reference to rubber planting 

 in Tobago, and since then I have had the opportunity of dis- 

 cussing this part of the world on the occasion of the visit 

 to Lancashire of West India cotton growers under the leader- 

 ship of Sir Daniel Morris. Strictly speaking, the topic of cot- 

 PLANTiNG IN t°" growing hardly comes up for con- 



THE BRITISH sideration in this journal, but as all 



WEST INDIES. rubber manufacturers buy cotton cloth 



of some sort or otlier I am not traveling far out of the range of 

 legitimate topics. Judging from the speeches delivered at the 

 various meetings, there is no doubt as to the success which has 

 attended the cotton growing movement in the West Indies — more, 

 perhaps, in Antigua, Barbados, and Montscrrat than in Jamaica. 

 The British Cotton Growers' Association, it may be said, has for 

 its president and moving spirit Sir Alfred Jones, k. c. m. g., 

 head of the Elder Dempster Shipping Co., and he has all along 

 maintained that the movement which received by no means uni- 

 versal support in Lancashire would prove a commercial suc- 

 cess, both in the West Indies and in West Africa. I said in 

 my last notes that the sugar growers were to a great extent 

 giving up their business and starting rubber plantations. Ac- 

 cording, however, to one of the cotton planting delegates, 

 sugar is still to remain as the king, with cotton as the queen 

 of planting interests. Nothing was said about rubter plant- 

 ing, and I am left to infer that its position will be that of knave 

 rather than ace. One of the speakers referred to the fact that 

 in some cases where a year or two ago they had obtained very 

 satisfactory financial results, the area under cultivation had since 

 been enlarged and pests and disease had made their presence 

 felt, with the effect of seriously diminishing the profits. These 

 facts are not without significance to acclimatized rubber planters, 

 as there are not wanting pessimists who forsee an analogous 

 condition of affairs. Sir Alfred Jones's interests are by no means 

 confined to cotton growing, and in the conversation I had with 

 him and Sir Ralph D. R. Moor, k. c. m. c, late governor of 

 Southern Nigeria, rubber topics were prominent. 



With regard to the much needed improvement in certain 

 West African brands of rubber. Sir Ralph was emphatic that 

 this could only be effected by penalizing the merchants for ex- 

 porting rubber under a certain degree of cleanliness or purity. 

 If this were done, the merchants would socn give the native 

 gatherers to understand that inferior stuff would find no market, 

 and that it was itnperative for them to mend their ways. This, 

 he said, would prove much more efficacious than any attempts 

 to overlook or control operations in the forest. At the same 

 time, the necessity for scientific research in connection with the 

 tapping and coagulation was recognized, and there is plenty of 

 opportunity for those who feel inclined to brave the rigors of 

 the climate. According to Sir Alfred Jones the work done by 

 the Liverpool School of Tropical Research has made West 

 Africa quite healthy. This probably means that a great improve- 

 ment has been effected in the conditions formerly prevailing ; I 

 hardly suppose that West Africa is as yet diverting the stream of 

 tourists from the recognized sanatoria. 



So far the present year has proved more prolific in legal cases 

 than any vvhicli I can call to memory. The long protracted case 

 of Huttcnbach v. North Western Rub- 

 ber Co. has finally gone against the 

 Huttenbach Co. in the Court of Appeal. 

 By the way, a printer's error recently led to my making a 

 statement in these notes to the effect that Pontianak as sold was 

 usually dry. What I intended to say was that it was frequently 

 very wet, low qualities containing over 60 per cent, of water. 



RUBBER IN THE 

 LAW COURTS. 



Its exportation from Borneo in this state is in accordance 

 with the general procedure with rubber out there, soaking in water 

 being adopted as a safeguard against oxidation. Best quality 

 jelutong, which has been as low as ii4 10s. per ton, is now 

 £18, and Liverpool merchants find it difficult to book forward lots 

 at a reasonable figure, so much of it being wanted for the 

 United States, which is still by far the most important market. 

 This is rather a digression from the legal case with which I 

 started, but an attempt to summarize the legal proceedings in 

 which both sides scored a certain amount would take up too 

 much space. The same remark may be made with regard to the 

 New Motor and General Rubber Co., Limited, v. David Moselcy 

 & Sons, Limited, which went against the latter firm ; Lotter v. 

 Waste Rubber Co,, and Francis Shaw & Co., v. the Sirdar 

 Rubber Co., Limited. The point as to whether certain motor 

 tire molds were correctly made going in favor of the well- 

 known firm of rubber engineers. Such cases as these are rarely 

 reported in the legal columns of the London press and only 

 superficially if at all in the local papers. Where the amounts 

 involved are not very large it seems somewhat surprising that 

 the publicity of the courts is resorted to when this means the 

 unveiling of private business procedure tn the gaze of competitors. 



I wonder if the following observation made by counsel in the 

 wa,ste rubber case will be generally accepted in America? When 

 waste rubber was sent to America, he said, it was quite a com- 

 mon thing for it to be rejected, because the firms over there 

 knew that by that means they could squeeze the unfortunate 

 Englishman into accepting a lower price rather than pay for 

 the goods to be shipped home again. 



The introduction of power signalling on railways has neces- 

 sitated the employment of vulcanized rubber cables in a new 

 sphere, and there seems every probability 



RUBBER CABLES FOR ^f ^ greatly increased demand for this 



RAILWAY SIGNALLING. ... , , ,, . . ^_ 



particular type of cable. A word or two 

 on the subject generally may therefore prove of interest, more 

 particularly to those connected with the cable branch of the 

 rubber industry. Although one or two other systems of power 

 signalling are being tried, the greatest success seems to have 

 been attained by the McKenzie Holland and Westinghouse Power 

 Signal Co., Limited, of Westminster, a concern which incor- 

 porates the Westinghouse Signal Co., of America, with the old- 

 established signal firm McKenzie & Holland, of Worcester, 

 England. This system, which may be called an electro-pneumatic 

 one, has already established itself firmly in America, and large 

 installments have already been completed or are in progress on 

 British railways. Without going too deeply into mechanical de- 

 tails, the following remarks on the mechanism of the system may 

 be allowed. The points and signals are worked by compressed 

 air, which is controlled electrically from the signal cabin. This 

 control is obtained by electro-magnetic valves in connection 

 with each air cylinder, and they are energized, or de-energized, 

 as the case may be, by the movement and resultant position of 

 the lever in the signal cabin. Some of the benefits incidental to 

 this .system are speed and reliability in operation, additional safe- 

 guards that would be impractical with a mechanical installation, 

 a saving in the number of signal boxes and signal men — as a 

 larger area can be controlled from one box — and the relief of the 

 signalmen from exhausting manual labor. The rubber cables, of 

 course, connect the valve of the air cylinder on the signal part 

 with the signal cabin. They are only of small diameter, not 

 more than ^-inch over all, including the lead covering. The best 

 quality of rubber is required and the cables are submitted to 

 certain electrical tests by the company before use. 



