40 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1904. 



to the former class there is too much eagerness to get hold of 

 a process so as to resell it to the public and this without too 

 great anxiety to thoroughly probe its merits. When credulity 

 in this class meets with a rebuff there is no particular call for 

 sympathy. It is hardly conceivable that any rubber manufac- 

 turer can have parted with the sums of money mentioned in 

 the Journal but whatever the status of those who have rendered 

 financial assistance it is certainly quite time that the game was 

 stopped and the publicity given to the matter at this juncture 

 is fully warranted. 



Qui IE suddenly the gloom which has now lor so lengthy a 



period pervaded Lancashire has been dispelled, and there is 



little doubt that we are about to witness a great 



^^^ revival in the trade. The mills which have for so 

 COTTON , ^ , ■ .„ , , 



TRADE. '°"S htt.Ti on short time will very shortly revert to 



full time, with the consequence of inducing a busier 

 state of affairs among the various industries which are closely 

 dependent on the fortunes of the cotton trade. Already the 

 shares of many textile concerns have come into demand at the 

 low prices at which they have stood for so long, and substantial 

 rises in market value have occurred in the course of a few days. 

 No doubt this sort of speculation will be overdone and a set- 

 back will occur, but this has little to do with genuine business, 

 which, to judge from informants of reliability, is in if not for a 

 brilliant at any rate for a good time. This, of course, means 

 greater activity for the mill furnisher, among whose goods those 

 of rubber take a prominent position, and that the outlook is a 

 much more cheerful one than I have been able to prognosticate 

 for a considerable time back. 



Ex.\CTLV how far Balata enters into the composition of 

 Gutta-percha goods is a matter on which those who are in the 

 best position to give information maintain 



THE POSITION 

 OF QUTTA-PERCHA. 



a discreet silence. It may be only a coin- 

 cidence that the raw Balata and Gutta 

 trades exhibit a depression at the same time. No doubt the 

 dullness in the ocean cable business has much more to do with 

 the decreased demand lor Gutta than has the rubber golf ball, 

 though the influence of the latter on the situation is by no 

 means negligible. The new cable from Denmark to Iceland, 

 though of great importance to the Danish island, is not of suf- 

 ficient length to give much of a fillip to a depressed industry. 



A PACKING which has come into increased favor of late is 



" Klingerit," sold by Richard Klinger & Co., 66, Fenchurch 



street, London, E. C. It is a leathery looking com- 



NOTES ON pQQ^j which I understand has no rubber in it, 



PACKINGS. ^ 



though I cannot speak from personal knowledge. 

 The inventor is an Austrian, known more particularly in con- 

 nection with an improved water gage for steam boilers, and it 

 was in connection with the packing required for this that the 

 experiments resulting in " Klingerit " were made. As it does 

 not decay in use, it can be used several times, and this appears 

 to carry weight with engineers, though I should think that from 

 the manufacturers' point of view an everlasting article is not al- 

 together desirable. Another packing, which is stated by en- 

 gineers to give much greater satisfaction than vulcanized rubber 

 for high pressure steam joints, is "Woodite." This material was 

 brought out by Captain Wood over 20 years ago, and was sup- 

 posed to be composed in part of whalebone. Whether this 

 was so or not it certainly contained a good deal of India-rubber 

 and must be considered as a rubber packing. I presume that 

 the patent, if there ever was one, must have lapsed by this time, 

 and that the present manufacturers depend on the trade mark. 

 There are competitors, it may be mentioned, who offer material 

 the same as " Woodite," but do not invoice it under this name. 

 With regard to " Dermatine " one hears its praise mostly sung 



DAVID BRIDGE 

 &. CO. 



by engineers engaged in hydraulic work, where its use has done 

 away with the annoyances caused by the defection of leather 

 fittings. From what I hear, " Dermatine " has the field pretty 

 much to itself in this line, and no doubt in others with which I 

 am not familiar, but with regard to steam packings it has com- 

 petition to meet. 



This firm of rubber machinery engineers have recently made 

 additions to their works at Castleton, near Manchester, and 

 have also opened a branch office at 505 and 507, 

 Corn Exchange buildings, Manchester, under the 

 management of Mr. G. II. Park. 



In a recent British Foreign office publication attention is 

 drawn to the great increase in the Italian imports of raw India- 

 rubber and Gutta-percha. As I have not heard of 

 '^^^ the founding of any new factories it is a safe 

 TRADE, assumption that the business of Pirelli & Co., of 

 Milan, is still showing expansion. The report 

 mentions that there are still a number of gutta and rubber 

 articles not yet produced in Italy, and I presume that the im- 

 port tax on such articles is kept a light one. Some years ago, 

 before tires were made in the country, the British manufac- 

 turers did a good trade, but a heavy import tax, subsequently 

 levied, practically put a stop to the business. Elastic thread is 

 not yet being made in Italy, a positive statement to the con- 

 trary being due to a misapprehension. A rubber house in 

 Milan does a large trade in the article, but it is all of foreign 

 origin. Though not exactly coming under the above headline, 

 I may call attention to the difficulty in finding from commercial 

 directories what are really rubber factories and what are merely 

 houses employing rubber in some form or other in their manu- 

 factures. For instance I don't think that a factory engaged in 

 weaving rubber thread with textiles should be entered in a list 

 of rubber works. But, after all, I suppose, the compilers of 

 trade handbooks are largely in the hands of their subscribers, 

 and is at the doors of the latter that any complaints as to am- 

 biguity of description should be laid. 



BRAZILIAN RUBBER INTERESTS. 



THE urgent need of some methodical supervision of the 

 channel of the river Acre, in order to render its naviga- 

 tion possible throughout the year, with a view to benefiting the 

 rubber trade in that region, was pointed out by a contributor 

 to The India Rubber World of October i (page 18). In 

 this connection a recent report from Brazil is of interest, to the 

 effect that two engineers, Srs. Raymundo Pereira da Silva and 

 Gentil Norberto, had presented a proposal for removing the ob- 

 struction of the river Purus between the point known as Cac- 

 hoeira and the mouth of the river Acre, a distance of 600 kilo- 

 meters, so as to allow free navigation all the year round, also 

 the different rapids on the Acre itself as far as Cachoeira do 

 Riozinho. In return, they ask for a right to levy toll on all 

 rubber passing the Cachoeira do Purus at the rate of 85 reis 

 per kilo, and 20 reis on all other descending goods and 45 on 

 ascending: the concession to last for 45 years. With exchange 

 at 12 pence per milreis, the rate on rubber mentioned would 



equal 85 shillings, or $2o.68X per metric ton. 



* * * 



By a law of June 12, the congress of the state of Maranahao, 

 Brazil, has exempted from export duty corn, manioc flour, and 

 India-rubber of all grades, whenever these articles are intended 

 for foreign consumption. The rubber trade has become of con- 

 siderable importance since the discovery of a large number of 

 productive rubber trees in the forests of the interior, in the di- 

 rection of Imperatiz, Grajahu, Barrada Corda, and Riachao. 



