March i, 1905] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



191 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



IT has been suggested to me that an estimate of the extent 

 to which the sale of foreign made tires has increased in 

 England since the lapse of the Dunlop monopoly would 

 prove of interest. In making any such estimate one has 

 to rely largely on hearsay and opinions, because there are not, 

 to the best of my knowledge, any available statis- 

 THE MOTOR ^j^^ from which inspiration can be drawn. I im- 



TIRE TRADE. '^ , , i , 



agine. however, that it is not far from the truth 

 to say that the change in the general situation has not been one 

 of any magnitude. Doubtless the names which the Mich- 

 elin and " Continental "tires have made for themselves in the 

 past act potently in securing for their respective proprietors an 

 important share of British business. But if their field has 

 been measurably widened by the expiry of the patents is an- 

 other matter. As a member of the home trade put it to me: 

 " Formerly the French and German tires could be imported 

 only by their paying a royalty to the holders of the leading 

 patents. But the first result of the expiry of those patents has 

 been to open the field for home production to all who care to 

 enter, so that prices have declined to a greater extent than the 

 amount of the royalties formerly paid by the imported article. 

 To retain an important amount of trade, therefore, our foreign 

 rivals must meet the new competition in prices. Meanwhile, 

 British manufacturers are in a position to claim to make as 

 good motor tires as anybody else, and even better, and the 

 British buyer will prefer the home makes as soon as he appre- 

 ciates this fact. It would seem, therefore, that the only means 

 by which continental firms can largely increase their sales is 

 by means of a reduction in prices below those ruling at home, 

 and in doing this the risk is incurred of lowering the quality. 

 And this is fatal in the motor tire trade, no matter what may 

 be true in some other branches." 



The arrangement made between Messrs. David Moseley & 

 Sons, Limited, and the Seddon Tyre Co. as regards manufacture 

 still obtains, though the rubber firm have also a tire of their 

 own with beaded edge, practically the Clincher tire. The Mar- 

 tin tire seems to have come to an untimely end, and there 

 are one or two others of which nothing has been heard for 

 some time. In one or two makes the thickness of the tread, 

 which was advertised as an advantage, has had to be reduced, 

 as trouble was caused by its giving way. In. this respect 

 I hear favorable reports of the motor tire made by the Radax 

 company, of Blackley, Manchester. In this tire a thick tread is 

 put on in a special manner which enables it to wear well and 

 renders the tire practically non-skidding. I understand that 

 the Swain Tyre and Rubber Co., of Bolton, successors to the 

 Swain Tyre Syndicate, have discontinued the manufacture of 

 the cycle tires which bore their name. The attention of the 

 new company is now concentrated on motor tires made under 

 the original Swain patents. They are said to be particularly 

 advantageous for American single tube rims. The single tube 

 tire can be taken oflfand the detachable double tube Swain tire 

 substituted without any alteration to the wheel being necessi- 

 tated. In fixing the tire, ordinary " butterfly " security bolts are 

 put through the lug holes present in the rim. The Wedge Tyre 

 Co., of Ancoats, Manchester, are engaged in perfecting a 

 motor tire under their special process. The original patentee 

 of the Wedge tire, Mr. Shepherd, I may say, died a week 

 ago at an advanced age. 



The ordinary electrical engineer is not as a rule remarkable 



for his knowledge of rubber, so I am not altogether surprised 



to find a lecturer at the Birmingham Electrical 



ELECTRICAL qj (^ condemning rubber insulation, though it 

 NOTES, *' " J 



would be interesting to know on what grounds 



he bases his contention that the better the rubber the more 

 quickly it deteriorated. I was rather under the impression that 

 it was the use of low-priced compounds which had brought 

 rubber into disrepute as an insulator. No doubt in many cases 

 of failure the rubber compound has been to blame, but also in 

 many cases it has been unjustly indicted. When a breakdown 

 occurs care is not always taken to exactly assign the cause ; 

 it is an easy way out of possible trouble to put it down to a de- 

 fect in those rubber cables. The station engineer, however, may 

 possibly be to blame, either for putting too high an electric 

 pressure on the cable; or for laying the protective iron piping 

 in a situation which permits of its corrosion. I have recently 

 examined some iron pipes in an extremely corroded condition, 

 and it is not at all surprising that a breakdown occurred. 

 Whether from motives of economy or from indifTerence it is 

 certain that the causes of a good many breakdowns are never 

 thoroughly investigated and thus an opportunity of obtaining 

 important information is missed.— With regard to the cable 

 making companies, it may be safely inferred, I think, that Cal- 

 lender's Cable and Construction Co., Limited, will be interested 

 in an important way in a company which has been formed in 

 Milan under the Italian laws, called Candiana et Cie. Bitume 

 Callender, a large share in the capital of which will be held by 

 George M. Callender & Co., Limited, the bitumen manufactur- 

 ers. The exact relation of the cable company with the other 

 interests named I am not prepared to state, but the fact that 

 bitumen enters to a large extent in their insulation work is 

 well known. 



I HAD an interesting chat recently with a gentleman who 



has a considerable stake in the rubber planting developments 



in the Malay states. His experience of rubber 



PLANTATION t^ggg h^g been gained in various rubber produc- 



R^BBER. . = , , ■ , , , . 



ing countries, but as he has special knowledge 

 of the West Indies I turned our conversation in that direction. 

 With regard to the rubber plantations in Trinidad and other 

 islands, the outcome of the experiments that have for so long 

 been carried on and in the various botanical gardens he spoke 

 rather disparagingly. The Pard tree does not seem to make 

 much headway, and in his opinion it would be better to stick 

 to the CastiUoa. Some projected plantations in Trinidad 

 have fallen through, or are in abeyance, for want of capital. 

 My informant had nothing good to say of Ceara rubber, 

 having been concerned in its attempted exploitation in 

 Ceylon. One would have thought that the CastiUoa would 

 have been a better venture. The opinion has been expressed 

 by a planter of experience in Ceylon that insufficient care is 

 being taken in many instances to select suitable ground for the 

 Para tree and it is prophesied that some of the recently started 

 plantations will come to no good. I give this opinion for what 

 it is worth, but it seems of sufficient importance to mention. 

 With regards to the Straits the main difficulty would seem to 

 lie in the labor question, a serious deficiency being reported. 

 It is interesting to note that the success which has attended 

 the cultivation of the Lagos rubber tree {Funtumia) has led to 



