Jui.v I, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



339 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondtnt. 



I^HE London County Council, a most important buying 

 body, has got out a full set of specifications tor the 

 various rubber goods purchased, and considerable 

 strictness is shown in seeing that deliveries correspond 

 to the specifications. There have been cases recently where 

 manufacturers have had goods rejected but it 



OFFICIAL seems to have been quite their own fault. Hav- 

 SPECIFICATIONS. .J. , , ^ ,, . , 



ing discussed the matter generally with some 



members of the trade I took an opportunity which presented 

 itself recently of interviewing an official whose position en- 

 titles him to speak with authority. It was not their wish, he 

 said, to act at all harshly ; they merely wished to have uni- 

 formity in delivery, and nothing was said wliere the discrep- 

 ancies were but slight. They were always glad to discuss any 

 matter of complaint with the manufacturer's chemist but they 

 could not agree to the proposal that the certificate of an out- 

 side analyst should be put in. My informant took it that all 

 the principal works had their own chemists but I informed him 

 that this practice was not universal, and that firms who had 

 important rubber contracts had what analytical work they re- 

 quired done outside. A great trouble, he said, was the con- 

 stant change of contractors, their experience being that new 

 pomers took some time to conform to the letter of the specifi- 

 cations. He also expressed the opinion that firms tendered at 

 prices which could hardly pay them in order to be able to ad- 

 vertise themselves as being contractors to the Council. This 

 may probably be so, but it must not be overlooked that the 

 cost of production is not the same with individual firms, and 

 one may make a profit where another would show a loss. 

 Again with regard to this point I know of one case for certain 

 where a firm got the contract and carried it out at a loss owing 

 to a clerical error in their quotations. It was quite foreign to 

 their intention to undercut in this way and their next quotation, 

 all the more if rubber should have fallen, will doubtless cause 

 some surprise if not another of those changes which are con- 

 sidered undesirable. 



As far as the home trade is concerned there is nothing to 

 report except stagnation. With regard, however, to the ship- 

 ping trade, it is noteworthy that the South 

 ^"^ American market is good and shows a con- 



PROOFING " 



TRADE. siderable increase of business during recent 

 years. The demand is almost entirely limited 

 to high quality poods, pure Para proofing being very prominent 

 in an attractive lot of samples which I recently inspected, des- 

 tined especially for this market. As an instance of the unsatis- 

 factory position of the trade the recent report of Messrs. Birn- 

 baum, of Hackney Wick, London, may be mentioned. This 

 firm is one of those whose business is confined to the proofing 

 branch and it is not surprising that they have felt the altered 

 condition of afTairs more acutely than firms like Macintosh's 

 and the North British, who have so many departments that 

 slackness in one of them may easily be counterbalanced by 

 briskness in another. 



I HAVE heard of two applications of waste rubber which are 

 novel to me, but beyond what has been told me I have no per- 

 sonal knowledge of how far they have been 

 NEW USES FOR guccessful. In the first the old vulcanized 



WASTE RUBBER. 



rubber is melted up and applied to structural 

 ironwork as a rust preventer. The idea, I understand, conies 



THEMICHELINTYRE 

 CO.. LIMITED. 



from Denmark and is being exploited by a company having a 

 works near Belfast, Ireland. The other application was made 

 known to me in a London drawing room by a retired officer 

 who had been "approached " with a view to his taking a mon- 

 etary interest in it. In this case the old rubber was to be melted 

 on a basis of wire gauze and the product applied as a boiler 

 covering in place of the fibrous or mineral coverings commonly 

 in use. The new covering was stated to be already in use in 

 various industrial centers. As I have said I only know of these 

 new applications by hearsay, but in case the scepticism which 

 I have is ill-founded and an erroneous impression be caused 

 by these remarks, I am sure that any disclaimer from parties 

 primarily interested will receive due attention if sent to the 

 olfices of this Journal. 



The speculation which has long been rife as to the person- 

 nel and location of the British Michelin company has now 

 been ended by the announcement of the for- 

 mation of the Michelin Tyre Co., Limited. 

 The capital is /6o,ooo, in ^10 shares, and it 

 is really a private combination between the French house of 

 Michelin and Warnes, of Tottenham, England. Such a union 

 augurs success on account of the high reputation of the indi- 

 vidual firms. So far, however, Warnes, prominent as they have 

 been in the solid cab tire business, have not been known or at 

 any rate not prominently with regard to motor tires. This is 

 patent from inquiries made to me by motorists who are famil- 

 iar enough with the names Dunlop, Moseley, and North Brit- 

 ish. " Who are Warnes .'" is a common expression in motor- 

 ing circles. One would have thought that the well known red 

 tobacco pouch would have removed any tendency to such 

 ignorance, but the fact remains that there is room for enlight- 

 enment. As far as I can judge the new company will find the 

 Continental company of Hanover their principal competitors 

 for the custom of the general motorist. 



OuiTE a big business, and I should imagine a profitable one, 

 is being done by The B. F. Goodrich Co. (London) in the supply 

 of the necessities for repairs. In fact, the mo- 

 ^'^^P^J'*'" torist, besides developing as an engineer, is rap- 

 idly becoming versed in the mysteries of the 

 rubber trade. The portable vulcanizer, something on the lines 

 of the cable jointer's apparatus, is coming into increased use, 

 and no doubt proves of much service where rubber works are 

 at a distance. With regard to that important commodity, rub- 

 ber solution, I hear a good many complaints to the efllect that 

 it is not as strong as it used to be. This complaint is no doubt 

 well founded, as there has been a tendency of late years to re- 

 duce the amount of rubber. I should judge this to be a rather 

 mistaken policy. The owner of a motor car or a motor cycle is 

 not likely to be particular to a few pence as to the price he pays 

 for his solution. At any rate he expects to get stufT that will do 

 the work, and if a weak substance is put on the market in order 

 to meet competition, the buyer's attention should be drawn to 

 the fact that he can have a better quality by paying tor it. A 

 tew years ago the cyclists' solution used to contain 15 per cent. 

 of rubber, all of it, moreover, Pard rubber. Now the rubber 

 content has been considerably reduced and the rubber is half 

 African. I notice that another firm besides the one recently 

 burnt down at Bradford uses bisulphide of carbon as the sol- 

 vent instead of naphtha. This firm which is situated in the 



