340 



THE INDIA RUBi^ER WORLD 



[July 



1905. 



Birmingham neighborhood takes the precaution of labelling the 

 collapsible tubes highly inllammable, a very necessary precau- 

 tion seeing how ignorant the great bulk of the purchasers are of 

 the nature of this mephitic liquid. 



That there is a new boom in the Coventry cycle trade is a 

 fact, but whether the manufacturer's profits will be at all in ac- 

 cord with the rush of business is a matter which 

 ^^^ admits of much speculation. Ol course the boom 



BICYCLE, 



BOOM. ''^* been primarily induced by the great reduction 

 in prices, but I am informed that it is not the cheap- 

 est machines which are experiencing the greatest demand. It 

 is the old £25 machine now reduced to a little more than 

 hall that amount in which the bulk of the business is being 

 done, according to a report from the seat of the trade which 

 should be trustworthy. 



For many years the cry of the jobber has been for a ball that 

 will show up white when chipped or indented. This desidera- 

 tum was never attained by the coating of white 

 THE SPALDING p^inj g^fj [he much vaunted process of bleach- 



QOLFBALL. T , ,_ , . , 



ing the gutta before use met with very partial 

 favor or success. In the ball recently put on the market by 

 the Spalding company, I understand that the desired end has 

 been attained and that the white color of the gutta remains 

 permanent whatever amount of belaboring the ball may under- 

 go on the links. The ball is of the rubber cored type and at 

 present is being sold at the somewhat elevated price of 2 shil- 

 lings 8 pence each. 



As I write, this interesting case has not yet come to a con- 

 clusion, though It has already extended over several days at 

 the chancery courts in London. Under the 

 HASKELL circumstances, therefore, I am precluded 



QOLF BALL CO. , ... 



VERSUS HUTCHISON. '■'O"! Comments save as to generalities. 

 From what individual golfers tell me, the 

 Kite ball is nothing like so good as the Haskell, and the latter 

 need not fear any serious competition. As regards the merit 

 of the case a rubber manufacturer of some note assures me 

 that the Hutchison side ought to win — that is, if their case is 

 put to the best advantage. In his subsequent remarks as to it 

 being the lawyers rather than the facts which generally decide 

 their case other litigants will no doubt acquiesce. The legal 

 columns of The Times have hardly noticed the case and the 

 references in other dailies have been but slight. 



1 HAVE nothing new to say of this department though it may 



be mentioned that hy general report the business of such firms 



as the Pluviusin Co., The New Pegamoid Co., 



ARTIFICIAL ^jjj various others in the same line is showing 



LEATHER 



continued progress. It has naturally taken 

 some time for these products to make headway against leather, 

 but they have now satisfactorily established their advantage 

 both as regards durability and price. 



Ir IS very exceptional for marine insurance companies to 

 have claims made against them for rubber damaged in transit, 

 though there was a case a few years ago where 



INSURANCE OF 

 RUBBER FREIGHTS. 



the rubber was stated to have been damaged 

 by sea water. The claim was not a large one 

 and the company paid up sooner than resort to litigation. To 

 my mind, however, it is difficult to see how the salt water could 

 have been injurious; at any rate plenty of expert evidence 

 could have been obtained to show that saline solutions are 

 regularly used in the coagulation of the rubber milk. With 

 regard to the insurance of rubber cargoes from Brazil it is easy 

 enough to effect them from Para or even Manaos, but with re- 

 spect to what comes from the interior to Manaos I am inform- 

 ed that no English house will take the risk, despite the efforts 

 put forth by importers. It is stated in insurance circles, though 



SIR ROBERT 

 BRIDQFORD. 



I cannot vouch for the truth of the statement, that owing 

 to lack of supervision a good deal of rubber is thrown over- 

 board during the tortuous river passages to be afterwards gath- 

 ered up by the wily participators in the movement. It is rec- 

 ognized at home that adequate supervision is not to be expect- 

 ed but until greater efforts are made in this direction than are 

 apparent the insurance people will continue to hold aloof. 



Colonel Sir Roheri- Bridgford, v.d., k.c.b., who died 

 recently held for a few years the post of director of Messrs. 

 Charles Macintosh & Co., Limited, being elected 

 thereto by reason of his general business attain- 

 ments, though he had had no previous experience 

 of the rubber trade. His military service was confined to the 

 volunteers movement, in connection with which he was prob- 

 ably better known at the war office than any officer of the ser- 

 vice. 



The reference in the May issue of this Journal to the new 



rubber cable being made by the Safety Insulated Wire and 



Cable Co. (New York) for Mexican waters is in- 



ELECTRicAL terestingas bearing further testimony to the im- 



MATTERS. ^, ,j ,_,_■, J. 



portance ol vulcanized rubber in this direction. 

 There are still plenty of doubting people who disparage the use 

 of rubber in deep sea work and ignore its triumphs. The state- 

 ment that the evil disposed /^r.?^/;; lets rubber alone while at- 

 tacking Gutta-percha is interesting. Is the fact to be explained 

 by the greater toughness and elasticity of rubber rendering an 

 attachment difficult, or is it that there is something too medici- 

 nal about the sulphur ?^^=I am not aware how that very de- 

 structive insect, the white ant of the tropics, regards rubber 

 from a dietary point of view, but according to what I have been 

 told by Royal engineers, it makes short work of Guttapercha, 

 it being found necessary to encase the shore ends of cables in 

 metallic armoring. In discussing electrical cables the other 

 day with an engineer, I remarked that rubber cables of course 

 only had a certain life; his rejoinder was that they had such an 

 uncertain life, and it was due to this uncertainty that the bi- 

 tuminous and fibrous insulation had made such advances. At 

 the same time it was conceded that each insulating material 

 had its advantages for special classes of work, and the vulca- 

 nized rubber cable is holding its ground well. With regard to 

 mining applications where the conditions with respect to moist- 

 ure and rough handling are so trying, there is considerable di- 

 vergence of opinion as to the most suitable type of cable.^^^^ 

 The New Gutta-Percha Co., which controls the Gentsch pat- 

 ents, has had satisfactory reports of their Pernax insulation 

 which has been under trial at Edinburgh for 18 months, and 

 which has also been adopted to some extent on the London 

 County Council tramways. -=One of the electrical journals 

 recently had an advertisement for an electrician who has a 

 thorough knowledge of mishaps to cable systems, particularly 

 from electrolysis. I should think that a man of such attain- 

 ments would not be easily obtained. The causes of a good 

 many breakdowns are wrapped in obscurity, and while the 

 method of putting things right maybe straightforward enough, 

 the explanation ol the trouble generally remains in abeyance. 

 A man who can at once solve such problems ought to be worth 

 a good deal more than the low salaries which are now so gen- 

 eral in the electrical engineering profession as a direct result 

 of overcrowding. 



A Tire Puncture. — A puncture is a trifle, and a trille is a 

 scrap, and a scrap is a fight, and a fight is a battle, and a battle 

 is war, and war is what General Sherman called it. Therefore, 

 a puncture is the same. [Attributed to R. D. Chapin, sales 

 manager of the Olds Mobile Works.] 



