August i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



373 



THE mOIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Corrtspondent. 



DKSPITE llie continued high price of raw rubber there 

 seeiDs nothing to complain of in the volume of trade 

 to judge by what I hear at the larpe works. Extremely 

 busy in nearly every department is a common report — a 

 state of afTairs which shows no lilielihood of proving evanes- 

 cent. Although the price is still high, it has re- 

 *^*^^ mained for some months now at practically the same 



OF TRADE. '^ ' 



level. Thus the awkward factor which dominated 

 last year's trade has been eliminated and a fixed ratio between 

 manufacturing costs and selling price has been maintained. 

 Testimony to this was borne by 'the chairman at the recent 

 half-yearly meeting of the Silvertown company, the condition 

 of affairs showing an improvement such as will, it may be im- 

 agined, result in the shares of this company regaining their level 

 of two years ago. 



A GOOD deal is being heard at the present time of the pneu- 

 matic hub which is to replace the ordinary rubber tire, with a 

 great saving of rubber. 1 am told in one 

 A PNEUMATIC TIRE „i,arter that the idea is an old one, though it 



DEVELOPMENT. ' j , ■ 



does not seem to have had much of a trial. 

 Whether it is a novelty or not a strong London syndicate is now 

 engaged in developing it, and great results are expected. The 

 claim is that by the fitting of a pnuematic cushion round the 

 hub the same eflect as far as easy running is concerned is ob- 

 tained as in the case of the ordinary rubber tire encircling the 

 rim ^Though not exactly germane to this topic, I may men- 

 tion that nothing has been heard of the armored cloth tire 

 which the Dunlop company were to make under Midgley's 

 patent, and it is therefore natural to assume that it has not 

 proved a success. 



I UNDERSTAND that a French rubber company of some prom- 

 inence has recently patented a machine whereby the canvas in 



old rubber is entirely separated from the rub- 

 "^^ ber. The process is quite mechanical, no 



RUBBER SCRAP ,_ . , , t • j , , 



MACHINE. chemicals or heat bemg used. In these days 



of high prices for rubber scrap such a pro- 

 cess is, of course, of more interest than in the old days one can 

 remember, when it was customary to burn insertion under the 

 factory boilers. I hope to give further details of the machine 

 shortly. 



Alihough I understand that the venture has not been 

 crowned with success, it may not be without interest to what 



has been attempted by a London firm in the 

 oLD^R^uBBER '"^^ °^ Utilizing old cab tires. The idea was to 



buy up worn tires at scrap prices, to cut them 

 into segments of about a quarter inch width and to put 

 them in contiguity on stifl iron wire. A new tire was thus 

 made and a considerable number were put into use, the low 

 price at which they could be sold of course proving an attrac- 

 tion. The chief objection, however, to them and which has 

 led to their general abandonment, is that all cab tires are not 

 of the same manufacture and quality. The scrap bought was 

 of various makes and it was repeatedly found that while some 

 of the segments remained quite sound, others rapidly wore out, 

 giving the tire an uneven surface. There may possibly have 

 been other disadvantages, because I don't see why it should be 

 a difficult matter to get a lot of old tires of one make, especially 

 if a good ofler, as scrap prices go, was made for them. 

 Though, as I have said, the days of these tires seem to be num- 



NEW 

 FLOTATIONS. 



bered, at their introduction they certainly caused a flutter of 

 excitement among the makers of cab tires, as they were sold at 

 considerably less than half the price of the latter. 



With regard to this topic, referred to at length in our Lon- 

 don contemporary, I am certainly in line with those who con- 

 tend that if any disease is traced to the red rub- 

 ^^^ ber rings used in mineral water or beer bottles, 



RED RUBBER . . , , , . , , , . _■ 



SCARE. '^ 's ^"^ to the physical action of abraded par- 

 ticles, rather than to any specific toxic eflect 

 produced by the red sulphide of antimony. It is undeniable 

 that these rings often remain in use longer than should be the 

 case, and the oxidized rubber will easily break ofl and fall into 

 the bottle. As such particles must be looked upon as decid- 

 edly dangerous in these days of appendicitis scares, the moral 

 would seem to be that the rings should be regularly examined 

 by those who fill the bottles and the worn ones replaced by 

 new ones. In mentioning the harmlessness of red sulphide of 

 antimony in this connection, I wish to be understood as refer- 

 ring to the pure product, containing pentasulphide of antimony, 

 free sulphur, and sulphate of lime onlv. Such brands as con- 

 tain the oxideof antimony in greater or less amount might easily 

 prove dangerous and whatever may be considered desirable in 

 the case of other red goods, it should certainly be stipulated 

 that the antimony used for bottle rings or in connection with 

 other food products should be quite free from the oxide. 



About a year ago I said a few words regarding a preliminary 

 prospectus issued by Messrs. Johnson & Phillips, electric cable 

 manufacturers of Charlton, Kent. The capital 

 then proposed was in the neighborhood of half 

 a million. In the recent prospectus the more 

 moderate sum of ;^35o,ooo is asked for, and the issue seems to 

 have gone of! all right. There has been an absence of the hos- 

 tile criticism which the market directed against the first at- 

 tempt, and the fact that the reduction in income of recent years 

 is plainly stated has excited favorable comment. Moreover, 

 there are now more debentures and less share capital than in 

 the first proposition, a fact which has aided its more favorable 

 reception. For a great many years the firm bought their rub- 

 ber insulating material by contract from outside, but about four 

 years ago they put down a rubber manufacturing plant of their 

 own. The recent flotation of Claudius Ash Sons &. Co., 

 Limited, at a capital of ;£i,ooo,ooo sterling, went ofT, I under- 

 stand, very well, being over subscribed for. Though the com- 

 pany has to a large extent a monopoly in the dental rubber and 

 supplies business, the field is shared to some extent by the Den- 

 tal Manufacturing Co., Limited, a concern founded a few years 

 ago, and in which a large number of dentists up and down the 

 country hold shares. 



The principal change which has come over the relations of 



the West African rubber merchant and the native collector is 



the substitution of currency payment for the 



THE DECLINE q](J gystgrn of barter. Judging by what the 



OF BARTER. / ^ J u u- f 



merchants say they made much bigger prof- 

 its in the good old days when the intrinsic value of the 

 goods given in exchange for the rubber was but imperfectly 

 known to the natives. The latter in now insisting on pay- 

 ment in coin even though they undertake to spend it at the 

 merchants' stores are undoubtedly acting in their own interests 

 and they can hardly be expected to consider the feelings of the 



