208 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 



1902. 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



DESPITE the preliminary booming which heralded the 

 attempted use of viscose in rubber by Dr. Weber, it 

 does not appear that anything has as yet resulted to 

 cause a commotion in the rubber trade. Viscose, it 

 may be explained, is the discovery of Messrs. Cross and Bevan, 

 the well known paper and fiber experts of Lon- 

 CELLULOSe don, and the patents controlling its manufacture 



COMPOUNDS . , , . , ,7- c- J- I.- u • 



AND RUBBER, ^f^ ^eld by the Viscose Syndicate, which is en- 

 gaged in introducing the substance in the textile 

 industries. The raw material used is wood pulp, which is dis- 

 solved in caustic soda and treated with bisulphide of carbon to 

 form what is known to chemists as xanthate. This, when acted 

 on by an acid, gives a soft product, soluble at first in water, but 

 easily rendered insoluble in that menstruum. It can be reeled 

 out like cotton and woven either alone or in conjunction with 

 cotton. A sample of a union of mercerized cotton and viscose 

 is before me as I write. It has a fine satiny appearance and is 

 intended for dress goods, though so far the production does 

 not seem to have advanced beyond the experimental stage. 

 That it has possibilities in the textile trades there can, how- 

 ever, be no doubt, although it is not easy to speak so confi- 

 dently with regard to its future as a component part of vul- 

 canized rubber. It is difficult to see how it can successfully 

 withstand the vulcanizing temperature if the rubber is present 

 in any quantity at all. I am not familiar with the details of 

 Dr. Weber's work on the subject, though I understand that he 

 uses viscose, under a license from the Viscose Syndicate, in 

 conjunction with Pontianak gum and rubber, the product 

 which is certainly cheap enough, being intended to replace 

 compound rubber in many of its mechanical applications. 

 With regard to other compounds of cellulose, and their at- 

 tempted uses in the textile industry, there is little but failure 

 to report, and especially is this the case with the manufacture 

 of artificial silk from nitrocellulose. The untimely fate of 

 Pegamoid, Limited, will be fresh in the minds of my readers, 

 and as yet there is but little to go upon in attempting a fore- 

 cast of the operations of the new company established at 

 Morton Green, near Manchester, to cut out rubber with a 

 nitrocellulose compound somewhat similar to Pegamoid. 



This is an article which has not hitherto appeared in the 

 price lists of British rubber manufacturers, though theie are 



palpable signs that it will in the future receive its 

 RUBBER ffieed of recognition. Already it is to be seen 



labelled as a novelty in the windows of ourchemists 

 and druggists, a fact which cannot of course fail to attract 

 popular attention to its merits or demerits. I speak thus inde- 

 cisively because I really know nothing personally or from hear- 

 say as to Its advantages over the textile materials which it is 

 sought to displace by it. I remember noticing a large block of 

 it in the pavilion of the Russian-French Rubber Co.— the 

 •' Provodnik " company— of St. Petersburg, at the late Paris 

 Exhibition, and it was described to me by the official in charge 

 as being practically the only specialty of the company. My 

 informant added, I remember, that a considerable business was 

 done in it with the United States. It is understood that the 

 Russian mode of manufacturing this material is kept a secret, 

 and I do not profess to have any knowledge of the details. 

 Probably, however, I am not far wrong in attributing to car- 

 bonate of ammonia the main agency in producing the cellular 



effect. In a recent patent of Cirl Paulitschky, of Vienna, arti- 

 ficial sponge is made from leather fibers, milk of sulphur, rubber 

 solution, and carbonate of ammonia, the expulsion of the last 

 named body, at a temperature of 140° C, causing the mass to 

 assume the desired cellular structure. It is added that the 

 sponge may be obtained of any desired color by being submit- 

 ted to a suitable dyeing process. This result may possibly be 

 quite easy of attainment in a rubber substance where leather 

 largely predominates, but the suitable process where rubber 

 alone is concerned has not yet, to the best of my knowledge, 

 been evolved, or, at any rate, attained any degree of success. 



The price of this mephitic liquid, after having dropped a year 

 or two ago to £\o per ton, has lately, owing to a sudden in- 

 creased demand from rubber works, fetched as 



oF^CARBON '""'^^ 3® .£^° P^"" '°"' ^""^ buyers have had great 

 difficulty in filling their requirements. There are 

 only five or six makers in Great Britain, and last year one of 

 these gave up the business as being unprofitable. The contract 

 price ruling at present is about ^15 per ton, which gives a fair 

 return to the maker. The largest makers at present are the 

 United Alkali Co., who use all their output, it is understood, 

 themselves in the manufacture of potassium cyanide from sul- 

 phocyanides, there being now, as is generally known, a large de- 

 mand for potassium cyanide in the gold mining industry. 



The .i-Eolian winds so long pent up in the laboratory of the 



Greengate Rubber Works have now been let loose in the pages 



of a contemporary, and the first subject of 



GOVERNMENT ^^^ furious Onslaught has been the pro- 



SPECIFICATIONS. ° ^ 



cedure and wording of ourgovernment speci- 

 fication forms for rubber goods. I say subject, and not victim, 

 which the correct analogy from Vergil demands, because it has 

 yet to be shown how far the government officials confess to 

 having sinned in this direction, or to what extent their com- 

 posure will be disturbed by the currents of Dr. Weber's criti- 

 cism. To revert, however, to plain language, there is no doubt 

 that among rubber manufacturers generally there exists a feel- 

 ing that all is not quite as it should be in the text of those 

 specifications, and that alterations and amendments are desir- 

 able not only in the interests of the trade involved but also in 

 those of the departments themselves. Not that complete 

 unanimity exists among the manufacturers as to the details of 

 the suggested reforms ; as far as I have been able to judge from 

 casual conversation considerable latitude of opinion exists. 

 Moreover, all are not equally condemnatory of the methods of 

 testing which the government chemists in the plenitude of 

 their wisdom have seen fit to adopt. It would appear to be the 

 case that they do not rely entirely on the published tests in or- 

 der to satisfy themselves that the goods are of the quality and 

 nature required, but have also in addition unpublished tests 

 which serve as valuable auxiliaries in their work of discrimina- 

 tion. But, however this may be, the subject as introduced by 

 Dr. Weber is sure to meet with consideration in the trade ; in- 

 deed I understand that it will assuredly engage the attention 

 of the Rubber Manufacturers' Association, when in solemn 

 Amphictyonic council assembled, though the veil of secresy 

 which enfolds the proceedings of the association will of course 

 debar the outsider from sating his curiosity as to the details of 

 any such deliberations. It is noticeable that the railway com- 

 panies, both British and foreign, do not by any means fall into 



