44 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1902. 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent, 



FROM small beginnings undoubted though not very rapid 

 advance has been made by the rubber carriage tire in 

 popular estimation. It is clear, however, that much of 

 the initial prejudice which barred the way to rapid 

 progress has been overcome, and it is a safe prediction that the 

 near future will see the business increase at a 

 THE SOLID greater ratio than in previous periods which can 



VEHICLE TIRE , -.j. i. .t ■. .-. 



^„ „,. be pointed to. It may not be uninteresting to 



TRADE . ^ ' ° 



look at one or two features of the trade, more 

 especially such as have undergone somewhat material altera- 

 tion. To some, but only a small extent, in the past the rubber 

 manufacturer who actually supplied the tire applied the tire to 

 the customers' wheel or supplied the whole wheel with the tire 

 attached. To a greater extent this business has been done by 

 intermediate firms, most of whom were owners of some patent 

 and who have had the tires manufactured for them at some one 

 or other of the large rubber works. Of late, however, a recip- 

 rocal feeling that the other party is getting too much out of it 

 seems to have pervaded 

 both the tire company 

 and the rubber manu- 

 facturer, and while the 

 former have sought to 

 manufacture their own 

 rubber and reserve a 

 profit to themselves, the 

 rubber manufacturer 

 has begun to ask him- 

 self why he should not 

 attach the tire to the 

 wheel and make some- 

 thing out of so doing. 

 This is now being done 

 by one very prominent 

 rubber works, but it is 



too soon to say whether the anticipations of profit are likely to 

 be fully realized. Certainly the difficulties in the way of pro- 

 gressing in this direction are nothing like so great as lie in the 

 path of the middleman who thinks he may as well put down 

 rubber machinery and make his own tires. The business is by 

 no means a simple one, and too much care cannot be taken by 

 those who propose to go into it to see that the hands they en- 

 gage for the purpose are really competent to carry out the 

 work. There are so many points in connection with the com- 

 position of the mixing, and especially with the vulcanization, 

 the disregard of which can only bring trouble and loss; such 

 points are not common property, being limited to those com- 

 paratively few firms who have arrived, if not at perfection, at 

 any rate at a satisfactory result by dint of much labor and ex- 

 pense. This may seem to be merely the enunciation of a plati- 

 tude, but it cannot be too much emphasized. It may be added 

 as a final word that the solid tire seems to have quite super- 

 seded the pneumatic for vehicles, the latter being now very 

 rarely seen. 



These plantations, the property of the Las Cascadas Planta- 

 tions, Limited, having its office in Manchester, have recently 

 been the scene of Dr. C. O. Weber's travels and scientific ob- 

 servations. From his compendious report to the directors it 

 is clear that he considers the property likely to prove highly 



PLANTATIONS. 



remunerative in the near future, though he recommends the 



immediate improvement of the transport facili- 



LAS CASCADAS x.\cs, both On the estate and in the way of rail- 



RUBBER . T-u 1 .. • I 



way connection. The latter is a simple matter, 

 as the line from Colon to Panama runs through 

 the property. Some of the trees, which are the indigenous 

 Castilloa elastica, have been planted twelve years and rubber 

 from these is now in England being'tried on a manufacturing 

 scale. Dr. Weber's idea was to prepare the rubber on the spot 

 ready for use and this has been done to a small extent ; a novel 

 procedure which will be watched with interest. I note that 

 formalin was the antiseptic used for the purpose of destroying 

 albuminous matters which as is well known have when included 

 in the coagulated rubber done a good deal to reduce its mar- 

 ket value. I note the following sentence from the report in 

 extenso because of the incredulity with which it will doubtless 

 be received by old-fashioned rubber manufacturers : " The rub- 

 ber prospects at Las Cascadas are excellent ; the rubber obtain- 

 able is of such wonder- 

 ful quality that it will 

 find a readier and quick- 

 er sale, and at higher 

 prices than Para rub- 

 ber." Leaving out of ac- 

 count the probability of 

 the manufacturers rush- 

 ing to buy at a higher 

 price than Para, it will 

 be quite sufficient to 

 contemplate the upset- 

 ting of all existing ideas 

 as to the rubber from a 

 particular tree varying 



in itself and not by rea- 

 FRANKENSTEIN AND LYST SPREADING MACHINE. ^^^ ^^ ;^^ ^^^.^J^ ._^_ 



purities. I am in the present merely giving the words of 

 the report without expressing any opiinon of my own ; fa- 

 cilities will no doubt be afforded the trade of proving how far 

 the important statement can be substantiated. At any rate the 

 Lis Cascadas Co. are to be congratulated on going to the ex- 

 pense of an investigation which is bound to have far-reaching 

 results, and results moreover which will by means be limited to 

 those who have borne the burden of their production. 



Although the process of spreading is still mainly carried 



out in Great Britain on the original familiar type of machine, 



one or two patented machines have been intro- 



IMPROVED (juced in recent years, which embody the results of 



SPREADING , , , , J . ■ , 



MACHINES, careful thought and experiment in order to ob- 

 tain economy in labor. The first special machine 

 we shall refer to is the Frankenstein and Lyst machine, which 

 is made by Messrs. Joseph Robinson & Co., engineers, Spring- 

 field Ironworks, Salford, Manchester, and which the patentees 

 claim to embody the greatest improvements to date in proofing 

 machinery. The following is a brief description of its capacity 

 and some of its important points : 



The output per week of 48 hours is 120 pieces, or about 

 seven times the capacity of the ordinary spreader ; in other 

 words, it equals seven ordinary machines and a calender. The 

 machine is adapted to all kinds of fabrics, and the work turned 



