46 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1902. 



ast summer of examining the ground sheets of a brigade camp 

 and found that many of them were too far gone to be of much 

 use from a waterproof point of view. The rubber could be 

 easily rubbed oil by the finger at the places where superficial 

 cracking was apparent. It struck me that it was not quite the 

 thing to serve out such equipment to the unsuspecting private, 

 though personally I have no interest or animus in the matter 

 and certainly have no wish to take an active part m any de- 

 monstration against the authorities. Perhaps it is only natu- 

 ral, but any knowledge of rubber, its properties, peculiarities, 

 or potentialities, does not seem to exist in the mind of the 

 average officer such knowledge would appear, except in rare 

 instances, to be limited to those astute officials who regulate 

 contracts for rubber goods at headquarters. So much for mat- 

 ters military. Pursuing the querulous note raised in this par- 

 agraph, a few words will now be said on — 



Whether or not it is due to slackness of trade in general 



and consequent diminution of profits, there certainly seems a 



greater tendency at the present time to make 



COMPLAINTS complaints as to quality of goods than used 



REGARDING J^ , ^_, . ' ^ 



RUBBER GOODS. '° "^ '"^ case. This remark applies gen- 

 erally, though I am here only concerned with 

 it in its limitation to the rubber trade. No doubt a good many 

 complaints are quite 6ona fide, but some which have recently 

 come to my knowledge certainly cannot come under that cate- 

 gory, and it is hard indeed for the manufacturer to incur the 

 odium of the buyer when the fault lies entirely with the latter 

 or his employes. There seems no reason at all to doubt that 

 m certain cases, which I do not feel inclined to specify here, the 

 complaint made was honest enough as far as the firm or its re- 

 sponsible officials were concerned, but there is also no reason 

 to doubt that the fault lay entirely with the workmen of the 

 buyer who, fearful of experiencing direful consequences should 

 they confess to a delinquency, resolved to attribute the blame to 

 the rubber manufacturer. I am as I have indicated only writ- 

 ing in general terms, and therefore it would serve no useful 

 purpose to prolong this paragraph ; it seemed advisable, how- 

 ever, to refer to the topic and not at all by way of counselling 

 the guilty to oppose genuine claims, but in order to utter a 

 warning against a regretable tendency of the day. 



At the present time one hears on all side growling about 

 the fines inflicted on motorists for exceeding the legal rate of 

 speed in public highways, this action being likely, 

 NOTES '' '^ asserted, to seriously retard the popularity of 

 the motor and consequently restrict the profits of 

 those who manufacture the machine and its accessories. Un- 

 doubtedly this year has seen the motor car make big strides in 

 popular favor, and the question as to the limit of speed allow- 

 able, which is being fought out in the London papers, will soon- 

 er or later have to engage the attention of the legislature. To 

 judge by the tires in use among members of important auto- 

 mobile clubs, it would seem that the pneumatic is almost uni- 

 versally favored, though as a set back to this statement it may 

 be said that a prominent member of the India-Rubber Manu- 

 facturers' Association pins his faith to solid tires. The latter 

 seem to give most satisfaction to the devotees of heavy ma- 

 chines and moderate speed, while those who have attracted 

 the notice of the police prefer a machine as light as possible 

 with pneumatics. But whatever tire is used, there can be no 

 doubt, from the signs of the times, that the rubber motor 

 tire will shortly show a greatly accelerated demand, and this 

 fact cannot but prove welcome now that the cycle demand 

 is practically stationary. The movement, however, is not 

 likely to be so rapid as was the case with the cycle tire, be- 

 cause of the very good reason that those who can afford to 



NEW WORKS. 



DR. J. H. GLADSTONE. 



purchase a motor car are not to be found in every grade of 



society, and the increased use of the lumbering goods vehicle 

 will not affect the rubber manufacturer. 



The financial matters in connection with the reorganization 



of this company do not seem to be progressing very favorably. 



The call of 5 shillings per share in order to raise 



HYDE /2o,ooo to pay old creditors 6^. M. in the pound 



IMPERIAL . . . , . . , , *^ , 



RUBBER CO ^ provide working capital has not yet at the 



time of writing been sufficiently responded to 

 The works, however, are still in operation under the guidance 

 of the official receiver. 



Mr. Waddicar, whose experience has been gained in Scot- 

 land and at the works of the Leyland and Birmingham Cos., 

 has started in business in a small way at New- 

 ton Moor, near Hyde. Textiles and belling 

 will be chiefly manufactured.==With regard to the Claren- 

 don Rubber Co., recently stated in these notes to have been 

 started at Hyde, it should be said that the business carried on 

 is that of merchants in certain classes of rubber goods and not 

 of manufacturers in the strict sense of the term. 



The death of John Hall Gladstone, F. R. S., removes one of 

 those very few scientists who have made the constitution of 

 India-rubber a subject for research. The 

 work done by Dr. Gladstone in conjunc- 

 tion with his assistant, Mr. Hibbert, with regard to the mo- 

 lecular constitution of India-rubber, was published in the pro- 

 ceedings of the Chemical Society of London for 1888, though, 

 owing to its somewhat abstruse character and from the fact 

 that it had no technical bearing, it may be taken that it is not 

 at all familiar to the rubber trade. It will, however, always 

 have its value for subsequent investigators, and no doubt the 

 future will bear some practical testimony to its worth. Dr. 

 Gladstone belonged to that small band of chemists who, pos- 

 sessed of ample private means, spend their time in scientific in- 

 vestigations, pecuniary results not coming into their calcula- 

 tions. As a man of wide philanthropic proclivities many 

 societies besides the Chemical — of which he was a member for 

 54 years — will miss his genial presence, and none the less will 

 this regret be shared by those who, like the writer, can recall 

 conversations in his research laboratory, which was situated in 

 one of the thoroughfares in the vicinity of his house in Pem- 

 bridge square, in the West end of London. 



From what I can gather, there does not seem any violent 

 rush on the part of the trade to participate in the advantages 

 of this material as distributed from Glasgow. The 

 very moist state in which it has come into com- 

 merce is certainly a bar to its utility, and, judging from remarks 

 which have been made in my hearing, its prospects of ultimate 

 success are anything but roseate unless it can be supplied in a 

 dry condition. A material that loses over 40 per cent, on dry- 

 ing at ioo°C. will hardly commend itself to the trade, and for 

 more reasons than one. I don't pretend to any special know- 

 ledge of the manufacture myself, but understand that the fatal 

 tendency to absorb moisture has militated greatly against the 

 success ol viscose bodies in the textile manufactures. 



James Thame (in United States patent No. 707,654) treats 

 crude rubber for the removal of objectionable matter by the 

 submergence of the rubber in small pieces in a hot alkaline 

 solution until the interstices of the rubber are in contact with 

 the solvent. The solvent charged rubber is next submerged in 

 water or other liquid of less specific gravity than the solvent 

 for such time as will allow the solvent to act upon the rubber 

 surfaces, after which the rubber is washed to remove the dis- 

 solved matter and any residual free solvent. 



VISCOSE. 



