December 



1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBiiER ^VORLD 



77 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



'^T~^ HE tender forms for the usual Admiralty contracts have 

 I been sent out a month later than usual this year, No- 

 vember II being the last date forsending in. With re- 

 gard to the specifications one or two alterations, and 

 rather important ones too, deserve to be noticed. Instead of 

 the stereotyped expression " pure Paia rubber," 

 the " best rubber " has been substituted, it hav- 



QOVERNMENT 

 CONTRACTS. 



ing evidently at last dawned upon the official 

 mind that in the case of compounded mechanical rubbers the 

 use of fine Pard only is not an absolute necessity. Of course 

 this gives greater scope to those manufacturers who have hith- 

 erto stuck rigidly to the letter of the specification in preparing 

 their samples and quotations. However, the next alteration I 

 would draw attention to does a good deal to nullify the advan- 

 tage supposed to be gained by the elimination of the word 

 " Pard." This alteration consists in raising the old established 

 heat tests from three hours moist heat at 320° F. to four hours, 

 and from one hour dry heat at 270° F. to two hours at that tem- 

 perature. It rather looks as if some exterior influences had 

 been at work to bring about this revision, because government 

 departments are notoriously slow moving. Certainly for many 

 years I have heard rumblings and rumors of discontent among 

 rubber manufacturers as to the inadequacy of the tests applied ; 

 undoubtedly in the past they have been on the side of those 

 who have not looked closely to the wording of the specification, 

 and there can be no doubt that those whose only wish is to sup- 

 ply a first class article at a commensurate price will welcome 

 the greater stringency of the tests. 



Whenever I take up a volume dealing generally with chem- 

 istry and devoting a chapter or two to some branch of the rub- 

 ber trade it is always with some degree of appre- 

 'of^wastT ^"^"5'°" that I turn to the pages dealing with 

 rubber. I have in mind at the moment a recently 

 issued volume translated from the German, " The Utilization 

 of Waste Products," by Theodor Roller. As an attempt to 

 epitomize the existing condition of the recovered rubber in- 

 dustry it is wholly inadequate, if indeed not misleading, the 

 subject matter being evidently compiled from Patent office 

 sources without any attempt having been made to discrimi- 

 nate between the shadowy ideals of enthusiastic patentees and 

 what has really proved of service and come to be employed on 

 the large scale. 



As foreshadowed in these notes a few months ago the compe- 

 tition between the established dealers in reclaimed rubber in 

 this country, both for the home and the Amer- 

 ican product, and the newly started North West- 

 ern Rubber Co., of Litherland near Liverpool, 

 has become somewhat acute. With regard to the actual mer- 

 its of the various products I am not concerned here, but it may 

 be mentioned that the North Western goods are of somewhat 

 different composition to what our manufacturers have been 

 using. With regard to the poorer qualities of black waste re- 

 covered from old mechanical rubbers, the demand does not 

 seem equal to the supply. For one thing many of the rubber 

 works grind up such waste for themselves, buying it from the 

 railway companies, who are now all alive to the monetary value 

 of their old rubber. Whenever a stock has accumulated a ten- 

 der form is sent to the rubber works as well as to the regular 

 dealers in waste rubber, and it is not surprising that the rubber 



RECLAIMED 



manufacturer will sometimes bid a pretty good price if he 

 wishes to get in the good books of the railway company with 

 regard to prospective business in new material. With respect 

 to firms carrying on the reclaiming business I was somewhat 

 surprised to hear that the Rubber Chemical Co., Limited, had 

 decided to cease manufacturing in London and that their works 

 and plant were for Fale. It is only a short time since the mills 

 were fitted up with machinery at a considerable cost, but no 

 doubt there are substantial reasons for carrying on the business 

 entirely at Birmingham. 



Not unnaturally the Leyland and Birmingham Rubber Co. 



are somewhat jubilant over their success in the long distance 



tire trials, the Collier tire, owned and made by 



RECENT them, obtaining the most marks. It is only fair 



MOTOR TIRE ^ , , r^ , . , , , 



TRIALS. ^^y VnsX the Uunlop tire, made closely on the 



lines of Michelin's, also showed up well." The 

 collapse of the much vaunted Goodyear tire has formed a topic 

 for much discussion, and under the circumstances it seems a 

 pity that its merits had not been more severely tested before 

 being put upon the English market. It may be mentioned, by 

 the way, that the arrangement come to between Messrs. Mich- 

 elin and the Dunlop company as to the sale of the former's 

 tires in Great Britain has not been renewed, and it is under- 

 stood that the Dunlop company have made a somewhat simi- 

 lar arrangement with the Continental Caoutchouc- und Gutta- 

 percha- Compagnie of Hanover. 



Although important additions have recently been made 



in the service from the metropolis to the north of England, it is 



clearly announced by the government authori- 



UNDERQROUND [jgs j^at the ground wires are only to be con- 



TELEGRAPH -J J ,V , , , . 



i^ii^gg sidered as adjuncts to the overhead service, to 



be used mostly when the latter are affected by 

 storms or snow. This because they are more costly and diffi- 

 cult to work. Without going into great detail it may be pointed 

 out that in the case of the very low telephone currents the 

 question of the insulator used is of the highest importance. All 

 materials absorb a certain amount of current — or, in more tech- 

 nical language, have a certain inductive capacity. With regard 

 to this, constant dry paper gives the lowest figure, and it has 

 therefore been adopted entirely for long distance telephony in 

 place of Gutta-percha. The use of paper for the long distance 

 telephone cables is not identical with the practice employed in 

 the case of short town wires. In the latter case each wire is in- 

 sulated with paper and encased in a tube while in the former, 

 as for instance in the London- Birmingham cable, the wires are 

 bare but separated from each other by a longitudinal bed of pa- 

 per. The utmost precautions are requisite in laying and joint- 

 ing such cables to prevent the access of moisture. This ques- 

 tion of moisture in our climate has had such an adverse influ- 

 ence upon the dry core cable manufacture that it has practi- 

 cally died out, cables of American make being now very gen- 

 erally used in Great Britain. 



The merits and demerits of this substance have during re- 

 cent months formed the subject of much discussion and exper- 

 imental work. Though it appears to be of some- 

 what similar character to the "euphorbia gum " 

 or "potato rubber" which has never attained 

 more than a modicum of success in the trade, it has proved it- 

 self superior to it as a cheap binding ingredient in certain rub- 



PONTIANAK 

 QUM. 



