278 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^A^ORLD 



[JUNF. I, 1902. 



able degree of comment among the rank and file of players. 

 It may be said that, although various firms sell tennis balls 

 under their own name or mark, there are really only two or 

 three actual manufacturers of the rubber ball, which may be 

 purchased by the middlemen either complete with melton cov- 

 ering, or uncovered. At the present time the firms who make 

 the balls largely are the Silvertown, Macintosh, and Irwell com- 

 panies. Exactly to what extent Continental competition has 

 affected the above firms I am unable to say, but I do not think 

 it is a serious matter. 



In a recent paper by Mr. G. W. Newall, in the Marine En- 

 gineer, on the uses of India-rubber on board ship, it was stated 

 in the prolegomena that a sharp distinction 

 iRHEQULARiTiES gxistcd (presumably in the trade) between 

 nomenclat'ure. l^he terms Caoutchouc and India-rubber, and 

 that while the former referred specifically to 

 the raw rubber as imported, the use of the latter term was re- 

 stricted to the vulcanized product. Now I do not know to 

 what length Mr. Newall's acquaintance with rubber and its tech- 

 nology has extended, but I must say that in my own experience, 

 which has long passed the first decade of its existence, I have 

 not come across any one who recognized this distinction, or at 

 any rate who expressed himself in so confident a manner, and 

 I must say that when reading the sentence I rubbed my eyes 

 to make sure that I was not under the spell of some illusion. 

 The matter is, perhaps, not one of the first importance, but still 

 it hardly seems desirable that it should go altogether unchal- 

 lenged, as it is calculated to cause a certain amount of confusion 

 in the minds of buyers of rubber goods. In saying this, with 

 regard to existing facts. I don't wish to be understood as say- 

 ing that any such distinctive appellation is undesirable, or that 

 there are no grounds (or its advocacy because, no doubt, in 

 common with many others, I feel that the term India-rubber as 

 used in regard to manufactured goods is decidedly lacking in 

 definiteness. The term India-rubber may be appropriate in 

 every way when applied to such goods as cut sheet or elastic 

 thread, but loses all its significance when referred to mixtures 

 of minerals made to coalesce by the addition of a modicum of 

 rubber. But to pass on to another point, I don't think that 

 the somewhat uncouth word Caoutchouc used by Mr. Newell 

 has much vogue in British rubber manufacturing circles, what- 

 ever may be the case in France and Holland. The prevailing 

 uncertainty as to its correct pronunciation has, perhaps, acted 

 as a bar to its increased oral use, though personally I much pre- 

 fer the word Caoutchouc, with all its potentialities for mispro- 

 nunciation, to that of " gum," which, from a chemical point of 

 view at all events, is entirely misleading. Writing in an Amer- 

 ican journal I recognize that I am here on somewhat holy 

 ground and shall not pursue the subject beyond entering the 

 disclaimer. 



As regards the recent London automobile show, a tire that 

 has been a good deal talked about is the Sewell's suspensory 

 tire, which, shortly speaking, seems to be the old 

 MOTOR TIRE ball tire revived ; that is, a rubber rim to which 

 are attached numerous contiguous pneumatic rub- 

 ber balls. The idea, of course, is to minimize trouble caused 

 by puncture. With regard, however, to something that has 

 undoubtedly come to stay, to judge by what we hear from 

 automobilists mention, should be made of the Goodyear pneu- 

 matic tire, from America, which is being so largely fitted this 

 season by the Daimler Motor Co. These tires have recently 

 been fitted to the Daimler car used by the King, instead of the 

 solid ones which he has hitherto used. With respect to an- 

 other motor tire, which calls for reference here, things have 

 hardly advanced to a stage at which I can speak with confi- 



dence. This is the Martin Tyre Syndicate, of which Mr. Tom- 

 linson, of Preston, is the chairman and moving spirit. It is a 

 pneumatic but without an inner tube. I should say that the 

 runs made with this tire from one end of Great Britain to the 

 other have shown it to be possessed of sterling properties. 

 With regard to price, it certainly has an advantage over others 

 that are being much talked about, and this is a consideration 

 that cannot be ignored by those wishful of gaining the motorists' 

 favor. From all accounts the motor tire business is on the eve 

 of a substantial increase and it is not surprising that increased 

 activity is being shown by inventors in order to share the per- 

 spective plunder, to use the term in a sense not meant to be 

 inviduous. 



This old-established rubber substitute manufacturing firm 



has recently been reconstructed and is now quite independent 



of any connection with Messrs. Broadhurst 



G. H. SCOTT & CO., ^ (3q _ Limited, India-rubber manufacturers. 



LIMITED. _, ,. ,11 



The two directors who now have sole con- 

 trol of the business are Mr. O. M. Wihl, of Messrs. Edward 

 Wihl iS: Co., 17, Nicholas street, Manchester, and F. Murga- 

 troyd, of Messrs. Trevar, Murgatroyd & Co., accountants, Man- 

 chester. Mr. Ireland, of Widner, who had been announced as 

 a director, has retired from any active participation in the 

 management. The practical work is still carried on under the 

 control of Mr. G. H. Scott at Hayne Bar Mill, New Mills, near 

 Stockport, and under his able supervision there is no reason 

 why the firm should not experience an era of prosperity, 

 though, of course, with the greatly increased competition in 

 substitute and recovered rubber, the profits of former days are 

 hardly likely to be realized. • 



The recent resignation of Mr. F. A. Byrne from the Dunlop 



rubber works at Birmingham has caused some little surprise. 



The Byrne family are now quite unrepresented in 



NEWS jjjg management of the company at either of its 



IN BRIEF. r! , „ , , 



rubber mills. Mr. E. J. Byrne 1 presume still holds 



the post of advisory expert to the company to which he was 

 appointed a year or so ago at a high remuneration. = -= At the 

 recently held annual meeting of Messrs. Charles Mackintosh & 

 Co., Limited, a dividend at the rate of 11 per cent, for the past 

 year was declared. Mr. F. H. Smith, the chairman of the direc- 

 tors, presided. ==A general meeting and dinner of the India 

 Rubber Manufacturers' Association was held on May 8, at the 

 Queens Hotel, Manchester. ==An important cable works com- 

 bine has just been announced, though rumors concerning it 

 have been current for some time. This is the union of the Tel- 

 egraph Manufacturing Co., Limited, of Helsby, near Warring- 

 ton, with The British Insulated Wire Co., Limited, of Prescott 

 Lancashire. Considering the independent position hitherto 

 maintained by the Helsby company, the proprietors of which, 

 Messrs. Taylor, have built it up from small beginnings, the new 

 arrangement has come somewhat as a surprise. Following, 

 however, as it does on the Callender-Henley combine, it rather 

 points to the fact that, despite the good dividends paid by 

 cable firms during the last few years, the business is not one of 

 which the future can be viewed with perfect confidence. This 

 opinion is borne out by what Mr. James Taylor said at the 

 extraordinary general meeting of the Helsby company, held at 

 Liverpool on May 9 to ratify the sale of the company to the 

 British Insulated Wire Co. The name of the joint concern 

 has not yet been decided upon, nor have the terms on which 

 the Helsby sold their concern been stated, though there is no 

 doubt that the recent decline in the valued the Insulated Wire 

 Co's. shares has been to the advantage of the shareholders in 

 the Helsby company in the bargain which has just been con- 

 cluded. 



