Feukuary I, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^VORLD 



161 



RUBBER NOTES FROM EUROPE. 



THE Calmon Asbestos and Rubber Works, Limited, have 

 been registered to take over the business of asbestos and 

 rubber manufacturers and merchants, carried on hitherto by the 

 Calmon Asbestos and Rubber Works, at 6, Sheppy place, 

 Menories, London, and to adopt an agreement with the Asbest- 

 und Gummiwerke, Alfred Calmon, Actiengesellschaft, Ham- 

 burg. The capital is ,£ 50.000, and Herr Alfred Calmon is one 

 of the first directors. 



= Mr. Ernest E. Buckleton, general manager and executive 

 officer of the Northwestern Rubber Co., Limited, (Litheiland, 

 Liverpool, England), is meeting with the most flattering sort 

 of success in placing his goods among rubber manufacturers in 

 Great Britain and on the Continent. Mr. Buckleton is very 

 much of a cosmopolitan and in his travels is able to interest 

 the French, Germans, Russians, and Belgians, just as much as 

 he does the Anglo-Saxons. 



= VVallington, Weston & Co., India-rubber manufactureis, 

 having their warehouse and works hitherto at Limpley Stoke, 

 Bath, England, advise The India Rubber World that, owing 

 to increased business, they have secured new mills and laid 

 down a new and larger plant, in a new location. Their only 

 address for office and works hereafter is Wallington, Weston & 

 Co., St. John's Mills, Frome, England. The company are hav- 

 ing a good business in solid rubber vehicle tires. 



= Reclaimed rubber made from Russian galoshes is being of- 

 fered to the trade by the Russian-French Rubber Works, 

 " Provodnik," Riga, Russia. 



= The Continental Caoutchouc- und Guttapercha- Com- 

 pagnie had 454 wheels at the Paris automobile exhibition 

 fitted with their tires. 



= Mr. T. J. Lloyd, who has been connected with the India- 

 Rubber, Gutta-Percha, and Telegraph Works Co., Limited, 

 for forty years, and had been their secretary since 1896, died 

 in London on December 24. Mr. Lloyd was in his sixty-first 

 year. 



THEFTS OF RUBBER IN ENGLAND. 



According to the India-Rubber Trades Journal, which of late 

 has reported several cases of prosecution of thefts of raw rubber, 

 "there is at least for every case prosecuted ten to twenty cases 

 undetected," which must mean a big loss to the trade, and the 

 /ournal urges that no detected thief should be left unprosecu- 

 ted. The case is mentioned where a series of thefts went on in 

 a certain rubber factory for a long time, and was detected only 

 by accident. The works were built on the side of a canal and 

 separated from this canal by a wall. The thieving workman, 

 in collusion with an outsider, had only to carry the rubber a few 

 steps and drop it over the wall into the canal, whence it could 

 easily be fished out. 



A RUBBER WORKERS' UNION IN ENGLAND. 

 At a recent meeting of the Preston Trades' Council, the 

 chairman stated that he was extremely sorry to announce that 

 the Leyland Rubber Workers' Union had come to grief. He 

 quite understood the many difficulties with which they had to 

 contend, but he could not help contrasting their position with 

 the long and plucky stand of the Penrhyn quarrymen. The 

 l^onAon India- Rubber Trades Journal s.iys: "If the chairman 

 understood the peculiar circumstances that obtain in a rubber 

 works, he would be better able to appreciate why it is that there 

 can never be a union akin to that in any other trade. The first 

 step of a union would be to try to bring about a level rate of 

 pay. In a rubber works, where many of the branches are de- 

 pendent upon the skill of the workers, such a proposal would 



be absurd, and would be worse for the rubber workers concern- 

 ed. It is to be sincerely trusted that any other attempt to form 

 new branches of the union will meet with the same determined 

 resistance as occurred at Leyland." 



HARD RUBBER WORKERS IN LEIPSIC. 

 A MEETING at " Schloss Lindenfels " at Leipsic-Lindenau, 

 was attended by about 50 rubber turners. After a lecture on 

 '• The Duty of the Workman in the Present Industrial State." 

 statistics were presented, showing a total of 128 workers en- 

 gaged in the hard rubber branch in Leipsic — namely, 84 turn- 

 ers and 28 polishers (grinders). Of these 56 were organized 

 and 31 not organized ; 77 per cent, took part in the meeting ; 

 60 mairied, with 141 children and 27 single; average age 

 27 years, 9 months, 4 days. Seventeen persons were unem- 

 ployed for a total of 172 weeks; 18 were sick for a total of 67 

 weeks. The average wages was 25 marks [=$5.95] per \yeek, 

 against 22.62 marks [ = $538] last year. — Gtimmi Zeitung. 



THE RUBBER INDUSTRY IN RIGA. 



According to an official report, there are three rubber fac- 

 tories in or near Riga, two being small private concerns. The 

 third is the Russian French " Prowodnik " stock company, 

 with a capital of 3.500,000 rubels [=$1,832,500]. The turnover 

 for 1901 amounted to 8,000,000 rubles [^$4,120,000]. The 

 profit for the year was 120,000 rubles [ = $6i,8oo], all of which 

 was transferred to reserve and sinking funds. Though no 

 workers were discharged during the year, the working hours 

 were shortened in some cases. Very sharp competition, at 

 home and abroad, is referred to as preventing the earning of 

 larger profits, in spite of the large volume of trading. The 

 daily wages are equal to 36 to 87 cents for men and 21 to 36 

 cents for women. Piece workers earn from 8 to 36 cents more 

 per day. The production consists largely of " galoshes." 



THE DUNLOP TIRE COMPANY. 



At the annual meeting of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co., 

 Limited, (London, December 10), Mr. Harvey du Cros, in dis- 

 cussing the expiration next year of the Dunlop tire patents, 

 intimated that the company did not fear a German invasion 

 of the trade the moment that the company's patent monopoly 

 ceased. He said to the company that no one could manufac- 

 ture a "Dunlop" tire without their permission. "The name 

 ' Dunlop ' is your property, and cannot be alienated or taken by 

 anybody else, and your position in the cycle trade is secure." 

 On this point it would appear, from the India- Rubber Journal 

 (London), that opinion is divided, it having been generally con- 

 sidered that a patented article known by any name, even that 

 of an individual, could on the expiration of the patent be man- 

 ufactured by any person. Mr. du Cros stated that the turnover 

 of their rubber works during the fiscal year had been ;£5 10,000, 

 and that an addition of ^£40,000 had been made to the capital 

 devoted to the rubber manufacture. The earnings of the rub- 

 ber company had amounted to ;^54,ooo. Speaking of the re- 

 duction of prices during the year, he said that if the year's 

 business had been done at the former prices charged for their 

 tires, it would have made a difference in their profit of between 

 ;£5o,ooo and _^6o,ooo. 



DUNLOP PNEUMATIC TYRE CO. OF AUSTRALIA. 



The above company are successfully operating their factory, 

 at Melbourne, manufacturing Dunlop tires and the " Kelly- 

 Springfield " rubber vehicle tire. They expect gradually to 

 extend their manufacture to include nearly all the products of 

 the riibber industry. Their superintendent, John Stearns, for- 

 merly of Akron, Ohio, is highly pleased with the country, which 

 he regards as offering a grand field for the development of the 

 rubber industry. 



