September i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



383 



drawing of the copper wire, the malcing of joint boxes, sec- 

 tion pillars, being carried on in addition to the insulating of 

 wires. The company introduced the system of twin lead- 

 covered house wire cables and were the first manufacturers of 

 low capacity air space telephone cables, as also of concentric 

 and triple concentric cables on a commercial scale. Briefly de- 

 scribed, the insulation is carried out as follows : The wires are 

 covered with paper strip by machinery and then soaked in hot 

 rosin oil, passing immediately from the oil tank to the lead 

 press, where, at a pressure of 2240 pounds on the square inch, 

 the metallic coating is put on. After the lead comes a further 

 protective covering, either of iron wire or hemp, or both, ac- 

 cording to the position which the cable will occupy in use. 

 The finished cables are tested to 2500 volts for a working pres- 

 sure of 500 volts, and to 10,000 volts in the case of high pres- 

 sure mains to work at 3000 volts. I don't wish, however, to 

 go into abstruse detail, and may bring this notice to a conclu- 

 sion with the stereotyped remark that the visitors expressed 

 themselves as much gratified with what they had seen. I may 

 mention that the annual meeting of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry is to be held in New York in 1904, a very cordial in- 

 vitation from the New York section having been accepted by 

 the general meeting at Liverpool. 



The editorial remarks in the June issue of The India Rub- 

 ber World with regard to the shipments of " Para rubber " 

 from Ceylon strike me as very much to the 



PARA RUBBER point. It Certainly does not do to take it for 



FROM THE EAST. '^ ^ , ^ , ^ i . j . 



granted that a transported or transplanted tree 

 will yield produce similar to that obtained from it in its natural 

 habitat. Even if it does so it may prove to be a matter of 

 time. If space permitted, a good deal might be said on the 

 changes which have been noted both in animals and plants 

 under the influence of foreign climes ; but it will suffice to say 

 that my own experience, limited though I must confess it has 

 been, fully bears out what is said in the June issue as to the in- 

 feriority in tensile strength of the Eastern grown Pard rubber. 

 Purity and cleanliness, important attributes though they be, 

 are not everything which has deservedly come to be associated 

 with the name of Pari rubber, and it is certainly good advice 

 to suggest that the results of extended practical trial should 

 be awaited before too sanguine a view is taken of the new 

 product on the market. The samples of which I had special 

 knowledge came from Mergui,in upper India, but their defects 

 were identical with those attributed to the new Ceylon pro- 

 duct. 



I AM informed by Mr. W. F. Reid, the inventor of Velvril, 

 that it is incorrect to suppose that the right of manufacture is 

 solely vested intheGandy Belt Co. This company 

 has the right of use as far as its particular trade is 

 concerned, but the general manufacture is still carried on near 

 London by the Velvril Co., Limited, of which Mr. Reid is man- 

 aging director. 



It cannot be said that any great spurt has been experienced 



lately in the proofing trade, the depression in which I referred 



to in my last letter. A great many machines are 



^'^^ standing idle, though in the case of some firms 



PROOFINQ & ' t> 



TRADE, this is evidence of falling off in the War office de- 

 mand for ground sheets, rather than as a decline 

 in macintosh business proper. There is no doubt that some 

 firms have done very well in government orders during the 

 period of the war, though of course they have known that it 

 was merely a temporary era of prosperity, if one can use such a 

 term in connection with a rather disastrous war. If, as a 

 civilian, I may be allowed to offer a little criticism, I should 

 suggest that the ground sheets served out to our volunteers in 



CABLE NOTES. 



camp might be renewed with advantage rather oftener, as in 

 several cases I have noticed the rubber to be in a condition to 

 which the name of waterproof no longer applies. It is quite 

 possible that more to this effect will be heard when South 

 African grievances come to be fully ventilated. 



Whatever may be the future of rubber insulation for steel 

 mains — and it is not possible to blind our eyes to the fact that 

 its employment for this purpose has suffered a 

 severe relapse — it will assuredly remain in gen- 

 eral demand for switch board connections and for the feeders 

 for tramway lines. In these cases the elasticity of the rubber 

 cable is a very important point and in this respect the heavy 

 lead covered cables cannot compete at all. As much as ;^400 

 worth of subsidiary cable for connections may be used in a sys- 

 tem where the road cables proper are all of the fibrous or bi- 

 tumen type.^^^'The Liverpool Electric Wire Co. and the An- 

 chor Cable Co. of Leigh, Lancashire, are the latest additions to 

 the cable making industry. 



This market seems to gain in favor amongst our manufac- 

 turers at the expense of Liverpool — that is, as far as African 

 rubbers are concerned. The grading is carried 

 out in a more systematic manner, and the bulk 

 is delivered equal to sample. The regular Brit- 

 ish travelers employed are stated to be a greater convenience 

 than is the Liverpool method of warehousing. 



One of the firms making this a specialty is the Norton Fol- 



gate Rubber Co. named from the locality off Bishopsgate street, 



London, in which it is situated. Mr. Barnett 



RUBBER Abrahams, the proprietor, has also a large business 



SOLUTION. . , , , 



in cutting outand making upgarments from proofed 

 cloth. The solution is largely sold in collapsible tubes, which 

 of the ordinary size of 3 inches by i inch sell at 2S. gd. per doz- 

 en. It hardly needs to be said that the material is largely used 

 by cyclists, though a good demand is experienced from the elec- 

 trical industry. 



Mr. J. W. O. Walker, who has been for some years mana- 

 ger at Messrs. George McLellan & Co.'s rubber works at Glas- 

 gow, has resigned that position and is, I under- 

 SHORT stand, taking up a post with the Dunlop Rubber 



MENTION. I » r r r 



Co., at Birmingham. Mr. Walker was for some 

 years head of a department at Messrs. Charles Macintosh & 

 Co.'s works. ==The Clarendon Rubber Co. is the title of a new 

 rubber firm started at the Ragland street works, Hyde, neai 

 Manchester, under the management of Mr. Redfern. 



ANTWERP 

 RUBBER MARKET. 



RUBBER IN THE UPPER NILE REGION. 



THE Earl of Cromer, British agentand consul in Egypt, in a 

 recent report to the Foreign office, states that consider- 

 able quantities of rubber trees are reported in many of the 

 districts of the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal. The director of 

 woods and forests had been despatched to report on the possi- 

 bilities of reopening the rubber trade of Bahr-el-Ghazal, which, 

 prior to the uprising of the Mahdists, had begun to attain im- 

 portance. It is known that the late General Gordon, who lost 

 his life in that region, had the hope that a great commerce could 

 be built up there, based primarily upon India-rubber, and the late 

 Emin Pasha left in his notes references of interest to the same 

 subject. It is also hoped, in the near future, to develop the rub- 

 ber forests in southwestern Kordofan, which, from all accounts, 

 are of great importance. Kordofan is an Egyptian province 

 immediately west of Abyssinia, and in the same latitude as the 

 German Kamerun, a rubber producing district on the west 

 coast of Africa. Another article in this paper, by the way, re- 

 lates to rubber in German Africa. 



