May 1, 1913.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



437 



THE IRWXLL 

 AND EASTERN 



(end of March) from the London premises, 117 to 123 Golden 



Lane, London, E. C, and the type and 



THE B. F. GOODRICH illustrations are of their usual excellence. 



CO., LIMITED. „, , ,,,,,. 



I he general trend of the alterations m 

 price is downward, an important reduction being in the case of 

 the De Vilbies range of atomizers. 



A new pencil-mark eraser, to take the place of the well-known 

 rubber brand, is now on sale at our stationers' shops, coming, 



I understand, from Germany. Whether 

 NEW ERASER. this has anything to do with the recent 



fall in price of rubber, I do not know, 

 but at any rate, I have met people who say they prefer the new 

 substance to rubber. A block of the following approximate di- 

 mensions sells for one penny : 2 in. x J4 in. x J4 in. thick. It is 

 evidently made of some solidified oil with mineral matter of a 

 soft texture, which does not remove the gloss on the paper. 



This company whose works are at Ordsall Lane, Manchester, 

 have recently completed the extensions to their balata belting 

 plant, and arc now busily engaged in 

 extensions to their mechanical rubber 

 department. Owing to contiguity to 

 house property, and the difficulty of getting more ground space, 

 some of his passages, where a knowledge of rubber machinery 

 on the American girder and concrete principle. This work when 

 completed will afford room which is very necessary for the ex- 

 pansion in the mechanical rubber business to which branch the 

 company largely confines itself. 



"Celluloid, Its Manufacture, Application and Substitutes," is 



the title of a new and important work by Masselon Roberts and 



Cillard. It has been translated from the 



''"^^ CTLLULO™^"' ^""<^^ ^y ^- ^- H°<lg5°n. and published 

 by Griffin & Co., London, at 2Ss. net. 

 As the first book, I believe, published in English on the celluloid 

 industry, and at any rate, the most modern and comprehensive, 

 I may perhaps be allowed a few lines in this correspondence to 

 congratulate the authors on having achieved a somewhat difficult 

 task, and it would not surprise me if he met with criticism in 

 of course, familiar to many rubber men by reason of its con- 

 nection with our Parisian contemporary "Le Caoutchouc et la 

 Gutta Percha," in which paper considerable attention has all along 

 been paid to the celluloid industry. In drawing attention to the 

 paucity of literature on the subject the authors make no reference 

 to the important work of E. C. Worden, of Milburn, New 

 Jersey, published in 1911; which, dealing with the nitro-cellulose 

 industry, devotes 205 pages to celluloid alone. 



Celluloid is an intimate mixture of nitro-cellulose and camphor, 

 and in the earlier chapters of the book nitro-cellulose, the 

 rationale of its nitration and the various commercial nitration 

 processes, are fully treated, with a wealth of mathematics, which 

 will probably prove disconcerting to many readers. Those, how- 

 ever, who are in a position to understand the mathematics will 

 recognize their importance, and will not enroll themselves among 

 those who may be inclined to think them out of place in a 

 volume of this sort. The celluloid industry has attained con- 

 siderably more prominence in France and Germany than is the 

 case with England and America, tor which, and for other reasons, 

 the book is almost entirely concerned with continental practice. 

 The British Xylonite Co., for instance, finds no mention, though 

 there are some references to American procedure. 



Rubber men who are unfamiliar with the celluloid industry 

 will be interested to notice so much similarity in plant, the rolling 

 mill for instance in which the cellulose nitrate, steeped in the 

 alcoholic solution of camphor, and mixed with various mineral 

 or organic colors, is worked into uniform sheets, seems to differ 

 in no essential from the rubber mixing mill. The block press 

 again is very similar to that used in the fine cut sheet in- 

 dustry. The waste celluloid, i. e., cuttings from goods. 



corresponds to unvulcanized rubber waste and can be used 

 again in large proportions. There is nothing corresponding 

 to vulcanized scrap in the industry. The analysis of celluloid is 

 stated to be very difficult, another point of similarity with 

 rubber. Not unnaturally, under the circumstances of the author- 

 ship, reference is made to the advantages offered by the 

 Dynamometer P. B. and the elasto-durometer, for making 

 mechanical tests on celluloid. I must confess that I have never 

 worn a celluloid collar, but goods of their class, made from what 

 is commonly called American linen, seem to be largely manu- 

 factured in France and Germany in the celluloid works. The 

 inflammability of celluloid naturally comes up for mention in the 

 book, but as I do not feel inclined to discuss this important 

 matter in a line or two, I leave it alone. 



The book concludes with a limited notice of the proposed sub- 

 stitutes for celluloid, few of which the authors say have any real 

 industrial value. The best future, they say, appears reserved for 

 the acetates — which, by the way, are now being used in the "non- 

 flam" film manufacture. Altogether the authors must be con- 

 gratulated, in my opinion, in having produced a much needed and 

 well written work. The translator has had by no means an easy 

 task with a very great measure of success. The name Cillard is, 

 some one-story buildings are being converted into three-story 

 would have come to his aid in making rough places smooth. 



BIG PROFITS IN WATERPROOF GOODS, 



At the twenty-fourth annual meeting of J. Mandleberg & Co., 

 recently held at Manchester, a dividend of IS per cent, was 

 declared. During the last fourteen years there had been an 

 average distribution of 20 per cent, per annum ; their invest- 

 ments having thus been returned almost three times to the 

 original shareholders. 



STATISTICS OF RUBBER CONSUMPTION. 



The fluctuations of rubber consumption during recent years 



as quoted by Messrs. Hecht, Levis & Kahn are as follows : 



Quantity. Increase. Decrease. 



Tons. Tons. Tons. 



1S05/6 62,574 



1906/7 68,173 5,599 



1907/8 62,376 5,797 



1908/9 71,089 8,713 



1909/10 76,026 4,937 



1910/11 74,082 1.944 



1911/12 99,564 25,482 



The remarkable increase of consumption in the last year re- 

 ported upon, is the most interesting feature of this table. 



REGISTRATION OF THE HANOVER RUBBER COMPANY. 



The Hanover Rubber Manufacturing Co. has been registered 

 in that city. Its object is the manufacture and sale of rubber 

 goods. The capital equals $5,000. 



THE BERLIN-FRANKFURT RUBBER WORKS. 



The Berlin-Frankfurt Rubber Works report a satisfactory 

 year for 1912. Advantageous purchases of crude rubber led to 

 this result, which allows the payment of a 9 per cent, dividend. 



NEW AUSTRIAN RUBBER FACTORY. 



The "Fama" Rubber Manufacturing Co. has been registered 

 at Vienna with a capital equalling $12,600. Its address is Renn- 

 weg 64. 



EASTER EGGS OF RUBBER. 



Easter eggs of rubber are reported to have been again in 

 favor during the recent Easter season. They consist of an oval 

 ball of rubber, containing a number of rubber toys. This new 

 adaptation of rubber is being watched with interest by manu- 

 facturers of rubber tovs in Germanv. 



