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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IJl-nk 1. 1913. 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



line J'.VRNK PROCESS OF CrKlNC RAW RLllUKR. 



THE Hyrnes — there arc four brothers — have in tlie past playc] 

 an important i)art in the rubber trade of Birniingham, their 

 interests as manufacturers having been now for some years 

 merged in the Dunlop Rubber Co., one of the family being now 

 prominently connected with the Leyland-Birmingham Co., which 

 absorbed their merchant business so long carried on in Birming- 

 ham. I mention these facts by way of indicating that an acquaint- 

 ance with rubber is no modern acquisition by Messrs. E. J. Byrne 

 and F. A. Byrne, whose names may not be so familiar to many 

 young planters as they are to older manufacturers. Mr. E. J. 

 I3yrne has patented a process for curing plantation rubber on the 

 lines so long employed by the rubber gatherers of the Amazon, 

 the process briefly described being the treatment of the coagulated 

 latex with certain wood vapors prepared in a concentrated liquid 

 form, thus being easy to handle and use. This liquid is volatil- 

 ized in a special portable apparatus, the resultant vapor being 

 passed into the curing chamber where the rubber is subjected to 

 its influence. 



The patent is now the property of the Rubber Curing Patents 

 Syndicate, Limited, of Norwich Union Buildings, St. James' 

 street, London; the Messrs. Byrne continuing actively concerned 

 in the management thereof. Following a previous visit of Mr. 

 E. J. Byrne to the Far East, Mr. F. A. Byrne is at present in the 

 Federated Malay Stales, superintending the installation of the 

 process on many plantations where it has been decided to adopt 

 it. I understand that laboratory tests have proved the superiority 

 of rubber cured by this process over that which has been cured by 

 the other methods in common use, and further, that prominent 

 rubber manufacturers in England have expressed the same 

 opinion as a result of practical tests. While the patentees appa- 

 rently hold the opinion that the superiority of wild over culti- 

 vated I'ara rubber is entirely due to the process of curing 

 adopted. 1 do not understand that they assert that all the planta- 

 tion rubber cured by their process is equal to fine hard Para, 

 though they claim in no doubting language that it is superior to 

 all other plantation rubber. 



This process does not call for the abolition of the ordinary 

 acetic acid coagulation of the latex, but it is recommended that 

 the amount of acid ordinarily used should be reduced, the coagu- 

 lation to be effected only in part by the acid and finished by the 

 antiseptic smoking jirocess. The method thus is a combination 

 of the Brazilian and Eastern methods in order to obtain a product 

 with the properties of the former minus its usual large content of 

 moisture. .\ further object of the patentees is to ensure the pro- 

 duction of plantation rubber of uniform quality, which it is ai)pa- 

 rent can only be done by the general adoption of a standard 

 method. It is stated that after the smoke cure is finished the 

 rubber may contain 8 to 10 per cent, of moisture, and no attempt 

 is made to remove this, it Ijcing found in general practice that 

 the moisture evaporates during the time of transit from the 

 plantation to the European mill. In addition to the specific 

 properties conferred on the rubber by the adoption of this process, 

 claim is also made for a reduction of working costs on the es- 

 tates, as the entire operation from tapping to despatching is re- 

 duced to a period of four days. 



Rt'IlBKR T.WXE!) LE.XTHER. 

 Many of the flotations connected- with rubber brought out three 

 >ears ago have had a checkered existence, to put it mildly, while 

 others have come to an untimely end. With regard to rubber 

 tanned leather, however, although from the actual dividend pay- 

 ing view the company has not proved satisfactory to the share- 

 holders, it would be quite erroneous to think that its claims were 



entirely fallacious. It has taken time and more money than at 

 first anticipated to get the rubber recognized on the market, but 

 this may now be said to have been accomplished, and the present 

 position is that the factory at Ross, Herefordshire, is unable to 

 meet the demand for belting, now that repeat orders from various 

 countries are coming in. At a recent meeting of the company 

 the chairman, Mr. J. M. Craig, outlined a scheme for the forma- 

 tion of a subsidiary company, whereby the further working capi- 

 tal now absolutely necessary could be obtained. No resolution, 

 however, on the point was passed. At the ineeting the important 

 statement was made that tlie company now has 500 customers on 

 its books. 



NEW RUBBER GOODS IN THE .\I.\RKET. 



As some of the novelties referred to under this head in the 

 .'\pril issue of the Indi.\ Rubber Wlrld had a strong domestic 

 touch, I referred the pages to a lady who has favored me with 

 her views on matters with which I cannot claim any special ac- 

 quaintance. Her fancy was particularly taken by the "Yankee 

 Girl Dish Washer" made liy the Davol Rubber Co., Providence. 

 I was informed that most improved kitchen appliances come to 

 England from America, where servants are more scarce and inde- 

 pendent than they are here. Here perhaps I ought to use the past 

 tense, because the servant question is becoming increasingly acute 

 in England, with the result that ladies who have not hitherto been 

 accustomed to work in the kitchen are now often driven to do so. 

 The main objection to this seems to lie in getting grease on the 

 hands in the humble task of "washing up" ; hence the interest in 

 any development which tends to obviate this. 



.Apropos of this topic I may say that our iron-mongers' shops 

 arc now selling rubber gloves to ladies for the purpose of wash- 

 ing drawingroom china, etc. These gloves are made either of 

 pure vulcanized rubber or of white compounded rubber. Each 

 pair is put up in a red card-board box containing instructions to 

 avoid getting grease on them. Each glove is stamped "Made in 

 \J. S. A.," the label on the box reading, "Peerless gloves seam- 

 less." I hear that these gloves are having a good sale, though 

 they would be more popular still if it were not for the grease 

 embargo. Proceeding now to another matter of novelty, the 

 baby's bath tub arrangement of the Heaton Manufacturing Co., 

 Chicago, is reported to me as being an excellent idea, and as 

 likely to fill a want that has long been felt. 



THE R."\W RUBBER SITU.\TION. 



The fall in the price of rubber and its maintenance at a com- 

 paratively low level is not unnaturally a source of disquietude to 

 plantation shareholders, whose fears the chairmen at various 

 annual meetings of Eastern companies have sought to assuage by 

 explaining the why and wherefore of the fall in price. The vari- 

 ous statements made on tliis head are by no means in strict agree- 

 ment, and it would be more desirable to have an authoritative 

 pronouncement from some manufacturer of standing. There is 

 no doubt that too much stress has been laid upon the strikes at 

 .\kron, and too little upon tlie large increase in supplies of planta- 

 tion rubber. One manufacturer here says the simple explanation 

 is that there is so' much rubber about, and it is no question of 

 buyers holding aloof as this is now the busy season in the motor 

 tire trade and rubber must be had. 



According to a leading article in a prominent financial paper 

 the manufacturers are not doing well, and this accounts for a 

 decreased demand. This statement was described by one of our 

 leading manufacturers to whom I submitted it as all nonsense. 

 The manufacturers, he said, are doing very well, a statement 

 which he qualified by adding — "at least all those who know their 



