292 



THE iNDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



[July i, 1901. 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



THIS company, whose chairman of directors, Mr. J. E. 

 Baxter, is the chairman of the Rubber Manufacturers' 

 Association, ranks now in the extent of its buildings 

 and the magnitude of its trade with such firms as 

 Macintosh's and Moseley's. Considerable extensions have been 

 carried out in late years and building 

 LEYLAND AND operations on a large scale are still in 

 BIRMINGHAM progress. As the company has plenty of 



RUBBER CO., LIMITED. V ^ . .,.• ■ . 



land at disposal lofty buildings have been 

 abjured, the single story shed having been largely adopted as 

 minimizing the labor in the movements of raw and partially 

 manufactured material. A good deal of power is supplied by 

 electro motors, and the works are lit by the electric light. 

 Altogether there is a great deal about these works which might 

 possibly be followed with advantage by other firms who ex- 

 hibit a more conservative tendency in the adoption of modern 

 procedure. Besides a large mechanical trade, surgicals — 

 especially seamless teats — occupy a considerable manufactur- 

 ing space, a fact which is reassuring, considering the inroads 

 which foreign competition has made of late years upon the 

 surgical business done by those firms in this country who make 

 it a specialty. In spite of the somewhat Draconic rules and 

 regulations which the workmen are required to observe, there 

 are probably no works where greater harmony exists in the rela- 

 tions between master and man — a condition of affairs to which 

 the tact and urbanity of Mr. Baxter largely conduce. 



These works were sold by auction in Manchester, in the 



suburbs of which city they are situated, on May 21, the company 



never having recovered from financial difficulties 



DROYLSDEN growing out of the failure of a certain patent tire 



RUBBER 

 WORKS. 



making machine, an American invention, to an- 

 swer expectations. It is now some years since Mr. 

 Worth left the employ of Messrs. Macintosh & Co. and, in con- 

 junction with Mr. James Lee, of the Ancoats Vale Rubber Co., 

 started the Droylsden works under the title of Worth & Co. 

 Mr. Lee, however, gave up his interest in the concern after a 

 short time and went to America, where he engaged successfully 

 in the rubber manufacture. The conversion of the Worth com- 

 pany into the Droylsden Rubber Co., Limited, with a view 

 primarily to exploit the machine referred to above, proved a bad 

 speculation, as up to this time money had always been made at 

 these works. Considering the land and machinery on offer, it 

 cannot be said that Mr. Baxter, of the Leyland company, who 

 ultimately became the purchaser, did badly with his final bid 

 of ^355° *s .£5°°° had previously been offered and refused. 



The sensation of the Law courts, as far as our particular 

 trade topics are concerned, has been the knocking over of the 

 Pegamoid patent by Mr. lustice Joyce. An ac- 

 tion was brought by Pegamoid, Limited, against 

 the British Leather Cloth Manufacturing Co. of Newton, near 

 Manchester, on the ground that the process used by the latter 

 firm infringed the patent granted to Frederick George Annison 

 in 1891 for impregnating textile bodies with a solution of cellu- 

 loid. Mr. Edward Bevan's evidence, though given on behalf of 

 Pegamoid, could not, however, stand the fire of cross examina- 

 tion as far as showing that there was any material difference 

 between coating and impregnation with celluloid. The former 

 process having been in operation prior to 1891, it was held by 

 the judge that there was no infringement, and that there was 



not sufficient to support the patent. It cannot be said that this 

 decision has brought dismay into the minds of the share- 

 holders, for they have long ago resigned themselves to their 

 fate, but it is not very flattering to the supposed astuteness of 

 those who advised as to the value of the patent at the time 

 the company was brought. The late Mr. Joseph Moseley was • 

 very enthusiatic about Pegamoid and expected that great 

 things would come of it; others, however, including chemists 

 of repute, made no secret at the time the prospectus appeared, 

 of their opinion that the patent as a patent was practically 

 worthless, and predicted that if it proved at all valuable it 

 would be successfully contested ; the hypothetical clause of this 

 opinion has not been substantiated, but the result prophesied 

 has, as I have just shown, come to pass. 



Motor-car owners, especially those to whom money is an 



object, have been gratified by the announcement of the North 



British Rubber Co. that they are prepared to make 



MOTOR pneumatic tires to order at a price considerably lower 

 than that asked by the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. 

 A prominent motor enthusiast tells me that he is going to give 

 these tires a trial, to see how nearly they comeuptothe Miche- 

 lin standard. Although the pneumatic tire has the greater 

 number of adherents, the special tire made by Falconnet Perod- 

 eaud et Cie., of Choisy-le-Roi (Seine), finds prominent support- 

 ers in this country. This firm had a large show of their tires 

 in the machinery section at the late Paris exhibition. Their 

 tire, at least that type which is to be seen in use in this country, 

 is best described as a compound, as it embraces features of both 

 pneumatic and solid tires. Compared with the pneumatic, it 

 may be said the price offers no inducement to purchasers, its 

 advantages in use, for which, however, 1 cannot personally 

 vouch, forming the basis of attraction. 



There is something rather improbable about the utility of 

 the English patent of Messrs. Litel and Wolde, of Berlin, and 

 in which it is proposed to eliminate noxious gases 

 from the air of rooms by using orifices closed by 

 diaphragms of Caoutchouc or " similar material." I 

 cannot say anything about "similar material," which is a de- 

 lightfully vague term, but I rather imagine that the rate of 

 diffusion or osenosis will be found painfully inadequate for 

 ventilating purposes, and if the gases present are really noxious 

 I should imagine that the interests of those concerned would 

 be best served by the opening of the door or window after the 

 time-honored custom. 



There are numerous evidences of the popularity of this pack- 

 ing. One of the largest cotton mill owners told me that he 

 preferred it to anything of the sort which he had 



JENKINS used. Messrs. Angus & Co., of Newcastle-on-Tyne 



PACKING. , J . . -J LI ■ • .1. ' 



Leeds, etc., give it considerable prominence in the 

 windows of their establishments, stating on the label that it will 

 not deteriorate with age. Age, I suppose, is in this connection 

 used comparatively, for the contention can hardly be put for- 

 ward that it is indestructible. Brass filings figure among the 

 rather numerous components of this packing, a fact that at first 

 sight strikes one as rather singular, considei ing the well known 

 destructive action of copper and its alloys upon rubber. The 

 explanation of its innocuousness in this case is, however, no 

 doubt due to the fact that the proportion of mineral matter 

 present far exceeds that of the rubber, its power to do mischief 



NEW 

 PATENT. 



