204 



THE INDIA RUBBER "WORLD 



[April i, 1901. 



ECCLES RUBBER CO. 



connected with the capital, the trade of the country is all done 

 by caravan, though the vested interests which Russia has now 

 obtained in the land, owing to the apathy of the British gov- 

 ernment, will no doubt result in a great extension of the rail- 

 way system under Muscovite auspices. 



About thirty tons of old Gutta-percna were among the stores 

 sold at the Postoffice Telegraph Stores, Regent's Park, Lon- 

 don, on February 27. The sale was by tender and 



POSTOFFICE prices have not transpired. From what I have 



CONDEMNED '^ , , , , , ,■ • j j 



STORES. seen of some of the lots the quality varied consid- 

 ably, some of it being in very good condition 

 while other lots were so decayed as to be almost useless for 

 further application. It is probable that less of this material will 

 be on offer in the future than has been the case in the past, as 

 Gutta-percha insulation will probably be superseded by paper. 

 With the general adoption of electric tramways in our large 

 towns it is certain that, in view of the recent fatal disaster in 

 Liverpool from the fall of overhead telephone wires, the use 

 of bare aerial telephone wires will be largely superseded by 

 insulated wires, either aerial or subterranean, wherever they 

 cross the tramway routes. 



The adverse balance sheet which was presented at the ad- 

 journed annual meeting of this company at Liverpool on Feb- 

 ruary 28 was not very pleasant reading for 

 the shareholders, who subscribed for extra 

 capital at a premium, as a result of the big dividend announced 

 at the first annual meeting, but the course adopted of putting 

 the pen through an amount of capital equivalent to the loss an- 

 nounced seems the best under the circumstances. A loss of 

 ;£53'457 on ^he year's working is a very serious thing, though it 

 has long been suspected by those doing business with the com- 

 pany that things were not going on as well as could be wished. 

 The cutting of prices which has been accredited to the firm by 

 its most prominent competitors has hardly proved a sound policy, 

 though I attribute the blame largely to buyers, who are contin- 

 ually insisting on reductions in price. The ball making patents 

 which are the property of the company are undoubtedly of 

 value, and there seems no reason why the next annual report 

 should not be of a much more favorable character. 



The distributions which have recently been made by the 



large cable companies as a result of last year's working must 



be considered as a satisfactory indication of the 



DIVIDENDS condition of this branch of the rubber manufac- 



coMPANiEs ^^^^- ^^"'sys p^y ^° p^^ ""'• ^"'^ ^^^ ^®'^" 



graph Construction and Maintenance Co. i7>^, 

 while the British Insulated Wire Co., which, however, does not 

 use rubber, pay 15 per cent. The Union Cable Co., of London, 

 a new firm outside the British Cable Makers' Association, has 

 no works in England, it being in fact a German concern, and 

 the success it has achieved with the Brighton corporation has 

 formed the theme for acrid comment in several of our tech- 

 nical journals. 



On the last day before the new Companies act came into 



force, a company for the manufacture of cables was formed. 



Under the name of the Anchor Cable Co., works are 



NEW now being erected at Leigh, Lancashire, a town of 



w^obo which Mr. Shaw, who is prominently connected with 



WORKS. 



the new venture, is the present mayor. The capital 

 is only £50,000— not an excessive sum for such a manufacture 

 — and it is understood that the business to be carried on, at 

 first at all events, will be confined to wires for household, etc., 

 purposes, large lead covered cables not being touched. Pre- 

 sumably the increased dividends referred to above have had the 

 result of attracting the attention of capitalists to this manu- 

 facture, though it should not be overlooked by investors that 



considerable scientific and technical knowledge is desirable, 

 indeed, absolutely necessary on the part of those who under- 

 take the control of this manufacture. 



Mr. Laird, who was formerly connected with this firm and 



then left it, has rejoined and has now the chief voice on the 



directorate. The works, which are situated in a 



WAVERLEY suburb of Edinburgh, are in close commercial 



RUBBER CO. , I ^ r T, . /- . J 



connection with the firm of Thornton & Co., trad- 

 ing in Princes street, Edinburgh, as retail rubber salesmen, 

 waterproofs, and general sporting goods, lor which there is 

 such a large sale in Scotland, being the principal articles of- 

 fered for sale. 



This company, whose works are situated at Forth Bridge, 



Stirling, report themselves as having had a satisfactory year in 



1900, and now that they have weathered 



THE RUBBER COMPANY j[,g storm which new ventures in the 



OF SCOTLAND. .- , , , , ■ i ,_ u 



field of mechanical rubber must expect 

 in these competitive times, their future should be assured. 

 Like the Clyde Rubber Co. and McLellan & Co., of Glasgow, 

 the Forth Bridge works do a mechanical trade only, leaving 

 alone the water proof business. 



By the death of that somewhat eccentric nobleman, the Earl 



of Galloway, without issue, his brother, the Hon. Randolph 



Stewart, has succeeded to the title. The new Earl 



PERSONAL |g ^ director of Henleys Telegraph Co., a cir- 



MENTION. , . , / ^ ° '^ . , 



cumstance which may lead to the re-occupation ol 

 the family seat at Garlieston, on Wigtown Bay, by the holder 

 of the title so prominent in the history of Galloway, a part of 

 Scotland which has many pleasant associations for the writer. 

 The widow of the deceased Earl is a sister of the British prime 

 minister.=-^I hear that Mr. Michelin, of motor tire fame, has 

 been in Brazil with the intention of interesting himself in the 

 cultivation of rubber, in emulation, I suppose, of what the head 

 of the Russian American India Rubber Co., at St. Petersburg, . 

 is doing in the Malay archipelago. The example thus set by 

 Russia and France does not seem to have been followed by 

 Germany or England, as far as rubber manufacturers person- 

 ally are concerned, though these countries have taken the lead 

 in accumulating scientific facts concerning the details of rub- 

 ber culture. =— The recent death of Mr. J. G. Ingram, of the 

 London Rubber Works, Hackney Wick, removes a well known 

 figure from the trade, though no doubt the business which he 

 built up will continue to prosper under the supervision of his 

 son, who has long been connected with it. Rubber surgical 

 goods in the past formed the main item in the firm's turnover, 

 and it is presumably owing to foreign competition in Great 

 Britain in this class of goods that last year an extension of the 

 buildings was effected, in order that the mechanical rubber 

 goods trade might be entered upon. 



THE GOODYEAR CURIOS WERE SAVED. 



THE members of the New England Rubber Club who had 

 the pleasure of seeing the mementoes of Charles Good- 

 year at the dinner given in honor of the great inventor in No- 

 vember last, will be interested to know that these articles were 

 not destroyed by the recent fire which totally consumed the 

 building in which they were stored in New York. Mr. Charles 

 Goodyear, a grandson of the inventor, informs The India 

 Rubber World that while the curios were somewhat dam- 

 aged, the injury is not serious, the only harm having resulted 

 from water. The safes when recovered from the cellar of the 

 ruined building were submerged in water, and while water- 

 proof, were not watertight. The most serious injury was done 

 to the copy of Mr. Goodyear's book printed on sheets of rubber. 



