September i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



351 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent, 



THE writer of " Heard and Seen in the Trade," quotes a 

 manufacturer who speaks in an optimistic tone with 

 respect to the position of the American trade. " Every 

 day," he says, " new uses for rubber arise and there is 

 room for half a dozen new factories." Perhaps for a country 

 like America, which has not yet to send a surplus 

 POSITION population to seek a footing elsewhere, the trade 



°'^ ^"^ is susceptible of development ; over here, however, 

 TRADE. '^ f • • 



the more astute manufacturers opine that in con- 

 tradistinction to the starting of new factories a boon would be 

 conferred on the trade if some of those now in existence were 

 to be damped down, to borrow a metallurgical expression. 

 " Not only have we too many factories for the trade that is to 

 be done," said a man whose opinion carries weight to me, the 

 other day, " but we suffer a good deal from the inclusion in the 

 trade of men whose antecedents and training point to their 

 being seen to more advantage in other spheres of life." He 

 emphasized his remarks by mention of individual names which 

 cannot, of course, be reproduced here, in fear of the thin thread 

 by which the law of libel is suspended over the editorial head 

 snapping in twain. No doubt, however, there is much truth 

 in the observation. A certain director once laughingly said to 

 me: " I am like the fly in amber. I don't know however I got 

 into my present position." It would be an interesting, though 

 invidious, study to examine the qualifications otherthan family 

 influence or financial position which are possessed by those 

 who rule the destinies of our rubber works; much light might 

 be thrown by such an investigation upon the apparently ob- 

 scure causes which have tended to bring about the divergent 

 financial results which are so strikingly exhibited in the balance 

 sheets of the different factories. It would, however, be an un- 

 warrantable intrusion into private affairs to carry any such sug- 

 gestion into practice ; at least that is the view of the matter 

 which would be taken on this side, even in the present year 

 of grace, when certain features of transatlantic journalism at 

 first violently jibbed at are now placidly accepted as a matter 

 of course, if indeed they are not eagerly anticipated. 



I UNDERSTAND that Messrs. James Bertram & Son, Limited, 

 of Leith Walk Foundry, Edinburgh, are supplying the double- 

 acting, or three roll, mixing mill patented by 

 wicKss ^^ Joseph Thomas Wicks to some rubber fac- 



PATENTS' 



tories. It is claimed that the use of a three-roll 

 instead of the ordinary two- roll machine effects a considerable 

 saving of time, and therefore of cost of labor, the saving in fact 

 being estimated at 50 per cent. The increased power necessary 

 for driving is said to be very slight, though this must not be 

 left out of consideration in calculating the comparative efli- 

 ciences of the old and new systems. The claim is made that the 

 saving in labor will during the first year pay for the increased 

 capital outlay. I hope to be in a position before long to say 

 more upon these points from personal observation ; certainly 

 the more the time of mixing is shortened, provided that the 

 work is properly carried out, the better for the rubber, for there 

 can be no doubt as to the reduction of tensile strength and 

 power to resist decay that is brought about by over-mastica- 

 tion. Mr. Wicks has also allowed his inventive genius to ex- 

 pand in other directions, though space does not permit of 

 more than a bare notification of one other patent — that for 

 jointless moulded air tubes for pneumatic tires, 



The last few years have seen the erection of four or five 



naphtha recovery plants in English rubber works. It has long 



been a moot point whether this capital ex- 



NAPHTHA RECOVERY .-. ,, ■ .r j u .» .u 



IN RUBBER WORKS. P^nditure was really justified, but from the 

 results obtained in the most recent of 

 these plants there can be little doubt that the departure is am- 

 ply justified. Modern practice, largely permeated by the 

 essence of experience, has effected improvements giving an 

 economy in working which was not obtainable in the case of 

 plants erected over twenty years ago. One of the oldest of 

 such plants was that put up by Mr. Quin, at the Leyland Rub- 

 ber Works, but it is doubtful if it every really proved itself a 

 success. Messrs. Moseley had also for many years a plant of a 

 somewhat unique character which gave fairly satisfactory re- 

 sults, though this has recently been replaced by one of more 

 modern type. It may be mentioned that the recovery figures 

 obtained in England all refer to ordinary solvent naphtha, 

 and not to any light spirit. There is no reason to suppose that 

 plant could not be designed to deal with this latter, but in 

 proportion as the first cost of the spirit is lower, so the ex- 

 pense of the recovery plant would be higher, not only in capital 

 expenditure but in the regular coal bill. It depends largely 

 upon the circumstances of the factory whether the use of such 

 plant is advisable or not, and each case must be judged on its 

 merits. What has been done of late years in this direction, 

 however, must be taken as proof positive that the scepticism 

 which prevailed in former times as to the economy of recovery 

 plants is unwarranted under the changed conditions of to day. 

 It may be taken for granted that the naphtha distillers do not 

 view the increase of recovery plants with unfeigned bliss. 



The report on Uganda recently presented to the House of 

 Commons by Sir Harry Johnston, the Commissioner, touches 

 at some length upon the prospective rubber ex- 

 ports. Landolphia iindi s\\\e.A plants are said to 

 abound over about one-fifth of the protectorate, 

 and the rubber is said to be valued at from 2 to 3 shillings per 

 pound. He is against the granting of concessions to indi- 

 viduals or associations, for the present, at all events, advocat- 

 ing rather that the natives should be allowed to collect the 

 rubber and sell it to all and sundry, under proper supervision. 

 I rather suspect that the proper supervision will be found the 

 difficult part of the arrangement, but to let that pass. He is 

 also in favor of a reasonable maximum price being charged by 

 the natives to the buyers, 9 pence a pound being his sugges- 

 tion as this limit. This proposal seems to initiate a new de- 

 parture, and it will be interesting to see how it is received by 

 those primarily interested. 



As far as the India-rubber trade is concerned, in this very 

 successful exhibition, there is not only an extreme paucity of 

 exhibitors— the total amounting to three— but an 

 GLASGOW entire absence of anything which calls for atten- 

 tion as a novelty. Without anything to show of 

 an epoch-making character, it is rather difficult for a rubber 

 manufacturer now-a-days to make a show of a character to 

 attract and interest the public, and the expense and time in- 

 volved in the attempt are recognized as being rather ill-be- 

 stowed. If the exhibition is remarkable for novelties in one 

 direction more than another, it is perhaps in the collection of 

 fibers of various sorts from our colonies, and for which it is 



RUBBER 

 IN UGANDA. 



