November i, 1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER 'JVORLD 



41 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



FROM all accounts those few British firms who have en- 

 tered on this branch, find it a profitable business, as 

 there is no difficulty in obtaining a market for their out- 

 put. It is recognized that this manufacture is espec- 

 ially one which demands the greatest care and oversight, as it 

 is easy enough to turn out bad work — a result, the 

 RUBBER seriousness of which need not be emphasized, look- 

 *^°^ ing at the small profit on the individual articles. 



TRADE- " "^ 



Perhaps it is the disastrous results which attended 

 the efforts of one of our largest factories in this direction, and 

 which quickly led to an abandonment of the business, that have 

 weighed heavily with others whose thoughts have inclined that 

 way ; but whatever the reason for the abstention, the only firm 

 who have gone into the business of recent years is Franken- 

 burg's, and from all I hear the period of comparative repose in 

 which they have been feeling their way amidst the shallows 

 that abound, has now been succeeded by an era of prosperity 

 in which they find their capacity for production fully taxed 

 The North British Rubber Co. are still far and away the largest 

 producers, and will, no doubt, remain so. Apropos of China 

 being a large buyer of their products, I was rather surprised to 

 hear from a gentleman who knows the country well, and who 

 had gone through the lively experience of the siege of Pekin 

 by the Boxers, that the use of rubber shoes by the lower classes 

 in China is quite of modern growth. The people never wear 

 leather, and their ordinary footwear is made of paper, with or 

 without a wooden sole. It would seem, therefore, that the rub- 

 ber shoe has not by any means reached the limit of its possible 

 sales in the Flowery land, and no doubt the sales will show an 

 increase during the period of quiescence which is now setting 

 in. Though not particularly germane to the subject, I may 

 say that I have heard somewhat adverse comments made as to 

 the way the British have allowed the Germans to establish them- 

 selves in the commerce emanating from Shanghai, though this 

 does not appear to apply to the rubber shoe trade. I understand 

 that the North British company are building additional prem- 

 ises for this branch, as the business has made such rapid strides 

 of late. With regard to the varnish used by British manufac- 

 turers, it appears that in some cases there is room for improve- 

 ment, and they are willing to treat with those who have, or 

 think they have, special knowledge in this line. 



As a rule in Great Britain it is a somewhat difficult thing 



for a visitor to get shown round, even if he has no connection 



at all with the trade, though perhaps there is not 



VISITS gQ niuch secrecy about the operations as some 



TO WORKS. , . . t ji • ■ /-v( 



manufacturers seem to fondly imagine. Of course 

 every one has a right to please himself as to the strength of 

 the barriers with which his operations are encircled, but there 

 is not perfect unanimity amongst our rubber firms as to the 

 necessity for such precautions. Not long ago, at the general 

 meeting of a large company, the chairman said he would be 

 pleased to show any shareholder over the works, a remark it 

 must be said which did not commend itself as politic to all 

 those who were present. Of course care has to be taken lest 

 the application to view should emanate from one whose mo- 

 tives are of a mercenary nature, and from what I have heard 

 surreptitious attempts on the part of foreigners to gain admit- 

 tance into our large works have not been at all uncommon. 

 Though not exactly germane to the subject, mention may be 



■RECOVERED 

 RUBBER. 



made of the fact that under managers and foremen in large 

 works are as a rule kept strictly to their own departments, and 

 are not allowed to enter work rooms over which they have no 

 direct control. This, considering the changes in personnel 

 which are so frequent in some works, must be considered a 

 commendable precaution, if anything in the form of a secret 

 is to be retained in the place of its origination. Distinguished 

 visitors, of course, do not find any difficulty in satisfying their 

 thirst for technical knowledge, and the autograph book at 

 Macintosh's, which dates back a long time, contains records 

 of the visits of several royal personages. 



The recent establishment of a recovered rubber works in the 

 neighborhood of Liverpool, under American auspices, recalls 

 the suggestion made in The India Rubber 

 World from an English source some time 

 ago, that such a works if conducted on a large 

 scale on American principles would be sure to prove a success. 

 I am writing without any details of the new venture, but pre- 

 sumably the bulk of the raw material will be shipped from 

 America, as otherwise it is difficult to see how it could be ob- 

 tained in sufficient quantity, in Great Britain, at any rate. No 

 doubt more and more recovered rubber is being used, and in 

 many cases it has displaced the oil substitutes. At the same 

 time the manufacturers of it have increased, and competition 

 is becoming somewhat acute. A prominent London daily paper 

 recently contained an advertisement to the effect that a German 

 house required a good agent in England to collect waste rub- 

 ber, though this reads somewhat curiously in face of the fact 

 that plenty of German waste is on offer to English recovered 

 rubber manufacturers. It may be said, however, that the some- 

 what inflated prices asked by the Germans have militated 

 against the progress of their export trade in this article, in 

 England, at any rate, and their ideas on this head will have 

 to undergo considerable modification if a material increase in 

 business is to result. With regard to the quality of the dif- 

 ferent brands of recovered rubber on our market, it cannot be 

 said that any real progress has been made during the last ten 

 years, and in spite of the fact that two or three new brands have 

 had plenty of time to demonstrate their vaunted superiority 

 the popular verdict on them is certainly not one of undiluted 

 approval. 



In another column of The India Rubber World I recently 



saw a statement to the effect that this journal was regularly 



read at Oxford University and the fact seems 



BOTANY to invite a few remarks. For one thing it in- 



„,,„„,.„ ^„.„,. dicates that headway is being made at this 



HUBotR TRADE. 



ancient school of learning in the way of dis- 

 puting the claims of the dead languages to be the only subjects 

 worthy of study; the movement to modernize Oxford and to 

 widen the scope of studies there is calculated to make deceased 

 Dons turn in their resting places, and certainly such agitation 

 is shared by those of the present day who rightly enough have 

 no wish to see the curriculum of studies approximate to that of 

 a technical school. All the same, seeing how overcrowded are 

 the professions to which the study of classics alone is the open 

 door, what is being done to promote the study of science must 

 be heralded as opportune. It must be remembered that re- 

 search work in botany cannot easily be carried out by the busy 

 man, even if he had the necessary laboratory accommodation. 



