January i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



99 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



ALTHOUGH, to the bulk of those who visit the Stanley 

 and National shows held every November in London- 

 the cycle itself rather than the tire alone is the main 

 objective, the reverse is the case with the present 

 writer, whose attention on these occasions is fixed only on the 

 ^^g rubber in order to find out anything of novelty or 

 LONDON special interest. In this respect it cannot be said 

 CYCLE that enthusiastic explorers have this year found 

 much to compensate them for their zeal, objects and 

 species already known to science — to borrow a naturalist's 

 phrase — being in far greater prominence than novelties, 

 though of course this state of affairs is only what may be 

 premised in an application of rubber which is not by any 

 means m the first blush of youth. But to leave the general 

 for the particular, the rubber companies who had stands at 

 the National Show, at the Crystal Palace, were The Dunlop 

 Rubber Co., The Avon Rubber Co., and Capon Heaton & Co. 

 The Avon company had on view a good assortment of their 

 manufactures — cab, cycle, and motor tires naturally holding a 

 prominent position. The " Coronation " motor tire now being 

 made by them has the advantage over the ordinary type of 

 solid tire in that it is molded endless instead of in straight 

 lengths. There is thus no tension on the thread, and conse- 

 quently, when the rubber is cut, the gashes close up instead of 

 stretching open, as in the case of the ordinary form of tire. 

 They have also a new rubber tread for building and repairing 

 motor tires, which, being molded of a similar shape to that 

 of a tire when inflated, is claimed to be much more durable 

 than a flat tread, and to be also more easily fitted. The Dun- 

 lop company had on distribution an attractive booklet giving 

 details of their tire, together with a compendium of information 

 which must prove of considerable utility to riders. In motor 

 tires, the Dunlop- Welch multiflex light motor tire was promi- 

 nent, but the heavy vehicle tires do not yet seem to have been 

 made by the company, and, though there were plenty of these 

 to be seen up and down the show on motor cars, they all bore 

 the well-known Michelin inscription, in addition to the " Clip- 

 per" stamp. The show, though primarily intended lor cycles, 

 has this year developed largely into a motor show, though the 

 little vehicles are to have their own special show in the course 

 of a few months. Monster " biscuits" of Para rubber were in 

 evidence at many of the exhibits, and, apropos of this tendency 

 to enlighten the public as to matters of detail, a rubber works 

 manager informs me that there has been quite a brisk inquiry 

 for large " biscuits " of Pard to use for show purposes. Ac- 

 cording to the booklets issued by various firms Pard rubber is 

 the only brand which is known to or at any rate utilized by 

 tire makers. Into the truth of this contention I shall not stay 

 to inquire, but it quite knocks in the head the statements of 

 those interested in African produce that the tire trade hap 

 proved a stimulus to the gathering of rubber. What seemed to 

 be the chief attraction of the show was the "Self-Inflating" 

 tire, exhibitions of the action of which were given at frequent 

 intervals of the day by The New Self-Inflating Appliances and 

 Tyre Co., Limited, 12, Great Dover street. Borough, London, 

 S. E. Something on the principle of the locomotive which fills 

 its exhausted tank from a trough when in motion, this tire, to 

 put the facts briefly, in its action when rolling along the road 

 pumps in air enough to keep it inflated, losses of air by punc- 



INDIA-RUBBER 

 AND HUMANITY. 



ture being almost immediately put right. Not quite so much 

 of a novelty is the patent self-sealing air-tube which has been 

 before the public for three or four seasons already. In this de- 

 vice the property of the Self-Sealing Air Chamber Co., Limited, 

 of Hinckley street, Birmingham, the eflect is produced 

 by a thin strip of highly compressed vulcanized rubber 

 which is securely fastened to the inside surface of the upper 

 portion of the air-tube which comes into contact with the tire 

 cover. E. G. Wood, of Wolf street, Stoke-on-Trent, showed 

 his patent self gripping fabric tires, one of the most important 

 parts of which consists of a circumferential ribbed fabric flap 

 encasing the inner tube, which, under inflation, engages with 

 the fabric of the outer cover, producing thus a firm grip easy 

 of manipulation. A specialty about the canvas is that it is spun 

 on mandrils to the shape of the tire, there being thus no dis- 

 torting when the tire is made up. Exhaustion of space permits 

 only bare reference to the fact that the " Velox " tires of the 

 New Amalgamated Tyre, Limited, of Parkside, Coventry, made 

 a good show, and that the Triumph Cycle Co., Limited, of 

 Coventry, had on distribution a well got-up booklet dealing 

 fully with the development and present position of military 

 cycling, the cyclist being now recognized as an important unit 

 in a field force. 



At the present time, to an extent never equalled in previous 

 periods of the world's history, humanitarian sentiments with 

 regard to the dangers experienced by the work- 

 ing classes in their various occupations are be- 

 ing expressed by people who have not been ac- 

 customed to bother themselves about what is outside their own 

 province. Articles written on the " white slaves of England," 

 who are engaged in more or less health destroying operations 

 have attracted much attention to what is undoubtedly a social 

 evil. Up to recently the natural history of rubber cannot be 

 said to have been at all familiar to the person of average at- 

 tainments or reflective nature in Great Britain, but of late I 

 have noticed that the subject has come to be discussed in a 

 much larger area than that which is circumscribed by trade in- 

 terest. This is of course directly traceable to the Press. Mr. 

 Baring-Gould, in one of his recent novels showing up the evils 

 of the pottery trade, has taken the opportunity to bring home 

 to cyclists the intensity of the annual death roll experienced 

 by the South American rubber gatherers, while our daily 

 papers have had articles under the head line " Congo Horrors," 

 the iniquitous rubber traffic, etc. No doubt there is a good 

 deal that needs showing up in the methods adopted by the rub- 

 ber concessionists of the Congo, and now that public interest 

 has been aroused it is unlikely that methods of barbarism will 

 be allowed to go unchecked in the future as in the past. Al- 

 though it is clear that the labor difficulty is likely to achieve a 

 prominence which will almost strangle an important industry, 

 it is imperative that the European nations who are developing 

 Africa should act in strict accordance with Western ideals of 

 civilization. 



I don't know what is the general practice in America, but 



over here the thermometer is preferred to the pressure gage 



as being much more reliable in its indica- 



a specialty of thermometers for rubber fac- 

 tories is Messrs. Joseph Casortelli & Son, of 43, Market street, 



