February i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^VORLD 



189 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correipondent. 



TELEGRAPH 

 NOTES. 



THE disastrous snowstorms of the early part of Decem- 

 ber, with the attendant breakdown of the telegraph 

 wires over so large an area of the Midlands, has 

 caused renewed attention to be paid to the sub- 

 ject of subterranean cables, the value of the London and Bir- 

 mingham wire being strongly emphasized. It is 

 quite unlikely, however, that the postmaster 

 general will seek to supersede the aerial lines 

 under his management generally by underground ones. 

 Leaving out of account the expense, which would of course be 

 enormous, 'it has to be noted that the paper insulated wire, al- 

 though doing away with the great expense attaching to the use 

 of Gutta-percha, is inferior for telegraphic purposes to the bare 

 aerial wire, however suitable it may be for the feeble currents 

 required for telephonic purposes. This fact has been insisted 

 on by the department in reply to certain circles of business 

 men who have protested against the continuance of a system 

 which is so liable to breakdowns and their serious business 

 consequences.=^^=The news of Marconi's latest triumph has 

 naturally excited a great amount of interest, but it can hardly yet 

 be said to presage a condition of affairs calculated to cause the 

 proprietors of submarine cable works to feel deep concern as to 

 their future. However, there seems no doubt that the efforts 

 which are being made by Marconi and by Messrs. Armstrong and 

 Orling, the former by air and the latter by the use of earth cur- 

 rents, to do away with the use of insulated conductors will cul- 

 minate in a revolutionized state of affairs telegraphic, and one in 

 which the insulated cable manufacturer will play but a very sub- 

 ordinate part. Despite the glowing announcements which have 

 appeared in the daily press, it is rather too soon to say anything 

 definite as to the prospects of the Armstrong-Orling wireless 

 telegraphy, though Mr. Armstrong expresses himself in ex- 

 tremely confident terms as to the untold wealth which awaits 

 those who become financially interested in the somewhat expen- 

 sive experiment that remainstobe carried out. The advantage 

 claimed for this process over that of Marconi is that hills and dales 

 have no retarding effect ; the plane surface which the Marconi 

 system requires is no longer a necessity, and therefore its utility 

 is unbounded and unfettered. At least this is what we are told ; it 

 may turn outthat self-interestandexaggeration havecombined 

 to distort the truth and it will be as well to keep our hands 

 folded a little longer before showing our appreciation of the 

 latest discovery by applauding " in the usual manner." 



As only a certain number of our rubber works are run as lim- 

 ited companies, it is not easy to get at the exact facts relating 

 to the condition of business as portrayed by the 

 STATE annual balance sheet. But in the case of more than 

 one prominent concern, into the details of whose 

 profit and loss account the outsider cannot peer, I 

 am able to confirm what was foreshadowed in these notes a few 

 months ago. This statement has reference to the interaction 

 of reduced business and reduced price of rubber. Had rubber 

 remained throughout 1901 at the figures of 1900, the reduced 

 volume of trade must have had somewhat serious results, but 

 as it has turned out, the results have proved more satisfactory 

 than in 1900. Of course there are exceptions, but I do not 

 think that, as a general statement, the above will meet with 

 serious criticism. The advantages and disadvantages of carry- 

 ing on a general trade in preference to specializing in one or a 



OF THE 

 TRADE. 



few articles, have more than once come up for discussion in our 

 technical literature, and there can be no harm in saying, that 

 in my own opinion, which is based on the present condition of 

 the British trade, those who have the largest variety of goods 

 with which to attract custom, are the best off. In their case, a 

 falling off in the demand for the products of a particular de- 

 partment, does not spell ruin, as it may easily do in the case of 

 a firm dependent on one branch alone. Not that by this I am 

 advDcating that those who at present are not making certain 

 articles, should instantly commence doing so. I should be very 

 chary of doing so, for two reasons : firstly, because the require- 

 ments in almost all branches can be easily fitted by the plant 

 at present in operation, and secondly, because perfection in the 

 manufacture of many classes of rubber goods has only been ar- 

 rived at after a considerable expenditure of money and time. 

 I sometimes hear manufacturers say " It is strange that I can- 

 not make this article properly, as So-and-so seems to find no 

 difficulty." I reply that So-and-so has, in all probability, gone 

 through a period of probation, and at such a cost as to make 

 him disinclined to discuss in the pages of his trade journal the 

 tortuous way by which he eventually gained Corinth. What is 

 desirable is not always expedient, and it is in the spirit of this 

 maxim that I am averse to the multiplication of departments in 

 works at the present time, though this does not at all weaken 

 my statement as to the advantage which old established con- 

 cerns are able to command from this form of procedure. 



Two causes of litigation which were at one time of greater 



prominence than has of late years been the case have recently 



arisen. There is no object in giving the names of 



LITIGATION ^jjg parties interested, and it will be enough to say 

 REDIVIVU8. ^ , , , , 



that the one case has reference to the premature 



decay of elastic webbing and the other to a like result in water- 

 proof clothing. In both these cases, as in almost all those to 

 the details of which the historical student has access, there is a 

 conflict between the manufacturers of the textile fabric and of 

 the rubber as to which of them is really responsible for the 

 disaster. And the divination of the truth is not at all an easy 

 matter in such cases, the deductions from chemical analyses 

 being extremely liable to error. There is, however, one point 

 on which all are generally agreed, and that is that copper salts 

 should be absent from the dye of fabrics which are intended 

 either for proofing purposes or to come into direct contact 

 with rubber. As regards grease and the extent of its injurious 

 action under dry heat or cold cure, opinion is somewhat diver- 

 gent, but among those who have paid real attention to the sub- 

 ject there is complete unanimity on the subject of copper. Of 

 course it is possible to engage experts who can easily bring 

 themselves, not exactly to believe that black is white, but 

 who find little difficulty in bringing forward evidence to sup- 

 port the views of their clients. But considering that the pres- 

 ence of copper is so generally recognized as dangerous by rub- 

 ber manufacturers, and that the use of it has of this account 

 been altogether abandoned by the cloth manufacturers by the 

 special request of the rubber trade, the chemist who sought to 

 show that although copper was present in a case of decomposi- 

 tion the fault was due to the proofing, and not to the copper, 

 would, it seems to me, find himself somewhat in a quandary when 

 subjected to cross-examination. Not that he might necessarily 

 be wrong, as the proof might be of an inherently evil nature, if 



