May 



I, 



1901.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER ^A/^ORLD 



!g2d 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



THAT Antwerp is making great strides in the way of be- 

 coming a formidable rival to Liverpool as a raw rubber 

 market is pretty well known, though it is rather too 

 soon to say what the ultimate effect UDon the Liver- 

 pool merchants will be. From direct information I have re- 

 ceived it would seem that the trade done by Ant- 

 ANTWERP ,ygrp houses with British rubber firms is rapidly 



RUBBER "^ . 



MARKET, increasing, last year over 300 tons coming over 

 here. Special attention is being paid to the greater 

 purification of West African rubbers, more particularly in the 

 case of Congo sorts, the trade in which from the interior is now 

 greatly on the increase. Samples of Congo ball which I have 

 recently seen, and which are sold as practically free from water 

 and dirt, are certainly an advance on a good deal of what comes 

 to Liverpool in the ordinary way, though it must be confessed 

 that in some cases the rubber looked suspiciously like being 

 overheated, to use a technical term for the appearance of a 

 tarry exterior. Rubber in this state is likely to prove inferior 

 in lasting power to that in which the lesinous matter has not 

 been allowed to melt by the heat of the sun or other agency, 

 and it would seem that some caution should be exhibited by 

 buyers before taking it for granted that rubber prepared under 

 scientific supervision is necessarily superior to that which has 

 been prepared by crude native methods. Certainly there is 

 every reason to suppress the import of sand and water, not only 

 to save freight charges but because the value of the product is 

 then much more easy to be got at. The improvement in the 

 preparation of certain sorts of African rubber for the market is 

 undoubtedly one of the features of the trade to-day and its pro- 

 gress will be watched with interest. Belgium is probably alone 

 among nations who possess a monarch with a keen interest in 

 trade that is a personal apart from a political interest, and the 

 rubber trade has especially engaged the attention of King Leo- 

 pold. According to one of our society papers he was closely 

 studying "Gutta-percha" at the recent automobile show in 

 Paris. It is hardly necessary to draw attention to the well 

 known ignorance which here shows itself in the confusion of 

 India-rubber with Gutta-percha, and no doubt from such a 

 source the rubber brokers of Liverpool will bear with equani- 

 mity the appellation of Gutta-percha merchants which the ar- 

 ticle in question applies to them ; but to close this subject there 

 is no doubt that Antwerp, with the intimate connection it en- 

 joys with the prime mover in the development of the Congo 

 Free State, will make rapid strides in the way of becoming a 

 depot of the first importance for West African rubber. * 



A PROMINENT instance of the way in which this body makes 



its existence justified is seen in the decision which has been 



come to, to support those of its members who 



RUBBER have been threatened with proceedings by the 



MANUFACTURERS' r> ■ -r- • r .u i r 



ASSOCIATION Dunlop Tire company in respect of the sale of 

 the basket pattern tire repairing strips. It is 

 claimed by the Dunlop people that this non-slipping arrange- 

 ment infringes Welch's patent (No. 9294 of 1894), though the 

 impression in the trade generally seems to be that there is no 



•This confusion of ideas respecting India-rubber and Gutta-percha seems to be 

 confined to no one country. In New York recently a rubber planting company, 

 dealing in its advertisements with the great demand for rubber, to induce the 

 public to buy its shares, stated that *' 30,000.000 pounds of rubber were used for 

 gol/ 6aUs 3iad small wares during the past year." — Tub Editor. 



infringement at all ; hence the action taken by the association 

 in the matter. It is understood that the position was thor- 

 oughly discussed at a meeting of the association held on March 

 20 in Manchester, though, as readers of The India Rubber 

 World are aware, strict secrecy is observed as to what tran- 

 spires at these meetings. 



There seems to be somewhat of a disposition current among 



those who are ill-informed on the subject to class Dermatine 



among the various " ines," " ites," and " oids " 



DERMATINE CO., „hich. Under the grandiloquent title of " rub- 



LIMITED. ^ ' ■ .. . • 



ber substitutes, have in recent years put for- 

 ward claims to general recognition. This point of view, how- 

 ever, is not at all correct, and it is evident from the increasing 

 favor with which Dermatine goods are being regarded that the 

 material has come to stay. It is not, it may be mentioned, of 

 great novelty, as it is now sixteen or seventeen years since the 

 patent process of Mr. Zwingler first attracted attention. At 

 first the manufacture from one cause or another does not 

 seem to have proved a pecuniary success, and it was not until 

 the advent of Mr. John Cooper, the present managing director, 

 that the manufacture can be said to have made real progress, 

 which progress must be put down to improvements in the pro- 

 cess of manufacture as well as to business acumen. To judge by 

 the price, which is conformable to the quality, it is pretty clear 

 that those who pin their faith to cheapness will not be attracted, 

 but it appears that hydraulic engineers and others who require 

 a suitable substitute for leather, and who take into considera- 

 tion wearing power, have stamped Dermatine with the seal of 

 their approval. With regard to the manufacture, the company 

 claim the sole rights and have on more than one occasion com- 

 menced proceedings against infringers. As a final word on 

 this subject, it seems advisable to say that what has appeared in 

 print regarding the formula of the compound is not from an 

 authoritative source, and any would-be imitators who relied im- 

 plicitly on such information as a working guide are hardly likely 

 to achieve good results. 



Although the lease of the works of this company at Tot- 

 tenham has not yet run out, considerable progress has been 

 made in the fitting up oi the new premises at 

 Barking, where the whole business eventally 

 will be carried on. Great difficulties were experienced as re- 

 gards the renewing the lease of the premises, owing to the fact 

 that the surrounding land was being more and more utilized 

 for building purposes, and although a rubber works cannot be 

 classed with many chenical works as arousing the ire of resi- 

 dents of the better class, yet it cannot claim to rank with, say 

 a Parma violet factory. 



The limited firm of Grimshaw Brothers (Manchester), with 

 whom Mr. Rowley, of Amazon rubber fame, has been long as- 

 sociated, has been dissolved and reformed with 

 RUBBER fresh capital as a private concern, the business 



RECOVERY. . , , . , , , , 



carried on being much the same as before. —=• 

 The Rubber Chemical Co. (Birmingham), whose formation was 

 noticed in these colu<'ins about a year ago, are taking over a 

 mill at Streatham common, London, the rubber substitute 

 company who had fitted it up with machinery having recently 

 gone into liquidation. ==It does not appear that the Dialene 

 company, formed about a year ago to work one of Mr. Heyl- 

 Dia private processes, have commenced operations. The 



WARNE &, CO. 



