180 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March i, 1902. 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



RUBBER 

 FOOTWEAR. 



WICKS'S PATENTS. 



IT is not particularly easy to get at accurate statistics, even 

 if such were really worth the labor of obtaining, but there 

 can be no doubt that the present winter, with its numer- 

 ous snow falls, has done a good deal to popularize the 

 rubber shoe in this country. Retailers' stocks, especially in 

 London and the suburbs, have been quite unequal 

 to the sudden demands which been made upon 

 them. No doubt the inadequacy of the cleansing 

 arrangements of our streets, productive of so much ire to the 

 suburban resident particularly, is looked upon with a lenient 

 eye by those who are interested in the sale of rubber footwear. 

 Ladies still remain the principal customers, for although a cer- 

 tain number of elderly men wear the rubber boot as an adden- 

 dum to the ordinary one of leather, yet the majority of men 

 customers use them only in connection with the evening outfit 

 — a point generally urged in disfavor being the tendency to 

 make the foot overheated. 



I HAVE received from Mr. Joseph Thomas Wicks a neatly 

 got up pamphlet descriptive of the properties and merits 

 of His patent double acting mixing mill, and 

 double acting waste rubber grinder, which 

 are manufactured by Messrs. James Bertram & Son (Edin- 

 burgh). Reference has already been made to these machines 

 in this column, and it will suffice now to advise those who 

 require further information to apply to the patentee at 6, 

 Grand Parade, Haringay, London, N., for a copy of the pamph- 

 let, which enters into full details. The saving of manual labor 

 which is a feature of these machines is, as we have recently ex- 

 perienced, in the engineering and boot trades, not altogether 

 appreciated by the British workman, but it is certain that this 

 adoption of American principles, which is as yet in its infancy, 

 will increase to much larger proportions in the near future ; 

 and indeed it is obvious that the antagonism evinced by the 

 British workman is really a shortsighted policy and not con- 

 ducive to his best interests in the long run. 



The manager of one of our largest concerns in this branch 



says that, although trade has been good during the last twelve 



months, yet the fine dry summer has caused a con- 



WATERPROOF gi^grable diminution of profits. The business is 



GARMENT . j . , ^ 



TRADE. ^^^ carried on in a very hand to mouth way ; 

 neither the retail shops or the wholesale houses 

 keep any stock to speak of, compared with what was for- 

 merly the rule, and the present conditions are much more 

 onerous to the works management who have to be prepared to 

 fill all sorts and conditions of orders at express speed. To pass 

 on the expression of a harried works manager, the business with 

 its continual change of conditions and alterations in patterns 

 and styles is" quite sickening " and no doubt there are others 

 holding managerial positions who will endorse this opinion. Fol- 

 lowing the lead set a year or two ago by Messrs. Mandleberg, 

 Frankenburg &Co., Lim.ited, are about to start a factory in Ham- 

 burg for making up waterproof garments. Probably shipping 

 facilities have as much to do with this as the development of 

 Continental business, because the mackintosh has never at- 

 tained the popularity in Germany which attended its introduc- 

 tion in Great Britain. I have often, however, heard a high 

 opinion expressed on the continent for the British make, and 

 have listened to the complaints of Germans at the duty they 

 have had to pay when taking such goods home from England ; 



therefore it may be that a British descent on the Fatherland 

 may prove to have sufficient justification. As a rule the pat- 

 terns and cloths produced in Yorkshire are open to purchase 

 by any waterproofing factory, which of course precludes any 

 particular firm from claiming a specialty. It is not at all usual 

 for weaving to be carried on at the rubber works, though a 

 notable exception occurs in the case of Messrs. Mandleberg, 

 who do a considerable amount of weaving of special patterns 

 both in wool and silk, of which of course they have a monop- 

 oly in the trade. With regard to developments in the trade, it 

 may be mentioned that a new firm is aliout to tempt fortune in 

 the neighborhood of Manchester, though not on a large scale, 

 but more of this anon. A new making up house is Messrs. I, 

 Kriegsfeld & Co., Limited, of 112 Princess street, Manchester, 

 dealing in rubber and rain proof garments. Another firm doing 

 the same class of business has recently been formed into a lim- 

 ited company under the style of the Manchester Waterproof 

 Manufacturing Co., Limited, 28, Dutton street, Manchester. 



I REGRET to say that under the pressure apparently of a large 



creditor of some prominence in the rubber trade a receiver has 



been appointed to these works, where ever 



HYDE since its connection with the cycle tire business, 



IMPERIAL RUBBER t^Qy^igg seem to have been more or less acute. 



CO.. LIMITED. 



In the earlier days of the factory, when the 

 proprietors were Mr. Cohen and Mr. Cresswell, a good deal of 

 money was made, but of late years this era of prosperity has 

 been succeeded by one in which disputes and lawsuits have 

 been upleasantly prominent. Mr. Cresswell is now the propri- 

 etor of the Cheshire Rubber Co., whose works are situated 

 about a mile distant from those of the Imperial company. 



The Philosophical Magazine for last November contained an 

 article entitled " On the Resistance of Dielectrics and the Ef- 

 fect of an Alternating Electromotive Force on the 

 RUBBER Insulating Properties of India-rubber," by A. W. 

 Ashton, B. SC, and it will no doubt prove of inter- 

 est to those in the trade sufficiently cognizant with 

 electricity to understand the technical terms. I do not propose 

 to occupy my limited space by entering on a discussion of the 

 paper here, though I cannot refrain from a comment or two. 

 It would have been more interesting from a technical stand- 

 point, if the rubber designated as " No. i," and which proved 

 much superior to pure Para, had been more clearly described ; 

 we are left quite in the dark as to whether it is a pure rubber or 

 an admixture. I doubt if pure Pard is as generally used in in- 

 sulating as the author supposes; there does not seem to be 

 much of it in the compound rubbers. His conclusion is, that 

 in presence of air, pure Pard deteriorates, but then the 

 great bulk of the Pard which is used is in the form of strip as a 

 first coating for the wire, and in this position it can hardly be 

 said to come in contact with the air. That pure Pard is rapid- 

 ly destroyed by ozone, has, of course, been shown long ago, 

 and it certainly would seem that the No. i rubber which is 

 stated not to be affected by ozone, is either highly compounded 

 or is not rubber at all. Of course, this is only presumption ; 

 but it is somewhat novel and disquieting to hear of Pard rub- 

 ber ranking after other sorts in any of the uses to which rubber 

 is put. With regard to rubber insulation generally, it seems 

 that great differences of opinion exist amongst our cable man- 

 ufacturers as to the degree of compounding, which is desirable, 



AS AN 

 INSULATOR. 



