14 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



[October i, 1910. 



chemist who has been closely concerned with bringing synthetic 

 indigo to a commercial success. The new company is financially 

 backed by Messrs. Siemens, the British Insulated and Iklsliy 

 Cable Co., and others, and it may, therefore, be taken that the 

 discovery is of considerable importance. 



Although I have heard this product referred to as synthetic 

 rubber, I believe that this is not a correct appellation. Various 

 bodies have had a successful application for insulating purposes 

 which by no means e.Nhibit the principal characteristics of rubber ; 

 for instance, "diatrine" and "gutta gentach," to say nothing of 

 the vulcanized bitumen used by Callenders. 



Ajjother patent for this purpose has been taken out by Dr. 



Dreyfus, Dr. Fricdl, and Dr. Bentley, the first named being the 



managing director and the others 



BEHOVING RESIN chemists' of the Clavton .Aniline Co, 



raOM BUBBEB. ■ • 1 '■ 1 . 1 • 



1 his company winch is located in a 



suburb of Manchester, carries on tar distillatii 11 and aniline color 

 manufacture, and is well known to the ruljhcr trade as suppliers 

 of solvent naphtha. The main feature of the patent is the re- 

 moval of resins from rubber by the use of liyridine or a higher 

 base, the extraction being made on the rubber while still con- 

 taining its usual moisture, this water preventing the pyridive 

 from dissolving the rubber. I don't quite see where the par- 

 ticular advantage of using coal tar bases for this purpose comes 

 in, unless it is that the patentees have an excess of the solvent for 

 which they desire a market. They do not entirely limit their 

 claim to pyridine bases, but include mixtures of these with the 

 old established solvents, such as alcohol and acetone. 



With regard to the use of coal tar bases I may remark that 

 they were the particular solvent referred to in Robiii.-ion Brothers 

 & Cliff's patent of six or seven years ago. In this case the solvent 

 was used to dissolve rubber scrap in a reclaiming process. After 

 considerable experimenting the patent was abandoned, one of the 

 objections to the product being the disagreeable smell the pyri- 

 dine gave to the rubber. Messrs. Robinson Brothers arc large 

 tar distillers and naphtha producers, and located at West Brom- 

 wich, and elsewhere, and they are anxious to find a use for the 

 higher pyridine bases which they produce as a necessary by- 

 product in a certain branch of their manufacture. I have no in- 

 formation whether the Clayton Aniline Co. are actuated by any 

 such motive, and I am quite open to conviction that the coal tar 

 bases have been selected for this particular purpose because of 

 their intrinsic merits. The patentees refer to the pronounced 

 rubber dissolving properties of pyridine and its bases. It will be 

 remembered that pyridine was adopted by Weber in rubber 

 analysis to remove pitch and asphalt from vulcanized rubber, 

 though someone later on showed that vulcanized rubber wai 

 soluble in it to an appreciable extent. 



Mr. William Coulter has recently taken up an appointment 

 with the works of The B. F. Goodrich Co., in America, thus 

 adding another country tn the list of 

 those where Ik- has had experience 

 of rubluT manufacturing. In- England 

 he was for a time at the original Leyland works, then at Charles 

 Macintosh & Co. France and Russia subsequently engaged his 

 serivces, and in more recent years he has been with the Harhurg- 

 Vienna Co., at Harburg and Wimpassing. proceeding from 

 thence to the Hungarian Rubber Co., at Budapest. Mr. Coulter, 

 who is a bachelor, is evidently of somewhat nomadic habits, to 

 whom an engagement for a limited period appeals more strongly 

 that it would to a family man. Waterproof textures and clastic 

 thread are branches of the rubber trade in which Mr. Coulter 

 specializes. 



I regretfully have to record the sudden death of Mr. Lewis 

 Johnstone, B. SC, an Edinburgh man who had been for 

 many years in the Manchester district connected with the now 

 defunct Radax tire. Of late years Mr. Johnstone had devoted 

 himself to the perfecting of a motor tire for which he took out 



PEHSONAI, 

 MENTION. 



one or two patents. For some time past he had been engaged on 

 this tire at the well known Helsby Cable works, and this com- 

 pany is now the owner of his patents upon which their new tire 

 department is founded. 



Mr. J. A. Fallows, who was for many years manager of the 

 Manchester offices of the Leyland and Birmingham Rubber Co., 

 is now the general manager of the works at Leyland. Mr. 

 Fallows was at the Brussels exhibition when the disastrous fire 

 broke out. The fine exhibit of the Leyland company, in con- 

 nection with that of the Falatine Heel Co., and others, was com- 

 pletely destroyed. 



In the personal mention of my August notes Earl of Vernland 

 should of course have been Earl of Verulam — Verulamium 

 having been the Roman name for St. Albans. 



T 



LONDON RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



HE Brazilian section at the second International Rubber 

 Allied Trades Exhibition, in London next year, is likely 

 to exceed in extent and interest the very excellent representation 

 made at last year's exhibition by the Commercial Association of 

 -Amazonas at Manaos. From the latest number received of the 

 Revista of that association it appears that the invitation of the 

 management of the Rubber Exhibition to the Manaos association 

 to be represented next year was received with enthusiasm, and 

 that steps have been taken already to make the .Amazon exhibit 

 as complete and fully representative as possible. Circulars have 

 been addressed to the producers of rubber, inviting their co- 

 operation, and to the officers of the various municipalities asking 

 them to encourage the movement. Exhibits are invited of all 

 kinds of rubber produced in the Amazon region, including balata. 

 A requisition has been made for space in the coming exhibition 

 equal to 100 square meters [= 1,076 square feet]. The governor 

 of Amazonas, Senhor Colonel Antonio Bittencourt, has been 

 named as one of the vice-presidents of the Rubber Exhibition. 



The management of the Rubber Exhibition have received from 

 the Booth Steamship Co., Limited, a letter intimating that they 

 will be prepared to carry free of charge all exhibits of rubber 

 from the Amazon valley, including any from Iquitos (Peru), as 

 well as from Maranhao and Ceara, on the south Brazil coast. 



At the recent annual meeting of the United Planters' .-Associa- 

 tion of Southern India it was resolved: 



"That this association do decide to support the Rubber Exhi- 

 bition of 1911 to be held in London; that the Secretary be asked 

 to arrange for space at the International Rubber Exhibition 

 either by letter or by cable ; that Mr. Richardson be requested 

 to be our delegate ; that a committee be formed to undertake 

 all the necessary arrangements in connection with the exhibition, 

 and that the association be indemnified against loss by the dele- 

 gates of those associations largely interested in rubber." 



The India-Rubber Journal (London) says: "Mr. Henry C. 

 Pearson, Editor of The India Rubber World, New York, is 

 presenting a cup valued at 100 guineas for the best system for 

 extracting a maximum amount of latex from the Castilloa elas- 

 lica at a mimimum cost. The cup is intended to be competed for 

 at the Rubber Exhibition next year." 



The Ceylon chamber of commerce, in conjunction with the 

 Planters' Association of Ceylon, are in favor of Ceylon being 

 littingly represented at the Rubber Exhibition, and it is proposed 

 to ask the colonial government for a substantial grant tn meet 

 the whole cost of the representation. 



TiiK United States-Mexico Rubber Plantation Co. have been 

 organized at Fort Collins, Colorado, under the laws of Arizona 

 and Mexico, to develop 5,000 acres of land, which has been 

 acquired on the river Usamacinta, near Monte Cristo, Mexico. 

 It is proposed to plant Castilloa rubber largely with other crops 

 for earlier profits, the capital to be secured by selling acreage 

 certificates. The directors and oflScers of the company are lead- 

 ing business men in Fort Collins, Denver. 



