June 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



305 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



THE 

 EXHIBITION. 



EXCEPT for the e.xciirsionist from the country, there can 

 Ije little doubt that June or July are more suitable months 

 for an exhibition in London than September, in which 

 month people are widely scattered on holiday tours and London 

 is generally supposed to be half empty. No doubt to a good 

 many prospective visitors with well- 

 tilled purses, the fact that the date of 

 this year's exhibition synchronises with 

 the Coronation festivities is matter for congratulation. There 

 are others, however, and among them small shareholders in 

 wild-cat two-shilling rubber companies, who have to consider 

 closely their personal expenditures and who are haunted by the 

 fear of exorbitant hotel charges or of failure to obtain accommo- 

 dation at all. Though, of course, the London season, unlike 

 what corresponds to it in the Continental capitals, does not 

 end until the close of July, yet there is sure to be a large exodus 

 of Coronation visitors early in the month and I do not suppose 

 that, at any rate for the last week of the Exhibition, visitors 

 from the country need go in dread of having to walk the streets. 

 By the way, it would be a great convenience to many visitors if a 

 list could be kept of names and addresses of prominent rubber 

 men from abroad who are in London for the Exhibition. This 

 would of course entail extra work which might be carried out by 

 some out-of-work clerk so as not to put further strain on the 

 mental temperament of the manager and secretary. It is bound 

 to happen in some cases, that where two men wish to meet and 

 renew' an old acquaintance, one will have left London before the 

 other arrives or they may only miss meeting by attending at the 

 Hall at different hours. In the latter case the list I have sug- 

 gested would enable the telephone or post to be used with the 

 desired result. The visitors should be classified as Americans, 

 Germans, French, etc. No further information should be given 

 or else the list will be used by strangers for business purposes 

 instead of being simply to facilitate the meeting of acquaintances 

 or at any rate of those wlio know one another by repute. 



It is announced that the Margett International Sectional Tyre 

 Co., Limited, have taken premises for a factory at Newton, near 

 Hyde, some seven miles to the east of 

 Manchester. The intention is to manu- 

 facture their tires, which so far have 

 been made on contract by certain rubber manufacturers. The 

 Margett company, which, as a syndicate, has been in existence 

 some little time, was brought out last January as a private lim- 

 ited company with a capital of £250,000. The tire is a pneumatic 

 motor tire made in sections of 18 inches each, any of which 

 can be replaced if damaged. Though somewhat on the lines of 

 the Hartredge tire as far as replacement in part is concerned, 

 it will be remembered that the latter was a solid tire and of more 

 numerous sections. The Jilargett tire has for some time been 

 undergoing extensive road trials and it is to be hoped that the 

 metropolitan police authorities will not drop on it as they did 

 on the Hartredge. which was convicted of cutting up the road- 

 ways. The works are expected to be ready for manufacturing 

 in July. The two permanent directors are A. P. Ford-Moore 

 and D. Ampleford, the office being at 56 Moorgate street, Lon- 

 don, E. C. 



The contract for the supply of Fiat tires for tlie current year 

 has been placed with Charles Macintosh & Co., Limited, 

 These tires are being largely used in London, and must not be 

 confounded with the K. T. tire, which is being brought out by 

 another London company and is having extended trials in Paris. 

 The handsome new offices and stores of the Continental Tvre 



TIRE 

 NOTES. 



THE DERESINATION 

 OF RUBBER. 



and Rubber Co. (Great BritamJ, Limited, in Brompton Road, 

 London, are now ready for occupation and the same may be said 

 of the new premises at Milton Buildings, Deansgate, Manchester, 

 the new home of the local depot. Milton Buildings is also to be 

 the locale of the Manchester offices of Almagam, Limited, motor 

 tire manufacturers. 



At 38 Deansgate is to be found the new depot of the Pirelli 

 Tyre, a move having been made from Corporation street. 



An illustrated communication on this subject by A. Chaplet 

 and H. Rousset has recently appeared in Le Caoutchouc ct 

 la Gutta-Pcrcba and it gives a useful 

 sunmiary of the patents taken out for 

 this purpose. The subject has long been 

 attractive to inventors, though I have never shared the optimism 

 of those who foretold great advantages to accrue to the rubber 

 trade by systematic deresinification of the various brands of 

 rubber known to commerce. Since the establishment of the 

 Malaysian Rubber Co.'s works at Borneo, to deal with jelutong 

 on a large scale, the process has of course passed the experi- 

 mental or desultory stage, though I do not know whether its 

 commercial success has yet been testified to in the form of a 

 satisfactory balance sheet. Since the Goebilt works commenced 

 operations one or two short patents have been taken out with the 

 same object in view, but I am not in possession of any figures 

 testifying to their financial success. On the general question 

 the above authors make the interesting remark that the very 

 resinous rubbers are frequently the product of a latex which 

 contains other impurities such as albuminoids and oxydases, 

 which still remain in the rubber after deresinification tending to 

 depreciate its value, and they refer to the further treatment 

 which has been found necessary to obviate the danger of pre- 

 mature decay in the extracted rubber. The Malaysian company's 

 product has now been on the market some time and there should 

 be plenty of evidence as to its value and stability. The guayule 

 producers, after perfecting a process of deresinification, have aban- 

 doned it and sell their product with its high resin content intact. 



A paper entitled "Contribution to the Application of .\rtificial 



Cold to the Commerce and Industry of Caoutchouc" was pre- 



RErRiGERATioN scnted at the International Congress of 



IN THE Refrigeration at Vienna in October last 



RUBBER INDUSTRY. by M. Jean Boutanc. of Paris. I have 

 only recently had an opportunity of reading the rather lengthy 

 paper in full, hence the delay in these observations on it. The 

 main impression left on me by its perusal is that the word "ap- 

 plication" in the title should have been modified into "suggested 

 application" because, although the paper is full of proposals 

 for the utilization of artificial cold in the industry, there is only 

 one reference, and that a very brief one, to its application. This 

 has reference to fine cut sheet. Among the suggested applica- 

 tions of cold are the freezing of raw rubber to prevent decay 

 or tackiness; the cooling instead of heating of the air in rubber 

 drying stoves ; the freezing of rubber scrap to facilitate its com- 

 minution in the regenerated rubber industry, and the artificial 

 cooling of rooms where vulcanized rubber goods are stored. A 

 description of a naphtha recovery plant is also given, where the 

 recovery is 50 per cent, with the condenser water at about 60 

 deg. F. It is suggested in the paper that a better recovery might 

 be obtained if the water were artificially cooled to freezing point. 

 It has of course, I may say, been the general rule to cool down 

 the condenser water by refrigerating machinery in English re- 

 covery plants. Although, of course, the paper is interesting 

 as throwing out free suggestions as to improvements in the in- 



