AuGtrST 1. 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



403 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Corrcsl>oudc'iit. 



TRADE. 

 CONDITIONS. 



THE general trade of the country is undoubtedly good and 

 this is testified to by the complaint of shipping firms of a 

 shortage of tonnage. .At the time of writing we are in the 

 throes of a seamen's and dock laborers' strike, a very serious 

 matter for many trades, but one that probably does not affect the 

 rubber trade to any material extent. 

 Rubber manufacturers generally report 

 themselves as being busy and are 

 quietly buying tlicir forward deliveries of raw material at the 

 present easy prices. Those who did not pay last sununcr prices 

 for delivery over this year, are congratulating themselves and 

 chuckling silently over tlie misfortunes of their competitors, who 

 are using rubber which has cost them 6s. or 7s. per pound. 

 This fact of course is ignored by those who want a general re- 

 duction of the prices of goods to a level based on fine Para at 

 3s. \0d. lb. One notable result of the famine prices of rubber 

 in 1910 has been the increased use of substitutes and reclaimed 

 rubbers. Now that tlie price of raw rubber has fallen con- 

 •siderably it might be supposed that less of the cheaper materials 

 would be used. This, however, is not so and of course this is 

 a great factor in preventing any important rise in the raw 

 material. Manufacturers watch the returns from the planta- 

 tions pretty closely and the great increase in this year's output 

 over 1910 and 1909 in the case of the more important companies 

 and they argue that unless markets are manipulated there is no 

 need for higher prices. 



Chairmen of plantation companies and others who have to 

 make complimentary speeches about rubber in public are still 

 dwelling strongly on the rubber pavement era, which they say 

 is impending. I asked a prominent mamifacturer the other day 

 what he thought of this, and his opinion was that Para rubber 

 will have to fall as low as 1.?. 6d. or 2s. per lb. before the em- 

 ployment of rubber pavement on a really large scale occurs. 



It is rather an interesting point as to how much of the raw 

 rubber used comes back to the factories as waste or reclaimed. 

 An authority tells me it is 50 per cent. I wonder if this figure 

 finds general corroboration. 



The Mining Exhibition held in Manchester during May was 

 interesting from the point of view of this journal, as showing 

 COAL MINING ''^^ increased utilization of rubber in 



AND RUBBER and about the modern collieries. Of 



REauiREMENTS. course the application of electricity for 



pumping, hauling and winding, is by no means a novelty, but it 

 is only in quite recent years that it may be said to have passed 

 the experimental stage and to have had its advantages against 

 steam fully estalilished. Coal cutting machinery is now being 

 increasingly employed, tiiough it must be confessed tliat there is 

 considerable prejudice against it when worked electrically, on 

 account of its alleged liability to cause explosions in fiery mines 

 by reason of sparking. Trailing cables of special make, for such 

 machines, were on view at the exhibition, prominent among them 

 being those of the St. Helens Cable & Ruliber Co. For 

 this class of work The W. T. Glover & Co. have also 

 brought out a special cable, designed to obviate any risk of 

 danger if accidentally damaged. Of late years, as the result of 

 several calamitous explosions, a considerable amount of attention 

 has been given to life-saving appliances, both at home and 

 abroad. In a general way, one may say that the miner's outfit 

 somewhat resembles that of a diver, though a waterproof 

 costume is not required. A good deal of rul)bcr, liowever, is 

 used in the form of tubing, in connection with the breathing 

 apparatus in tlie helmet, and as the number of rescue stations is 



to lie largely increased, rubber tubing for this purpose will be 

 ill correspondingly increased demand. Shot firing by electricity 

 is now very largely employed in shaft sinking, and the flexible 

 cables used were prominently on view. Of course there is no 

 direct ratio between the increased use of electricity in mines and 

 the amount of rubiier used, because fiber and bitumen insulated 

 cables are employed to a considerable extent for main cables in 

 the shaft. For other applications, however, some of which have 

 been mentioned, the rubber cable reigns supreme and the demand 

 is bound to increase. Some firms who specialize in packings had 

 stands at the exhibition. Kliiigerite is now supplied from their 

 London factory and the firm report increased sales, though they 

 have to meet close competition which has sprung up in recent 

 years. 



In these notes it is not intended to deal systematically with 

 the exhibition or the conferences. This will be done in other 

 columns by another pen, though as the 

 material available for notice is so large 



THE INTERNATIONAL 

 RUBBER EXHIBITION. 



and varied, I may be permitted to say 

 a few words in addition on my own account. The exliibition 

 was certainly a very comprehensive one and liardly anything of 

 importance, from the tree to the finished goods, was lacking. 

 Although British rubber manufacturers were more strongly in 

 evidence than w'as the case in 1908, yet the displays they made 

 individually could not compare, as regards space occupied or 

 general attractiveness, with those of the German manufacturers. 

 Of course it may be that the leading British firms do not require 

 any such advertisement, though it was noticeable that the large 

 German exhibitors, such as the Harburg Vienna Co., are by no 

 moans unknown to British markets, having done business 

 through their London establishment for many years. In saying 

 this about the manufactured goods exhibits, I am merely dealing 

 with the facts. I am not at all sure that it would have added to 

 tlic attractiveness or the utility of the exhibition to have had 

 serried ranks of British manufacturers showing macintoshes, 

 garden hose, etc., on the lines of the ordinary shop window. 

 E.xcept to a few business men who might wish to know what 

 their competitors were doing, such exliibits if at all numerous, 

 would have a tendency to lower the Rubber Exhibition to a level 

 with the various trade exhibitions which are held annually in the 

 Agricultural Hall and which have no higher aims than the desire 

 of individual exhibitors to increase their respective business. Of 

 course I do not suggest that the exhibitors in the Rubber Ex- 

 hibition were there for altruistic motives or were without 

 thought of ultimate benefits to be derived, but compared with the 

 ordinary trade exhibition there was far more information to be 

 obtained by the technical visitor as regards the details of novel 

 machinery and processes. 



The working rubber factory of the Continental Rubber Co. 

 to demonstrate the properties of guayule rubber proved not only 

 a great attraction to the public be- 

 hind the chains, but also of great in- 

 terest to the technical men of vari- 

 ous nationalities who were invited to examine every detail 

 of the plant and the manipulation of the rubber. Such an ex- 

 hibit must naturally entail considerable expense, but Mr. Van 

 der Linde, who had charge of it, told me that he was more than 

 satisfied with tlie results. Another prominent working exhibit 

 was the Universal washer of Messrs. Werner, Pfleiderer & Per- 

 kins. This was operated in a building immediately contiguous to 

 the exhibition demonstrations being given at intervals to those 

 specially intcreste<l. Other modern wasliing machines which claim 



INSTRUCTIVE 

 EXHIBITS, 



