September 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



471 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



(By Our Ki^gular Correspondent.) 



THE prevailing topic in England has been the extraordinary 

 line and sultry summer which in July, the third hot month 

 in succession, beat many existing records, nothing ap- 

 proaching the amount of sunshine having been experienced for 

 24 years. I have no exact figures as to the effect upon the 

 waterproof garment trade, but it must have been very pro- 

 nounced, and the set off in the increased demand for garden 

 hose has been seriously affected by householders having notice 

 in many districts to discontinue the use of hose owing to the 

 threatened failure of the water supply. Although trade generally 

 has been good during the summer there has been no exception- 

 able activity in the rubber trade, some firms indeed reporting 

 business as decidedly quiet. Hardly anything has been done in 

 new rubber planting promotions, no doubt the low figure at 

 which the quotations for many of. the boom time companies 

 stand making it difficult to interest underwriters. The financial 

 papers have been full of reports of inhariuonous meetings, at 

 which disappointed shareholders have taken directors to task, 

 and this has occurred not only in wild-cat companies, but also 

 in the case of concerns floated under the best auspices and 

 supported by the reports of scientific authorities. I don't propose 

 to mention by name any particular company but I think that 

 what has occurred with various companies in different parts of 

 the tropics bears ample testimony to the value of the dis- 

 interested criticism which was to be found in the editorial 

 columns of The India Rubber World during the boom period 

 of last year. Although there has been a good deal of talk in the 

 case of various companies of taking proceedings against pro- 

 moters or directors, I don't know that any threat has matured 

 except in one case where an investor got judgment for his in- 

 vestment of about £500 against a company wlio were prominently 

 concerned in the flctation. 



The Reinforced Rubber Company, Limited, which was briefly 

 noticed in these columns at the time of its flotation last year, 

 is now steadily at work. The factory 

 is situated near Hull, the London offices 

 and salesrooms being at 42 Norfolk 

 street. \V. C. The main feature of the patent is the use of strong 

 cotton thread introduced lengthwise into the body of the rubber, 

 whereby, it is claimed, that the latter is greatly strengthened, a 

 claim which is fully borne out by dynamometer tests. The re- 

 inforced rubber is by no means similar in its wearing capacity to 

 ordinary canvas insertion. In the prospectus the utility of the 

 invention was referred to chiefly in connection with boot soles, 

 satisfactory reports having been made by the London Shoe Com- 

 pany, Limited, but more recently satisfactory experiments have 

 been made with a variety of rubber goods, including solid and 

 pneumatic tires, inner tubes for motor and cycle tires, rubber 

 flooring, railway buffers, etc., etc. Mr. Major, who is well 

 known as a tar distiller at Hull and Wolverhampton, is the mov- 

 ing spirit, though there is also a works manager of experience 

 in the rubber trade and also a rubber chemist whose whole 

 time is given to the business. 



Sinxe colorless rubber goods, made from enzyme free 

 rubber by Eainbees process, were put on tlie market three 

 years ago by the Lcyland and Birming- 

 ham rubber companies I don't seem to 

 have heard much about them. This, of 

 course, is nothing to their discredit, and the fact that feeding 

 bottle outfits are commonly made of this class of rubber today 

 shows that its advantages are recognized in some directions at 

 'all events. The other day, when being shown through the 



REINFORCED 

 RUBBER. 



TRANSPARENT 

 RUBBER. 



laboratory of a large metallurgical works, I noticed that a con- 

 siderable amount of rubber tubing of one-half inch diameter of 

 this quality was in use. Enquiries that I made from the chemists 

 elicited the opinion that it was not so satisfactory as the ordinary 

 black tubing made from cut-sheet and this mainly from its greater 

 tendency to oxidation and less resistance to chlorime and other 

 destructive gases met with in the laboratory air. 



The Eighth Triennial Congress of Applied Chemistry meets in 

 Washington and New York in September, 1912, the cordial invita- 

 INTERNATIONAL ''O" given by Mr. Whitelaw Reid on be- 

 CONGRESS OF APPLIED half of his government on the occasion of 

 CHEMISTRY. the last meeting in London in 1909 having 



been unanimously accepted. At the London meeting the few 

 papers dealing with rubber were taken in a section devoted mainly 

 to a different subject and the lack of suitable arrangements made 

 the Congress, as far as rubber was concerned, quite a fiasco. 

 The complaints made with reference to this have borne good 

 fruit, and at the New York Congress there will be a special sub- 

 section of organic chemistry devoted to India Rubber and Other 

 Plastics. L. IT. Bockeland is president; C. C. Goodrich, vice- 

 president, and Jaspar E. Crane, secretary, Harold van der 

 Linde and David Spence making up the list of officials. The 

 existence of this sub-section means that papers on rubber will 

 be read before men who know something about the subject, and 

 if the sub-section can get papers and attendance, such as was 

 the case at the recent rubber exhibition in London, it will more 

 than justify its formation. I may add that the Society of 

 Chemical Industry, at its annual meeting this summer in Sheffield, 

 was invited by a prominent member of the New York section 

 to hold its next annual meeting at New York, and it was agreed 

 lo do so at about the same time as the above Congress. The 

 Society of Chemical Industry has a good many rubber manufac- 

 turers and chemists among its members and some, at any rate, 

 of these are sure to attend the meeting and the Congress. 



The practical test carried out by a committee of experts at 

 the late rubber exhibition for the production of synthetic rubber 

 by the Heineman process has certainly 

 attracted considerable attention and has 

 led to some searchings of heart among 

 those controlling raw rubber interests. The report of the com- 

 mittee of experts is not yet available and all that is known with 

 certainty is that rubber of a sort was made in a fairly large 

 quantity from isoprene. That this was possible has long been 

 known, but hitherto it has been thought that the cost of produc- 

 tion would be prohibitive. Mr. Heinemann's backers, however, 

 are credited with saying that they are certain of being able to 

 produce the synthetic rubber at about 6d. per pound. The raw 

 material to be used is crude Baltic turpentine, and it is through the 

 sale of the by-products of the process at a good profit that the 

 production of the rubber is brought down to a reasonable figure. 

 Of course, the price of turpentine, owing to the destruction of 

 the trees in .America, has been on the up grade for years and 

 undoubtedly there will be a good market for the Heinemann 

 bv-products if, as I presume, they can replace ordinary turpentine 

 in the varnish trade. I don't suppose that the Heinemann people 

 have any monopoly of crude Baltic turpentine and presumably 

 this raw materia! will be dr-awn upon by the other patentees for 

 the production of synthetic rubber from isoprene. Last year the 

 synthesis of isoprene was effected by Professors Perkin and 

 Weizmann at Manchhester University and patented by them. 

 Recently, however, they have joined forces with Messrs. 

 Mathews & Strange, of London, as a limited company which 



SYNTHETIC 

 RUBBER. 



