38 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1913. 



or 30 years ago, tho of course the price is much greater than in 

 the case of inferior brands, such as mixtures of lamp black and 

 whiting. The term "vegetable black" was not used by Mr. Cabot. 

 In I'jigland this refers eitlier to lamp black produced from burn- 

 ing heavy oil or to linely powdered charcoal made in stills. .\t 

 one time large quantities of this latter material were sold to 

 the rubber trade, its comparatively low price being a desideratum. 

 Its main drawback was its liability to spontaneous combustion, 

 this having occurred several times in my own experience. Such 

 occurrences were no doubt due to faulty manufacturo and may 

 be considered therefore as preventable. 



IMlM«OVI\G INI'KRIOR GU.MIIC RUBBERS. 

 .\n interesting patent has been taken out by Doctors Spence 

 and Russell and the Diamond Rubber Co., for the above purpose. 

 By mere admixture of metallic sodium or powdered caustic soda 

 with low-grade rubbers, and the subsequent washing out of the 

 alkali, they claim to convert the rubber to a nnich higher grade. 

 The eminence of the patentees is a guarantee that there is soine- 

 thing in the idea, which cannot be said of the bulk of rubber 

 patents. Of course, authorities are predicting the disappearance 

 of low-grade rubbers from the market in the course of a year or 

 two, so that this patent, if successful, may have but little appli- 

 cation. Up to now it has been held that caustic soda at a moderate 

 temperature has no action on rubber, and it will be interesting to 

 hear more about the hard, tenacious body produced by merely 

 mixing caustic soda with the rubber on the rolls. Is the change 

 merely a conversion of the resins into hard soaps or does the 

 rubber itself undergo any modification ? Prima facie resin soaps, 

 if they are fornuil. do not appear to be highly desirable com- 

 ponents of rubber mixing. A good many years ago the use of 

 metallic stearales and oleates was proposed in rubber mixing, 

 but nothing satisfactory resulted. The invention, it is stated, is 

 applicable also to waste or oxidized rubber, especially that which 

 is produced by devulcanizing operations: so that we may have 

 here the germ of an improved rubber reclaiming process. In- 

 terest now centres mainly upon how goods manufactmcd from the 

 improved rubber stand the tests of wear and time. 

 THE GORTON RUBBER COMPANY. 



^^,^_ I regret to say that this company, owning the Gorton & Drovls- 



den rubber works, has not been able to recover from the heavy 

 loss incurred two years ago. things having indeed gone from bad 

 to worse. The present position is that on the application of the 

 debenture holders the court has appointed a receiver who is 

 now in control of the business. Under the law the receiver can 

 either carry on the business or realize on the assets on behalf of 

 the debenture holders. Should this latter alternative come to 

 pass it will be by no means the first case in the Manchester 

 district where a small works has gone under in recent years 

 owing to the lack of sufficient resources to weather a period of 

 depression. At a meeting of the shareholders the somewhat 

 pertinent query was put as to the directors' knowledge of the 

 rubber trade. This is a delicate matter, into which I shall not 

 enter, tho I cannot forbear from remarking how very common 

 it is in British limited companies to choose directors from men 

 of wealth and position quite irrespective of any special nr even 

 general knowledge they may have of the business whose destinies 

 they are to control. 



SYMINGTON & SINCLAIR. 



A new firm of rubber and general produce brokers com- 

 menced business in London on September 1 at 17 Mincing 

 l.ane. under the firm name of Symington & Sinclair. It is 

 the intention of the new concern to confine its operations ex- 

 clusively to the London market, where both members are 

 well known, Mr. Symington having been engaged in the rub- 

 ber trade for more than seventeen years and Mr. Sinclair for 

 the past fourteen j'ears. 



Replete with information for rubber manufacturers — Mr. 

 Pearson's "Crude Rubber and Compounding Ingredients." 



TRADE NOTES. 

 The European warehouse of the Revere Rubber Co. re- 

 moved on September 1 to its new lo(!:ation at Woodbridge 

 Road, Melton Road, Leicester, England, where, with enlarged 

 space and improved equipment, it will be enabled to more ad- 

 vantageously take care of orders from its extensive territory. 



A new agency has been established by The Victor Tyre Co., 

 Ltd., in the West End of London, offices and stock rooms having 

 been opened at IS, Carteret street, Westminster, S. W., near 

 liuckingham Gate, where proper facilities are available for the 

 fitting of tires to customers' cars, and where all the clerical work 

 of the company is to have attention. 



Prince Henry XXXII of Reuss, Germany, is president of the 

 Mauga-Marimba Gesellschaft, a corporation formed to engage in 

 the cultivation of rubber on plantations purchased by the Princj 

 in German East Africa. According to current reports, the ven- 

 ture has not proved successful and other products arc to partly 

 replace the rubber. 



The official commercial registration of the firm "IX-utsche B. 

 F. Goodrich," is recorded at Frank fort-on-the- Main. The firm 

 is registered as manufacturing and dealing in rubber goods of 

 everj' description, automobiles, bicycles and motorcycles of all 

 kinds, especially goods bearing the trade marks "B. F. Goodrich," 

 and "B. F. Goodrich tires." The new firm takes over the Frank- 

 fort branch of the company's French house. The business mana- 

 ger is Arthur Ernest Lumsden, of Colombes. Department of 

 Seine, France. 



The firm of Peter Rost is reported recently established at 

 IVan/sirasse 52a, Koln-Lindenthal, Germany. It will deal in 

 rubber goods of all kinds, making a specialty of aviation equip- 

 ment and everything connected with air craft. 



,V ncu pneumatic tire factory has been established at Buda- 

 pest, Hungary. It bears the title "Fox Pneumatic Co." and has a 

 ca|)ital stock of 500.000 crowns ($101,500). 



The Helsingborgs Gunnnifabriks-Gaioscher .Vktien-Ciescllschaft 

 Ire Torn, has been commercially registered at Berlin, Germany, 

 to manufacture rul)ber goods, with a capital of $100,000 marks 

 ($23,800 V 



Italy's imports of rubber for the year V)l\. according to sta- 

 tistics recently published, amounted in value to 64,319 lire ($12.- 

 4131. Of this amount raw rubber and gutta percha and rubber 

 and gutta percha wastes, made up 30,625 lire ($5,919.6). The 

 figures slunv a material advance as compared with the preceding 

 year. 



.■\ recent issue of the BuUetin dc I'Association des Plaiitcurs 

 dc Caoutiliouc a Ainvrs (Bulletin of the Antwerp Association 

 of Rubber Planters) announced the formation of a stock 

 company, I'laiitatioiis AiDiamilcs, with a capital of 1,250,000 francs 

 ($241,250), for the establishment and exploitation of various 

 cultures, particularly in the countries of the Far East, including 

 Iiido-China, The promoter is prohaM\ M. .Vdrien Hallet, to 

 whom has been alloted 2.500 foniuler's sliaris 



A STRIKING DECREASE IN MOTOR TIRE EXPENSE. 



One of the English papers, speaking of tiie development 

 of the rubber tire in truck service, makes the statement that 

 the first set of rubber tires to be used on a modern commer- 

 cial motor-van in that country was tried in the Liverpool- 

 Manchester mail service in the year 1902, and the cost of 

 those first tires was shown by careful computation to range 

 from lOrf to Is 3d per mile, while the second year the cost 

 had been reduced to about one-third of this amount. Some 

 of the large department stores in London which use a great 

 many of these motor-vans have reduced the tire cost to yid 

 per mile, which is about one-twentieth of the cost during the 

 first year of trial, eleven years ago. 



