Jl-NK 1, 1914. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



507 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



/>',v (htr Kcguliir Corrcsj'ondcnt. 



ASHKSTOS ANU lU'HIiKK. 



IT has been snKK<-'sted that I should say something aljout the 

 association of asbestos and rubber in British factories con- 

 cerned with the production of goods composed of the two 

 materials. This is a case where detailed treatment would involve 

 giving more minutiae as regards the individual lirms concerned 

 than I feel at liberty to give. One may, however, be. permitted to 

 give briefly the salient features concerning the information asked 

 for. It is probably correct to say that all our asbestos works do 

 a certain amount of rubber manufacturing and that jiractically 

 all our rubber works wliich make mechanical goods use more or 

 less asbestos. In the I'lrst case tlic rubber is a minor department 

 of the business, and in the second case the asbestos is a side line, 

 so to speak. The goods manufactured in both cases belong gen- 

 erally speaking to one class wliicli may be roughly designated as 

 steam and engine packings. 



In some ca.ses the rubber works after proofing the asbestos 

 sheeting with a dough of a cheap quality make up the sheet into 

 the linished packing in the desired form, and in other cases the 

 proofed asbestos is sold to other firms which make up the pack- 

 ings and put them on a highly competitive market under their 

 ■own .or some trade name. Since the amalgamation of the United 

 .\sbestos Co. and Balli Asbestos Co. into Balli United .\sbestos 

 Co., the rubber side of the business has all been carried on at 

 the Ilareheld Works, Middlesex. iMessrs. Turner Brothers, Lim- 

 ited, of Rochdale and Manchester, are the principal competitors of 

 the above concern. In addition to the ordinary asbestos-rublicr 

 packings Messrs. Turner have in recent years done a large busi- 

 ness in Permanite, a high pressure jointing material. 



THE DOUGHTY PATENT VULCANIZER. 

 .Mtho the patent for this machine expired three years ago, 

 and its use is therefore open to any tire manufacturing firm, it 

 is a fact that it is still practically a monopoly of the Dunlop 

 Rubber Co., its original owners in this country. When Mr. 

 Doughty, an American, ofifered his patent for sale in England 

 his price was £100,000, at which figure there were no buyers. 

 Eventually, however, a Birmingham gentleman obtained it at a 

 figure which left a handsome profit in resale to the Dunlop Co., 

 for, I understand, £80,000. The machines have not been im- 

 ported from America, but have been made in Birmingham and 

 Manchester. For those not acquainted with the topic I may say 

 that the object of the machine is the rapid cure of tire covers 

 and inner tubes at a high temperature, the usual figures for tire 

 ■covers being 3K' minutes at 160 pounds steam pressure. The 

 machines are tested by steam, 3.S0 pounds pressure, and hydra 

 tested to 1,200 pounds per square inch. It is understood that 

 there are 350 of these machines in the Dunlop works at Birming- 

 ham. I may say that the machine for vulcanizing inner tubes is 

 of (|uite a different type from the machine for covers. \n im- 

 portant point with regard to the successful use of the machine 

 is the composition of the rubber, and this is the particular rock 

 on which other firms which installed it when the patent ran out 

 have struck. For satisfactory results it is necessary that the 

 rubber be of a certain standard, from which any deviation will 

 give rise to trouble and loss. 



GORTON RUBBER CO. 

 The negotiations for the ])rivate sale of the Droylsden works 

 ■of this company, now in liquidation, having proved unsuccessful, 

 a piecemeal sale by auction took place on the premises on April 

 30. A satisfactory number of buyers assembled, tho the pro- 

 <;eedings b:ked the animation which characterized the sale at 

 the Oorto"i works of the com])any a mcmtli earlier, when, to use 



the expression of a machinery manufacturer, "buyers went mad." 

 This dilTerence may be accounted for by the fact that whereas 

 at Ciorton there was a large amount of quite new and up-to-date 

 machinery, at Droylsden practically all the plant was old. The 

 stock of raw rubber on hand fetched very good prices, a lot of 

 llevca crepe (no further particularization) being knocked down 

 for 2s. 6d. per pound, which called forth the sotio voce remark 

 from a man present that he could buy the same stuff in the mar- 

 ket at 2s. 4d. per pound. 



THE FORD MOTOR CAR CO. 

 Tliis concern, which is located in Trafford Park, Manchester, 

 after having announced that its profit-sharing scheme would not 

 be extended to. the Manchester works, has now reversed its deci- 

 sion. The payment of a minimum wage of £3 per week is very 

 shortly to take effect, and it is not surprising therefore that the 

 works have been besieged by would-be employes, many of whom 

 possess no qualifications for the work they are anxious to under- 

 take. The new move has naturally excited a good deal of com- 

 ment among other employers of labor who are not making the 

 large profits of the Ford company and who cannot afford to 

 emulate their example, whatever their philanthropic ideas may 

 be. In conversation with other manufacturers I lind that the 

 opinion exi.<;t's'that difiiculties will arise witli the highly paid men 

 on the score of the supervision — "grandmotherly" they term it — 

 to which they must conform in theii method and .standard of 

 livin.g. The rules and regulations associated with the receipt of 

 the liigh wage, tho on their face of an entirely salutary nature, 

 will be found irksome by the free-born Briton, it is said, and it is 

 surmised that many will prefer to do without the bonus in order 

 to retain their freedom of action as to their method of living. 

 The situation is an interesting one and 1 shall watch develop- 

 ments with a view of reverting to the topic on a future occasion. 



SOLID TIRE M.VNUFACTURIXG. 

 This is a branch of the rubber business which is displaying 

 great activity at the present time, more especially in the number 

 of firms which have recently taken it up and among which may 

 be mentioned Henley's Telegraph Co., the Harboro Kublier Co., 

 the Perivale Rubber Works and Redfern's Rubber- Works. Of 

 course I am not mentioning firms which have already made their 

 names well known in the solid motor tire world. The advent of 

 some of the smaller firms into the business may have had some 

 effect upon prices, but it may be taken that the SO per cent, re- 

 duction in prices in the last year or so has been mainly due to the 

 combined causes of cheap rubber and close competition among 

 tile old-established concerns. 



THE I.ATE MR. R. K. CRAY. 



Many expressions of deep regret have been evoked by the 

 death of Robert Kaye Gray, who for a period of 44 years was 

 prominently connected with the India Rubber, Guttapercha and 

 Telegraph Works, Limited, of Silvertown, London. Mr. Gray was 

 prominent as an electrician, having been president of the Institu- 

 tion of Electrical Engineers ; and in private life he was well known 

 in connection with various scientific and educational institutions. 

 He was altogether a man of note apart from his purely business 

 attainments, which, it is reco.gnized by his late colleagues, bore 

 so important a part in the development of the large Silvertown 

 concern. 



illE COAGULATION OF HEXE.V LATEX. 



A paper, the full title of which was "On the Coagulation of 

 the Latex of Hei'ca Brasilieiisis and Its Bearing on the Strength 

 of Rubber," by Newton W. Barritt, B. A., of the International In- 

 stitute of .-Vgriculture. Rome, formerly Economic Botanist, Fed- 



