March 1, 1914. | 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



319 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



THE MUTOR snow. 



TllK North of England Motor Show, at .Manchester, was 

 lichl this year on January 9 and the following days for 

 pk-asure cars, and on January 30 and the following days 

 for trade vehicles. Both shows were held at the City Exhibi- 

 tion Mali instead of (as had been intended) at the larger Exhibi- 

 tion Hall. outside the city, the latter liaving been burned down — 

 presumably by sutTragettcs — in Uecembcr. Last year the two 

 shows were held simultaneously, one at each building, which was 

 found to be inconvenient for people who wanted to get in touch 

 with one another. Both shows were on a large scale, especially 

 the latter, the side streets around the hall being lined with a 

 variety of vehicles for which space could not be found inside. 

 The use of the motor lorry for the transport of goods increases 

 year by year, and special attention was paid to those types cer- 

 tificated by the War Office, which pays a subsidy of illO to pur- 

 chasers who agree to lend them, in case of demand, to the 

 department for its services. These vehicles — of which I may 

 mention the Karrier lorry and tlie Wcilsclcy — are built lor net 

 loads of 3 to 4 tons. 



Hut it is customary in these notes to limit myself to rubber, so 

 passing on to tires, I may say at once that nothing really novel 

 was on view. The great majority of the solid tires shown were 

 of the band type in which the steel band is vulcanized into the 

 rubber. The gallery of the hall was devoted mainly to tires, 

 the firms exhibiting at the second show being the North British 

 Rubber Co., Limited, The Dunlop Rubber Co., Chas. Macin- 

 tosh & Co., The Continental Rubber Co., The Shrewsbury & 

 ChaUiner Tyre Co., the Midland Rubber Co., the Avon Rubber 

 Co., the Peter Union Tyre Co., the St. Helens Cable & Rubber 

 Co., the Prowodnik (Columb Tyre Co., Limited, London), the 

 Polack (Leo Swain & Co.) Liga Tyres, Limited, the Simplex 

 Rubber Co., and last but not least, the De Nevers Rubber Tyre 

 Co., Limited — the Count De Nevers being in attendance for the 

 first time at these shows. The demand for the De Nevers band 

 tire has necessitated a considerable enlargement of the works 

 at Earlsfield, near London. The concern is a private, limited 

 company, the count being chairman and managing director. The 

 Prowodnik company had its red solid and dull brown pneumatic 

 tires on view. .\ month or two ago I mentioned that these 

 tires were sold at a higher price than competitive makes. This. 

 I am told officially, was due to the demand overtaking the 

 supply, and that now prices conform to those of other leading 

 makes. The company — which is, of course, the well known 

 Russian one located at Riga — has recently opened a branch in 

 America. 



Prominent among the newcomers to this show was the Siinplex 

 Rubber Co., Limited, of Scrubbs Lane Works, Willesden, Lon- 

 don, whose stand contained the solid Simplex band tires for com- 

 mercial motor vehicles. With regard to these tires, it is stated 

 that they contain nothing but the finest quality materials, and 

 that the process by which they are made as well as the machines 

 employed in their manufacture arc protected by the company's 

 own patents. In this connection I may mention that the 

 Simplex Co. is closely concerned with re-formed rubber and 

 claims to hold the master patents concerned with their procedure 

 of re-forming. Except the statement that these tires are cheaper 

 at first cost than any others on the market, there is no informa- 

 tion to be gained as to whether they consist wholly or only 

 in part of re-formed rubber. Any authoritative statement on 

 this point would certainly be of great interest, considering how- 

 little commercial success has been achieved bv the several re- 



forming companies. These tires carry the usual guarantee of 

 10,000 miles and are said to have considerably exceeded this in 

 practice. 



.NEW TE.KTII.E EIR.MS. 

 For some time past there have been rumors that a large rub- 

 ber manufacturing lirm was to commence making its own tire 

 fabric, tho the preliminaries have been kept very quiet. Definite 

 mformation up to a certain point is, however, now available in 

 the fact that two new companies were registered in London in 

 the last week of January, among the objects of each of which 

 was the adoption of an agreement with the Dunlop Rubber Co. 

 The new concerns are: Tyre Yarns, Limited, with a capital 

 of i60.000 in £5 shares, and Fabric Weavers, Limited, with a 

 capital of i40,000 in £5 shares— botli being private companies. 

 The directors are the same in each case, all of them men closely 

 associated with and well known in the Lancashire cotton in- 

 dustry. .\s long as the agreement is m force the Dunlop Co. 

 has the right to nominate one director of each company. Altho 

 some of our rubber works have directors occupying seats on 

 the boards of cotton inills. these new registrations, whereby 

 definite agreements are adopted with a rubber works, constitute 

 a departure which is attracting no small attention in the trade. 



SIR SAMUEL TURNER. 



Tho primarily a matter of interest and congratulation to his 

 fellow townsmen of Rochdale, the inclusion of Mr. Turner in 

 the New Year's honors list as a Knight, is an event on which 

 no doubt many American readers of this journal would be glad 

 to have their congratulations expressed by the medium of these 

 notes. In his native town Sir Samuel Turner has long been 

 known as a large employer of labor and also as a generous 

 benefactor to local institutions and charities. Originally a cotton 

 spinner, he instituted and brought to perfection the art of weav- 

 ing asbestos, thus initiating a business which is now carried on 

 by Messrs. Turner Bros. & Co., and which is known the world 

 over. 



PIRELLI & CO. 



This well known rubber manufacturing company of Milan — 

 the only one of any importance in Italy — has decided to manu- 

 facture electric cables in England as well as in Spain, where a 

 branch works has been established for some years. A British 

 coiTipany has recently been registered with a capital of £200,000 

 in £5 shares. Agreements have been made with the General 

 Electric Co., Limited, of London, and the object is to manu- 

 facture all classes of electric cables. A large factory is now in 

 course of erection at Southampton, a southern town which has 

 largely increased its population in recent years owing to shipping 

 developments but which has not hitherto been associated with 

 manufacturing ventures except on quite a small scale. 



LITTLE KNOWN USES FOR RUBBER. 

 Every now and then I come across a use for rubber of which 

 I had hitherto been in ignorance, and assuming — rightly or 

 wrongly — that others may be in the same gloom of ignorance, 

 I hasten to enlighten them, however small the matter may be 

 from a commercial standpoint. I refer on the present occasion 

 to the goggles which are worn by mineral ore breakers in 

 chemical and other works. I don't know what the situation is 

 with regard to other countries, but in Great Britain the use of 

 goggles is not compulsory, being a matter for the management 

 to determine. Thus, I find that while they are regularly used 

 by the men in some works, in others they are conspicuous by 

 their absence. .Mtho rubber bands are not absolutely necessary. 



