May i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



273 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



PROOFING 

 TRADE. 



IT is unfortunate that the recent boom in the waterproofing 

 branch is being seriously affected by the high and constantly 

 rising price of the raw rubber. Proofers have great com- 

 plaints to make on this head, as, unlike the manufacturers of 

 many other classes of rubber goods, they cannot keep advancing 

 their prices with the assurance that the 

 volume of business will hardly be af- 

 fected. Although there is a sort of com- 

 bination among the rubber waterproof manufacturers, this body 

 takes no decided action with regard to advances in price, and 

 it may therefore be considered as of little importance at this 

 critical juncture. In the mackintosh garment trade an increase 

 in price to the wholesale dealers proportionate to what can easily 

 be obtained in other branches brings business to a standstill. 

 The trade, therefore, is confronted with the old alternative which 

 has worked so much havoc in the past. It hardly need be men- 

 tioned that this is the lowering of the quality of the rubber 

 mixing in order to prevent manufacture at a loss. This is bound 

 to occur if the wholesale dealer buys in the cheapest markets 

 and where there is no general agreement among manufacturers 

 as to prices. The boom to which I have referred is by no means 

 confined to high class goods for motorists ; it is concerned with 

 the public generally and it is unfortunate that the desire to make 

 and sell only really reliable goods should be met with the present 

 difficulties. Trade statistics for last year showed a considerable 

 rise in our exports of proofed cloth to Canada, and there is af 

 present a good demand from that country. Of course there are 

 home factories, but presumably they cannot meet the full demand 

 or supply the particular qualities desired at the price of their 

 British competitors. 



As some misapprehension is current with respect to the pres- 

 ent position of this machine, it may be of interest to give the facts. 

 The machine, which has for its object 



THE PENTHER . ... , ., , „ 



PATENT MACHINE. tile g" ndln g oi rubber SCra P SUch 3S 



pneumatic tires with the complete sep- 

 aration of the textile fiber, was brought over from Hanover to 

 the works of Messrs. J. E. Baxter & Co., at Leyland, Lancashire. 

 The various improvements which were found necessary led 

 eventually to a dispute between Mr. Baxter and the inventor, 

 a dispute which found its way into the law courts. This, how- 

 ever, was by no means the end of the machine. Mr. Penther 

 returned to Germany and the machine is now being manufactured 

 under his supervision at the great works of Krupp's who, it is 

 understood, hold the patent rights for the world except as far 

 as Great Britain is concerned, where they belong jointly to 

 Messrs. Baxter and Penther. Several machines are now on 

 order at Krupp's, one for a prominent British rubber works. 

 Among the improvements recently effected is a great increase in 

 capacity — though I don't know whether there is now any greater 

 immunity from the danger of the rubber taking fire — a con- 

 tingency which has caused trouble in the past. 



Fine grinding of scrap rubber has received attention in more 

 than one quarter recently. T. Gare, of Hazel Grove, has 

 GARDNER'S patented a machine which is generally 



grinding acknowledged to do very good work in 



machine. this direction. William Gardner & Co., 



Limited, the well known engineers of Gloucester, have also recent- 

 ly patented a rubber grinding machine, combined with exhaust fan 

 and metal dust collector. The rubber to be reduced is placed 

 in a box which contains a feed which is automatically weighted, 

 so that as the reducing takes place the weight keeps the rubber 

 in constant contact with the surface of the grinding wheel, 

 until the feed box is empty, when by means of the return motion 



THE AMERICAN 

 CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



worked by hand the box can be filled and the work started again. 

 The powdered rubber is discharged into a box between the legs 

 of the machine, this box being fitted with a separating grid so 

 that in the event of the material becoming overheated it pre- 

 vents damage to the bulk being ground. By means of the ex- 

 hausting fan the light rubber dust which would otherwise float 

 about the room is collected, this naturally forming the finest 

 product of the process. I understand that this machine has given 

 complete satisfaction with compounded rubbers. It is not claimed 

 for the machine that it will separate textile material from the 

 rubber, nor do I suppose can it work upon rubber in thin sheets. 

 The recent move of this society in instituting a Rubber section 

 emphasizes the great difference in procedure which has for 

 long distinguished it from the Chemical 

 Society of London. I don't know 

 enough about the Continental societies 

 to carry the comparison further. The English society, however, 

 still confines itself to the reading of original papers on purely 

 scientific topics, very little attention indeed being paid to analytical 

 chemistry. Its meetings also are held only in London, so that 

 country members can rarely put in an appearance. Referring 

 more particularly to the new Rubber section, it is clear that 

 matters of strictly technical interest will come under discussion 

 and the success or otherwise would seem to depend on how far 

 the trade through their chemists are disposed to be communi- 

 cative. Such a section would not have much life in England, as 

 its proceedings would be contributed to only by a limited num- 

 ber of rubber analysts and patentees. In America, of course, 

 it may be quite different, though I have been told that the former 

 American openness with regard to work procedure has given 

 way of late rather to secretiveness. Naturally, the first business 

 of such a section in America is to set to work to standardize 

 the methods of analysis, and I am not surprised to see in The 

 India Rubber World for February that steps have already been 

 taken to put this work in hand. In this desirable work the 

 committee hope to have the full sympathy and support of the 

 rubber manufacturers. It may be asked, however, whether the 

 manufacturers as a body are keenly desirous of having all their 

 goods minutely dissected by the scalpel of the chemist. I could 

 certainly point to manufacturers in this country who would 

 want to know where they came in if they were bombarded with 

 queries from a scientific society. I notice that it is stated that 

 no public use will be made of any trade information obtained, 

 but guarantees of this sort can hardly be rigidly adhered to. 

 Suppose, for instance, a firm employs to its advantage some new 

 rubber chemical. Surely the publication of the method of its 

 estimation in rubber amounts to a statement that it is in use or 

 at any rate under trial or consideration. With regard to the 

 International committee appointed in September, 1908, to inves- 

 tigate rubber analysis I presume that the Americans appointed 

 on that committee will now throw in their lot with the new 

 organization, which will probably get through its work first. 



The use of this article, which became prominent on the in- 

 creased application of higher boiler pressure, shows continual 

 expansion. Originally the bulk of the 



HIGH PRESSURE , cam£ {rom America _ and th i S 



JOINTING 



may possibly be the case today, but the 

 British and Continental manufacturers on similar lines have made 

 considerable progress in the last few years. Prominent firms in 

 this line are the Jenkins and Quaker City Rubber companies, 

 of America; the Klinger and Reithoffers companies, of Vienna; 

 and the Calmon. of Hamburg, though this is, of course, by no 

 means an exhaustive list. Klinger's is the oldest established 



