274 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May i, 1910. 



make on the Continent and it lias been the aim of new com- 

 petitors to produce an article resembling "Klingerite" as far 

 as possible. Trices, of course, van considerably from less than 

 I shilling per pound to 4 shillings and upwards. It need hardly 

 be said that reliability is of more importance than first cost in 

 many of the applications of the material. Important though 

 the cas, may lie for steam pipes where the boiler pressure is 250 

 pounds in the square inch, it is much more important for the 

 economizer joints to be reliably made, the delay and consequent 

 expense being much greater in the latter case. A distinctive 

 feature of the high pressure jointing trade is the variety of 

 colors in which the material comes on the market. This is to 

 be accounted for by the desire of dealers to have a brand which 

 an engineer can at once distinguish from competitive brands. 

 This has led to the manufacturers having to supply the dealer 

 with j. inting of many different colors to satisfy the business re- 

 quirement ~ which the latter has been at pains to initiate among 

 his varied clientele. The amount of rubber in these jointings 

 is only small, but small as it is the present day competition is 

 severe enough in the cheaper makes of jointing to cause a re- 

 duction in the amount of rubber used owing to the increase of 

 price. To digress in conclusion to a matter not strictly con- 

 nected with jointing. I was informed on a recent visit to our 

 premier lead mine that the United States metallic packing in 

 the piston r d stuffing box of the big Cornish pumping engine 

 was still giving perfect satisfaction, after having been in position 

 for nine years. 



The new buildings of their works at Udsall lane, Manchester, 

 which have just been completed, are of the steel girder and 

 irwell and concrete type — a form of constructions 



eastern rubber comparatively new to British rubber 

 CO., ltd. works. As has already been mentioned 



elsewhere in The India Rubber World, Mr. Tinto, the head of 

 the company, with Mr. Gomersall, the engineer, visited the 

 United States a few months ago, and it was what they saw of 

 the use of reinforced concrete in rubber works on that occasion 

 that decided them to adopt that method of construction at home. 

 Despite the high price of rubber, the Irwell and Eastern com- 

 pany are busy enough on mechanical goods. I was interested 

 in examining one of their railway buffers recently returned after 

 15 years' iervice. The interior was as round and elastic as new 

 material and one wonders whether the remade buffers, so much 

 in evidence at the moment, will be able to show anything like the 

 same vitality. 



It will no doubt be generally understood by readers that these 

 notes are printed without any revision by the author, so occa- 

 sional mistakes are inevitable. I do not 

 errata. make a point of referring to these, but 



with regard to the paragraph in the 

 March 1 issue on Siemens Brothers & Co., Limited, I feel that 

 I must correct an error. The asbestos insulated cables are used 

 in car wiring — for the motor leads, not motor trade, as printed. 

 In the first line of the paragraph it may be mentioned that 

 "convention" should read "invention." In the paragraph on rub- 

 ber gauntlets "Lurtgarten" should read "Lustgartcn." 



WHERE IS THE RUBBER "CORNER"? 



THE existence simultaneously in so many markets of a rubber 

 * "boom" has led to some misunderstandings, for one reason, 

 among others, that the boom is not of the same character in all 

 financial centers. Coincident with the floating of an extraor- 

 dinary number of new plantation companies in London, for 

 example, has been an unprecedented rise in crude rubber prices, 

 and in many circles an attempt has been made to trace a con- 

 nection between the two lines of development. One school of 

 writers, for example, supposes crude rubber prices to have been 

 advanced to enhance the quotations for new plantation shares, 

 but of this no proof has been adduced. 



A report which reached London recently was that a rubber 

 "corner" had been organized in Xew York, and that this ex- 

 plained the advance in crude rubber prices. This report evi- 

 dently was based upon announcements regarding the reorganiza- 

 tion of the Intercontinental Rubber Co., which, while largely 

 capitalized, has no relation to crude rubber, except as regards 

 guayule and similar products. 



The New York correspondent of the London Financial Xews, 

 in discrediting a report of a rubber corner in Xew York, and in 

 discussing higher rubber prices for rubber, reports to his paper : 



"There has certainly been a large increase in the demand for 

 rubber, resulting from the tremendous expansion of the auto- 

 mobile industry, and the actual consumption in this respect has 

 been far in excess of estimates made at the beginning of the 

 season. American manufacturers, however, seem to have diag- 

 nosed the actual situation in advance much more accurately than 

 their English cousins, and have therefore fairly comfortable sup- 

 plies on hand, which seems to compare with a virtual rubber 

 famine at European centers." 



BRITISH RUBBER GOODS HIGHER. 



A DEPUTATION from the India-Rubber Manufacturers' 

 ** Association [says The India-Rubber Journal — April 4] 

 was appointed last month to wait upon the principal manu- 

 facturers who were not members of the association, to see if 

 s. mie arrangements could be come to with regard to an advance 

 in prices, and the scheme which we proposed appears to have 

 been taken as a basis, with the result that circulars have been 

 issued to the following effect : 



"Owing to the further enormous advance in rubber and other 

 raw materials, manufacturers are compelled to raise the prices 

 of their manufactures according to the following schedule: 



MECHANICAL GOODS, ETC. 



is. 6d. nel and under 15 % advance 



t Iver is. 6 d. and up to 3J, net 25 % advance 



Over $s. and up to 5s. net 33 T A% advance 



( hrr 5s. net 40 °7c advance 



GARDEN', DELIVERY AND SUCTION HOSE. 



Ordinary Qualities 1 5% advance 



Other Makes and Qualities 25$ and upwards 



"In addition to the advance in prices here notified [the same 

 paper continues] we learn that some of the manufacturers are 

 making the following advances : 



India-rubber belting 1 jC'c advance 



Piece goods ami garments i5^< advance 



Sporting requisites, rugs, cart sheets, etc 1 5' /< advance 



Carriage and solid motor tires 25% advance 



"All other sundry articles, including football bladders, air 

 goods, and hot water goods, etc., 25 per cent." 



The following extract from an editorial in our London con- 

 temporary is of interest: "To illustrate the state of affairs, we 

 may mention that one pri minent manufacturing concern cal- 

 culate that if they sold off their stock of raw rubber at present 

 prices they would make a profit of £10,000, wdiich would be far 

 greater than they could hope to make by carrying on manu- 

 facture for the next three months." 



The Mutual Benefit Association, maintained by employes of 

 the Hartford Rubber Works Co. (Hartford, Connecticut), at 

 their annual meeting on April 14, elected C. B. Whittelsey pres- 

 ident, George Holloway vice-president, A. Elmer secretary, and 

 E. Forthergill treasurer. This association, formed about three 

 years ago, and now having a membership of over 500, has a 

 sick and death benefit fund, on account of which payments 

 have been made up to date of over $5,000. The second annual 

 social of the organization was held on April 22, at Foot Guard 

 Armory, the money realized at which was added to the sinking 

 fund of the organization. 



