386 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1910. 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



RUBBER AND 

 THE PUBLIC. 



TJ 1 E fall in price of 2S. 6d. per pound for rubber, instead of 

 the expected rise to 15 shillings, has proved an effective 

 damper to the class of investor so much in evidence in 

 March and April. Those who are still outside the pale of rub- 

 ber investors can generally point to one or more acquaintances 

 whose shares have declined in value 

 after having been purchased at high 

 prices. Companies are still being 

 brought out and go to allotment, but they are by no means so 

 numerous as they were, nor does one read that they have been 

 largely over subscribed after the lists have been open for an 

 hour or two. The prognostication that we shall shortly see an- 

 other good rise in the price of rubber may or may not prove 

 true, but even if there is another considerable rise I don't antici- 

 pate anything like the rush for shares in the companies both 

 new and old which was witnessed three months ago. 



The demand for shares came largely from genuine investors 

 who wished to seize the opportunity of materially increasing 

 small incomes, and this class has naturally only a limited cap- 

 ital to play with, even if disclosures about some of the new 

 companies had had no deterrent effect. Then the discovery that 

 there is by no means a free market in many of the shares has 

 also come as an unflagrant surprise in many quarters. Further, 

 the holiday season is now commencing, and this means not only 

 an alternative way of disposing of cash reserves, but also means 

 the absence from business of possible investors. If there is to 

 be a revival of the market activity of last spring, I imagine that 

 it will not occur before October. Among the recent flotations 

 there are none which call for notice as being of special interest. 

 West Africa and the Far East are still to the fore. One of 

 the latest West African companies is the Mamia River Rubber 

 Estates, Limited, located in the Gold Coast Colony. The in- 

 clusive cost of the rubber delivered in London is estimated at 

 is. Cjrf. per pound, and the profits are calculated on a selling basis 

 of 4 shillings. This may be conservative enough at the present 

 time, but how about a few years hence, when the predicted fall 

 of fine Para to 2s. 6d. takes place? Of course these wild rubber 

 companies will always have an asset in palm oil and mahogany, 

 though they will also need a good price for their rubber if they 

 are to pay substantial dividends on their capitals. 



In his Budget statement the chancellor of the exchequer re- 

 ferred to the rubber boom as having been a source of revenue 

 that will soon die out. Some exception has been taken to this 

 in Mincing lane, where it is predicted that the boom will 

 continue for two years. No doubt high prices will continue for 

 some time, but what the chancellor referred to was the rush 

 of new companies which were formed in the course of a month 

 or two. We are hardly likely to have another experience of this 

 sort, though good plantation companies will continue to come 

 out at intervals and be supported by investors as distinct from 

 mere speculators. 



Some months ago I referred to the fact that one of the 

 professors of chemistry at Berlin University had patented 

 dichli rethylene as a solvent of rubber, 

 and expressed my doubts as to the patent 

 having any technical importance owing 

 to the price of the solvent. Recently Mr. Bloch, a German scien- 

 tist, has patented the use of the persulphides of hydrogen in the 

 cold cure of rubber. These very unstable bodies are to be dis- 

 solved in carbon bisulphide or acetone and presumably take the 

 place of chloride of sulphur. Professor Perkin, of Manchester, 

 is another organic chemist of high standing who has lately asso- 

 ciated himself with a rubber substitute patent. With regard to 



THE OPTIMISM OF 

 PATENTEES. 



patents generally the main idea, I take it, is to make money ; 

 it is not customary to go to the expense or trouble of patenting 

 what is merely of scientific interest. Before the trade interests 

 itself in a novelty it requires some assurance that economy will 

 result from its adoption, and this is a desideratum that the pro- 

 fessors and other scientific men unconnected with the trade 

 seem to persistently ignore. Of course a very large number of 

 rubber patents never come to anything, but in not many cases 

 is this due to the fact of expense in carrying them out ; it is 

 more generally due to their innate worthlessness. This is be- 

 cause so many of the inventors have had no previous connection 

 with the trade and their reluctance to consult a practical man 

 before taking out a patent is due to a fear that the latter may 

 rush off to the patent office on his own account. 



Of late there has been a considerable accession to the patents 

 for reclaiming or regenerating vulcanized rubber, which was only 

 to be expected under existing market conditions. So far, how- 

 ever, the main feature about these new processes compared with 

 those in existence is the use of more costly chemicals or the 

 more complicated nature of the reactions — both of which are 

 against economy of production. With regard to synthetic rub- 

 ber it is quite extraordinary how both scientific chemists and 

 important firms like the great Bayer company, of Germany, stick 

 to the idea that there must be a large fortune for those who solve 

 the problem. They were working at it two years ago when I 

 was in the laboratory of the Continental company, at Hanover, 

 though possibly by this time the astute directors of that great 

 concern may have come to the conclusion that the problem is 

 of little technical importance, however great its scientific interest. 



I note that the reference to this interesting topic in the June 

 issue of The India Rubber World (page 325) is headed, "The 

 Latest Artificial Rubber." To be strictly 

 accurate, I believe that two or three 

 synthetic rubber patents are of more re- 

 cent date. Certainly Blum's British patent of 1908 has only quite 

 recently beeii published in full, having probably been amended. 

 The fact that a process for making rubber from peat was being 

 exploited or boomed two or three years ago was well known 

 to me, but it was only quite recently that I read the full patent. 

 This makes it clear that the project is not so wild as one might 

 at first imagine. The peat to be used is not that of the ordinary 

 peat bog, but a special sort of peat found in Scandinavia and 

 containing a good deal of leaf wax. The process of converting 

 this into rubber by enzyme action sounds very fascinating, if a 

 trifle complicated, and it need hardly be said that the process is 

 of great theoretical interest if not of practical importance. What 

 makes me rather skeptical about it, however, is the slow process 

 that is being made. 



To read the patent all is plain sailing; you take your ton 

 of peat and after the various biological and chemical reactions 

 are finished you remove your pure rubber and presumably sell it. 

 Being anxious to get hold of some of this rubber I have bestirred 

 myself, and all I can find out from inquiries is that the process 

 is not yet in thorough working order, and that those who are 

 interested in its ultimate success are putting up some more 

 money to brirg the process to a successful conclusion. This 

 rather looks as if the patent was somewhat previous and that the 

 rationale of the enzyme action is not sufficiently understood. 

 It is not so many years since scientific men flocked to a certain 

 town in Germany to see the production of fat by enzyme action, 

 a development which was to revolutionize the soap trade. The 

 other day I asked a prominent soap manufacturer what had 

 beo mie of the process, and his answer was that nothing of technical 



BLUM'S 

 ARTIFICIAL RUBBER. 



