422 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



I S] i-l ! .1 BER 1. [giO. 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By < htr Regular Correspondent. 



SYNTHETIC 

 RUBBER. 



ALTHOUGH I have always referred to this topic in a tone 

 of extreme skepticism as regards its commercial impor- 

 tance, it has not been from any desire to distort the facts 

 or to subserve any particular interests. I refer to the matter 

 again more particularly in connection with German developments. 

 With regard to the production of syn- 

 thetic rubber by Professor Tilden some 

 years ago, a little somewhat acrimonious 

 discussion has been going on between the friends of Professor 

 Tilden and those of Professor Dr. Harries, of Kiel. The latter 

 have it that the product obtained by Tilden was not exactly 

 identical with rubber, though almost so. Dr. Harries, I am as- 

 sured by a German chemist cognizant of his work, has gone a 

 step farther, so to speak, and has produced a 100 per cent, pure 

 rubber of high quality from isoprene synthelized by a new method. 

 Patents have been taken out in Germany and are now being 

 applied for in Great Britain. I understand that Dr. Harries' 

 rights have been made over to the great chemical manufacturing 

 firm Farbenfabriken vormals Friedr. Bayer & Co., of Elberfeld — 

 generally known by the abbreviated name of Bayer. 



This means, of course, that the process will have the highest 

 chemical skill, and ample capital resources behind it. It is 

 understood that a factory is now in course of erection near Kiel 

 to manufacture the new rubber, and that the only hitch likely 

 to occur in the enterprises is the cost of production. This has 

 already been considerably reduced, I am told, but still even if 

 the new rubber can be produced at a cost to enable it to com- 

 pete with Para rubber today, what will be the case two or three 

 years hence, when the inevitable fall in price takes place? How- 

 ever, there appears to be plenty of optimism about those asso- 

 ciated with the Harries process, and it is to be expected that 

 the chairmen of plantation companies will be interrogated on 

 tin subject by nervous shareholders. Of course what I have 

 said above as to the difference between the Tilden and Harries 

 rubbers comes from a German interested source. I merely pass 

 the statement on and it may be that its truth is not accepted 

 by Professor Tilden and his friends. 



The developments which have been made in the last few years 

 with regard to the solvents used in rubber works seem to merit 

 a brief reference. The tendency has 

 bei 11 to do without refrigerating plant 

 such as has been supplied in the past 

 by Liddeli 's, of Liverpool. In one of the modern arrangements 

 in use on the continenl the hydrocarbon vapors are condensed 

 by immediate contact with cold water. I understand that the 

 recovery i- satisfactory and the cost of plant quite small com- 

 pared witl rating machinery. Another system is the 

 absorption 1 f the vapors in a heavy and their subsequent 

 separation by distillation. This, I may say, is a process in regular 

 operation for the recovery of benzol from coke oven gases. I 

 understand that a plant of this sort has recentlj been put up 

 in a balata belting works. Another method of considerable in- 

 terest is that used in connection with Vincent's patent vertical 

 spreader and naphtha condenser. In this cold water alone is 

 used without any refrigerating machinery and 90 per cent, of 

 the naphtha used is stated to be recovered. This vertical spreader 

 i* a trench patent and quite novel. I understand that it costs 

 from i8oo to £900 complete with condenser, and that it is in 

 operation at the North British Rubber Co.'s., the Helsby works 

 of the British Insulated and llel-by Cables, and also at Pirelli's, 

 in Milan. 



It will be interesting to see how these various new processes 

 progress. Of course their advantage depends a good deal on the 

 price of the solvent, and I believe it was mainly owing to the 



NAPHTHA 

 RECOVERY. 



BALATA 

 BELTING SUIT. 



GUAYULE 

 RUBBER. 



low price of naphtha at the time that the recovery plant, patented 

 some years ago by Frankenburg and Weber, was not put into 

 operation. Having regard to the bulk of solvent used in the 

 rubber industry, the amount which has been recovered in the 

 past has really been quite trilling. In other industries where 

 volatile solvents are used, for instance in oil extraction from 

 seeds, dry cleaning of fabrics, and the manufacture of cordite 

 with acetone, the recovery of the various solvents used has always 

 been one of the main objects in view. In the rubber works the 

 conditions of spreading are such as to complicate the recovery 

 of solvents, and the business has been generally looked upon as 

 more trouble than it is worth. Petroleum spirit, however, is 

 now being more widely used than of old, and as this has gone 

 up in price it is clear that where close competition exists those 

 firms who can recover their solvent with profit have an advan- 

 tage over those who let it all go to waste. 



Tx the Edinburgh courts judgment was recently given in favor 

 of Messrs Hepburn, Gale & Rose, Limited, in applying for an 

 injunction against the British Balata 

 Belting Cos., Limited, to restrain them 

 from infringing their trade mark of a 

 bull dog. The plaintiffs are now in a large way of business as 

 balata belting manufacturers, having works at Bermondsey and 

 Mitcham, both in the London area. 



Among the Americans attending the annual meeting of the 

 Society of Chemical Industry at Glasgow was Mr. H. van der 

 Linde, formerly of the Gutta-Percha 

 and Rubber Manufacturing Co., of To- 

 ronto, Limited, but now prominently 

 connected with the Intercontinental Rubber Co., of New York. 

 I was pleased to have a visit from him. and to renew the acquaint- 

 ance made some years ago. Mr. Van de Linde is a great 

 believer in guayule rubber, and does not agree with those who 

 predict the extinction of the industry in a few years' time owing 

 to the extinction of the shrub. The present output of his com- 

 pany, he says, is about 1,250,000 pounds per month, and I gather 

 that the whole output is sold for months ahead. Though not 

 engaged in selling guayule, Mr. Van der Linde has taken the 

 opportunity of conversing with some British rubber manufactur- 

 ers on its properties, and has found that some prejudice exists 

 against it. I remember that when it was first introduced to Eng- 

 land the amount of resin was objected to. Later on the bulk 

 of the resin was taken out before sale, but now I understand 

 this procedure has been found too costly, and that it is sold 

 with the resin, which appears to be more part and parcel of the 

 guayule rubber than is the case with, say, African rubbers of 

 high resinous content. 



Guayule rubber is much cheaper than Para and gives good 

 results for goloshes, not cracking at all if properly manufactured. 

 I understand, also, that in connection with the manufacture of 

 railway bore it stands the somewhat severe test of the Master 

 Car Builders' Association in a perfectly satisfactory manner. 

 Some remarks on guayule, which recently appeared in the Boston 

 News Bureau, have been reproduced in an English financial jour- 

 nal. One of the statements is to the effect that guayule rubber 

 cannot compete with Para grades, its price being only one-third 

 of that of fine Para. At the statutory meeting of the Guayule 

 Rubber Co., Limited, one of the London boom flotations, the 

 chairman, Mr. A. G. Augier, complained of the criticisms that 

 had been made about the company and read a report from a Mr. 

 William Perkins testifying that guayule really was rubber and 

 not something else. I should hardly have thought it mattered 

 what the public thought ; the trade knows that it is true rubber, 



