July 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



"1 



The Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



By Our Regular Correspondent 



THE time-worn adage about the necessity of first catching 

 your hare l)efore commencing to cook it seems to have a 

 certain application to such journalists as essay to write 

 about the rubber trade. You have got to find the trade before 

 j'ou begin, and the matter is by no means so simple as it used 

 to be in past days. True, the labor troubles on the score of 

 wages have been temporarily settled, but the coal strike with its 

 benumbing effect upon trade generally is still with us, being now 

 in its eighth week. 



It is to be feared that the restricted railway service will have 

 some effect upon the attendance of country visitors to the 

 Rubber Exhibition ; another possible malevolent factor is the 

 ill-temper prevalent among the rubber-share-holding public at 

 the new low-level price of 9d. per pound for the raw commodity 

 coupled with the now customary notification of the passing of 

 dividends, or at the best, the reduction in their amount. It certainly 

 cannot be said that the recent speeches of chaimicn of rubber 

 companies have done anything to dispel the existing gloom, though 

 I quite agree that it would be wrong to use optimistic language 

 unless the facts and portents justified it. 



TWO THOUSAND NEW USES OF RUBBER 



It appears that the award of the adjudicators in the competition 

 promoted by the Rubber Growers' Association with regard to 

 new and extended uses of rubber will not be known in time for 

 the Rubber Exhibition. Not only have the suggestions amounted 

 to somewhere about 2,000, but it has been considered advisable 

 to prove the statement made in many promising cases. This 

 naturally takes time, hence the delay in making the award, and 

 though it is unfortunate as regards the Exhibition, it is obvious 

 that to come to an erroneous conclusion through haste would 

 be more unfortunate still. The Exhibition seems likely to suffer, 

 compared with previous ones, by the abstention of many firms 

 which would doubtless have exhibited in more prosperous times. 

 It is no secret that there is a general tightness of money, as 

 appears also to be the case in America, to say nothing of Poland, 

 and the natural tendency is to incur no unnecessary expendi- 

 ture. It is now quite common for firms which used to pay their 

 accounts by check to give three months' bills where the cash is 

 much required. Another feature of the current year is the 

 disinclination of rubber firms to renew contracts for chemicals, 

 the prevalent idea being that prices have by no means reached 



bottom. 



EXAMPLES OF DEPRESSION 



.•\s typical examples of the depressed condition of affairs, I may 

 note here that, mainly owing to the coal strike, the large Silver- 

 town works closed on April 22, and the directors have stated 

 that under the circumstances they cannot recommend an interim 

 dividend on the ordinary shares; last year it was 2'^ per cent, 

 and on the other side of the industo' the Malacca Rubber Plan- 

 tation Co.'s report for 1920 shows a profit of only £18,580 against 

 £182,732 in 1919 and £230,749 in 1916. Instead of the 30 per cent 

 paid last year, even the T'/i per cent cumulative preference dividend 

 has to be passed this year. 



THE PEACHEY PROCESS DEMONSTRATION PLANT 



Matters have now progressed to an important stage in that a 

 demonstration plant and laboraton- have been erected at 380 

 High Road. Willesden, London, N. W. The plant has been 

 erected by David Bridge Co., Limited, Castleton, Manchester, on 

 the lines of an experimental plant first put up at their own 

 works. With the mixing and calendering arrangements there 



is no novelty to call for notice, and the method of carrying out 

 the cold vulcanizati(>n with the two gases, sulphur dioxide and 

 hydrogen sulphide, is the novelty which arrests attention. This 

 process is the same in principle as that previously shown on the 

 laboratory table except that methods for dealing with the waste 

 gases are necessarily added. The hydrogen sulphide or sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen, is made by the ordinary process of acting upon 

 sulphide of iron with sulphuric acid and is stored in a gasometer 

 outside the building, while the sulphur dioxide is purchased in 

 the liquid form in cylinders. 



The two units of the vulcanizing plant follow the lines of the 

 steam pan and the dry heat stove. In the case of the pan, the 

 goods to be cured are placed in the pan on a wooden rack. On 

 the pan being closed the air is exhausted and sulphur dioxide 

 admitted for ten minutes. This gas is then blown out and 

 after a further exhaustion the hydrogen sulphide is admitted and 

 allowed to act for thirty minutes. No inconvenience, it is under- 

 stood, arises from the water produced in the interaction of the 

 gases. 



The continuous vulcanizing apparatus on the lines of the dry- 

 heat stove is intended for the cure of fabrics, floor coverings, 

 soling material, etc., containing leather buffings, wood meal, 

 and so on. The chambers are constructed of wood with rollers 

 at top and bottom. The first contains the sulphur dioxide gas, 

 and the second, which is three times as long, the hydrogen 

 sulphide. The materials enter the chambers under tension and 

 between elastic flaps in order to avoid leakage of gases, this 

 being naturally an important matter. It is stated that there is 

 an absorber for the waste gases outside the building; probably 

 there are two absorbers if the lines of ordinary chemical works 

 practice are followed, and subsequent use is to be made of the 

 dififerent sulphur compounds obtained. 



L'p to now the chemist in the rubber works has been a con- 

 sultant and an analyst. There is now an opportunity, where the 

 Peachey process is adopted, for him to prove his worth as a pro- 

 cess engineer. At any rate, it seems obvious that the process can- 

 not be controlled by the ordinary foreman-vulcanizer of the past, 

 and today, as much will depend upon chemical control of the opera- 

 tions. Doubtless the present year will see many pilgrimages 

 of rubber folk to Willesden to see the plant in operation. 



CHESS 4 STEAD, LIMITED 



This company, having got into financial difficulties owing to 

 bad trade and depreciation of stock, decided at a recent 

 meeting of creditors to accept an offer of 6s.8d. in the pound 

 sterling. The firm is an amalgamation of Stead-Hunt and Chess- 

 Brand with works at Brimscombe, Gloucestershire, and Middleton, 

 Lancashire. T. H. Roberts, formerly the chief proprietor 

 of Wood-Milne, Limited, is a director and the Middleton works 

 were started under his auspices to make reclaimed rubber. The 

 claims made for this product seem to have left the rubber man- 

 ufacturers cold and the business was later turned over to rubber 

 soles and heels, etc. Owing to the occurrence of a fire at the 

 Brimscombe works and the destruction of the papers and books, 

 the exact position of affairs cannot be ascertained. No doubt 

 the concern will pull around after the slump in conjunction with 

 others who ha\e found themselves in a tight corner. 



NORTH KENT RUBBER CO. 



The aft'airs of the North Kent Rubber Co. of London have 

 been considered by a meeting of creditors. This is another in- 

 stance of a one-man affair started with a small capital in pre- 

 war days and developed into a prosperous concern under war 



