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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



April 1, 1921 



The Rubber Trade in Great Britain 



By Our Regular Correspondent 



TRADE MATTERS Continue in much the same humdrum condi- 

 tion. One or two firms have passed tlieir dividends, and 

 speculation is naturally rife as to what otlier shareholders 

 will perforce iiave to suffer. The wage question has not yet be- 

 come acute, but it rather looks as if the rubber trade will have to 

 fall in line with other industries in a temporary reduction, even if 

 the hands do not take the initiative, as has been done in other cases. 

 .\ccording to Lord Inchcape, the banking and shipping magnate, 

 the boom of a year ago was killed because nobody, either the Gov- 

 ernment, the manufacturer or the working man, appeared to bother 

 about costs. A maximum wage, he added, was never too much to 

 pay for a maximum output, but a maximum wage, coupled with a 

 minimum output, irrespective of individual capacity, intelligence 

 or industry, would inevitably lead to ruin. This utterance might 

 well be pondered over by labor leaders. 



A FEW FAVORABLE TENDENCIES 

 .Manufacturers have hailed with satisfaction the announcement 

 that the excess profits duty is shortly to come to an end, especially 

 those firms which were founded after 1915 or have been largely 

 developed since then. Another favorable point is the fall in price 

 of coal. Owing to the stagnation of trade, there has been a large 

 accumulation ot the qualities used for steam raising. Cost control 

 came to an end on March 31, and the trend of future prices is at 

 present shrouded in obscuritj-. A good many of the chemicals 

 used in the trade are now easier in price, foreign imports making 

 themselves felt. Zinc oxide is billed as one of the key industries 

 in the bill now before Parliament, and it will be interesting to see 

 how much, if any, protection is to be given to the home produc- 

 tion which is now of some magnitude. German ultramarine is 

 now obtainable as of yore at a price much lower than that of the 

 British article, and, moreover, almost entirely devoid of the free 

 sulphur which proof ers find so objectionable. 

 CAOUTCHOUCINE 

 This product of destructive distillation has never had more 

 than scientific interest since the long past days — about 1860, I 

 think — when Greville Williams fractionated various bodies from 

 the oils yielded by the distillation of rubber. I did something my- 

 self a good many years ago, and prepared various distillation 

 products as exhibits for one of our large exhibitions. I have read 

 that oil of caoutchouc was suggested from a German source as an 

 excellent rust preventive, but have no idea as to the extent it was 

 used, if indeed it was used at all. The substance, however, has 

 now come into notice again, as it has been proposed as a 

 denaturant for alcohol to be used for power purposes. The Em- 

 pire Motor Fuels Committee, which acts as a sort of link between 

 the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the va- 

 rious manufacturers of motor cars, petrol and benzol companies, 

 etc., has the matter in hand and arrangements have been made at 

 the Royal College of Technology in London for a series of re- 

 searches and tests on caoutchoucine and other suggested dena- 

 turants, such as bone oil. Qualitative and quantitative chemical 

 tests are to be worked out, and a provisional specification for qual- 

 ity and testing is to be drawn up. If adopted as a denaturant, 

 caoutchoucine will hardly be able to solve the surplus rubber 

 problem, but still any new use has an interest at the present time. 

 ARTIFICIAL LEATHER 

 The high price and scarcity of leather have naturally given a 

 fillip to the manufacture of the various leather substitutes. The 

 position, however, has recently undergone a change owing to the 

 fall in the price of leather. There is now no shortage of leather, 

 the large holdings of the Government being gradually put upon 

 the market. Leather boots are now very much down in price, al- 



though most of the better class shops are still holding out for 

 prices which arc really much too high. .\s far as my inquiries go 

 the rubber firms specializing in rubber heels and composition soles 

 arc still working full time, forming an exception to the rubber 

 trade generally. 



An industry not, perhaps, very well known, but one in which 

 orders not infrequently run to ilO,000, is that of best leathers of 

 boxcalf. During the period of leather scarcity and high pric«, 

 large quantities of artificial leather of certain well-known brands 

 were used, but now that the price has broken the tendency is to 

 get back to real leather, and manufacturers regard dolefully the 

 unused stocks of the substitutes in their warehouses. Leather sub- 

 stitutes not being raw material have shown no appreciable fall in 

 price, though, no doubt, as certain of their ingredients get cheaper 

 they will be able to follow the lead of leather to some extent. 

 Meanwhile the low price of rubber has promoted the production 

 of certain forms of decorative and upholstery material into which 

 rubber enters to some extent, and these compounds are now in a 

 better position to compete with the leather substitutes which con- 

 sist solely of oxidized or nitrated oils. 



INDIA RUBBER MANUFACTURERS* ASSOCIATION 



.At the annual meeting held at the end of January, Stuart A. 

 Russell, of the India Rubl)er, Gutta Percha & Telegraph Works 

 Co., Limited, was reelected chairman, and E. Healey, of W. & 

 A. Bates, Limited, reelected vice-chairman. In addition to the 

 better known names on the new general committee are D. C. 

 Campbell, Campbell, .\chnach & Co., Limited; Colonel Gardiner, 

 the Rubber Co. of Scotland, Limited, and E. Hemsworth, the loco 

 Rubber & Waterproof Co., Limited. Describing himself as not a 

 pessimist, the chairman said he believed that if all concerned 

 worked together in the way of reducing prices trade would revive, 

 bu: he thought that for some time to come it would be found very 

 difficult to get a market for their products at prices which would 

 yield a reasonable profit, or indeed any profit at all unless the 

 labor cost per unit of production was reduced and the burden of 

 taxation lightened. The question of reducing the cost of produc- 

 tion by improved methods of manufacture and greater production 

 for a given wage would need the very careful attention of all the 

 members in the present year, but he saw no reason why 

 these problems should not be solved in a way which would enable 

 their factories to be kept fully employed and the amount of unem- 

 ployment be reduced to a low figure. 



The question of giving support to the proposed rubber club came 

 before the general committee, it is understood, a month or two 

 ago, with the result that no expression of opinion for or against 

 was given, it being held that the matter was one for each member 

 to decide for himself. Another matter that has been discussed is 

 the proposed new factory legislation with regard to the cold cure 

 and use of lead compounds. Representations in the matter have 

 been addressed to the Secretary of State by the association as a 

 body and not by individual manufacturers. Such representations 

 will doubtless have more weight than individual ones, but would 

 it not have been better for the government authority to have put 

 the matter before the Association as representative of the trade be- 

 fore proceeding to draw up its somewhat obscure regulations? 

 THE DUNUOP MEETING 



Despite the fact th.it the meeting passed oflf fairly harmoniously, 

 the value of the old shares fell some, afterwards to Ws. and the 

 new, 22s. 6d. paid, to 2s. Sir Guy Granet, late general manager of 

 the Midland Railway Co., and Sir A. W. Fait, the chartered ac- 

 countant, have joined the board, while Sir H. McGowan and Sir 

 Henry Dalziel, the old directors, will remain, with F. A. Szarvasy 



