November 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



55 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



CAMETA 

 RUBBER. 



TIRE 

 PRICES. 



A SOMEWHAT startling incident occurred recently at a 

 Birmingham rubber works, a series of explosions taking 

 place when some Cameta rubber was being washed. 

 Inspection showed that some cartridges had been concealed in 

 the rubber by the wily native, doubtless with the intention of 

 increasing the weight and not with any 

 sinister intent on life or property. It 

 is commonly supposed that the weighting 

 of raw rubber by extraneous bodies such as metal and stone is 

 now entirely a thing of the past, but I may say that with Cameta 

 rubber such a thing is of quite common occurrence today. Stones 

 are commonly found in it, iron tools being also among recent 

 finds. As a rule, these bodies are well concealed and not to be 

 detected until the rubber is cut open in the purchaser's factory. 

 Apart from this objectionable peculiarity there is nothing to be 

 said against Cameta rubber except perhaps with regard to its 

 somewhat variable loss in washing. The figure may be 40 per 

 cent, or it may rise to 50 per cent., but whatever the actual 

 loss may be, the washed out rubber is always of one uniform 

 quality, a fact which is appreciated in the factory. The rubber 

 has thus come to be looked upon .^s a very reliable quality and is 

 especially in favor for spreading purposes in some works, though 

 it may be said that it is of general applicability for high-class 

 purposes, owing to its low proportion of resin. 



One of the most important and discussed topics of the day 

 is the reduction in the prices of motor and cycle tires by the 

 Michelin Company. This reduction, 

 which was announced in September, 

 amounts to about 15 per cent, on previ- 

 ous prices. This reduction is by no means generally agreed 

 with by English makers, who say that it is premature and un- 

 warranted by existing market conditions. Naturally English 

 manufacturers have had to follow suit, among those who have 

 announced a similar reduction being the Dunlop Company, Lim- 

 ited, and the Avon Company, Limited. As a set-of? it is ad- 

 mitted that the price of the canvas shows a reduction of from 

 TYz to 10 per cent, on last year's prices. 



In the August issue of The India Rubber World a description 

 withi figures is giveri of Prof. Alfred Schwartz' hysteresis rubber 

 testing machine, which I understand is 

 coming into favor in rubber works, and 

 in some cases at any rate has ousted 

 other types of dynamometer previously used. It need hardly 

 be said that the physical testing of rubber, as opposed to the 

 purely chemical, has achieved great prominence in recent years, 

 the main feature perhaps about its progress being the variety 

 of dynamometers to be met with, each of which is claimed by the 

 makers thereof to be the ideal machine for the purpose. The 

 subject of course is a somewhat diiBcult one for the ordinary 

 works manager to tackle, and one only comes across dyna- 

 mometers in works where there is a laboratory under scientific 

 control. Perhaps the greatest drawback to the Schwartz ma- 

 chine is the inclusion and association of the word hysteresis : 

 plain rubber men having been known to say that anything of that 

 sort would be too scientific for them. This has been said by 

 authorities in works where the ordinary cloth testing machine 

 is in regular use. I noticed at the late Rubber Exhibition that 

 Mons. A. D. Cillard had had the brochure on the Dynamometer 

 system of Paul Breuil translated into English. This brochure is 

 a somewhat lengthy one, giving close details of the construction 

 of the machine and a series of tests made on rubber textile and 

 plastic materials, showing its capabilities and usefulness. At 



DYNAMO- 

 METERS. 



PERTTVIAN 

 AMAZON CO. 



this exhibition some well-known German machines were also on 

 view, while tests were being carried out at the working stand of 

 the Continental Rubber Co., Limited (Guayule) on a machine 

 which I understood Mr. H. van der Linde to say was one of 

 their own design. For the tensile tests of duck sheeting, etc., 

 some of the rubber works in the Manchester district regularly 

 use the cloth-testing machine made by Nesbitt of Market street, 

 Manchester, the cost of which is about il2. This is the ma- 

 chine used in the testing laboratory of the Manchester Chamber 

 of Commerce. The rubber works use the machine also for test- 

 ing rubber, but since the appearance of Schwartz's machine there 

 is a noticeable disposition to use the latter for rubber purposes. 

 A YEAR or so ago the Peruvian Amazon Company was strongly 

 attacked in "Truth" in a series of articles entitled "The Devil's 

 Paradise." The complaint was that gross 

 cruelties were perpetrated by the com- 

 pany's agents in compelling the Indians 

 to collect the rubber. The articles were referred to cautiously in 

 The Indi,\ Rubber World at the time, probably because the Peru- 

 vian .\mazon directors were talking of libel action. Some people in 

 England indeed who enlarged in righteous indignation on the 

 "Truth" indictment did tender apologies which were duly adver- 

 tised by the directors. Mr. Labouchere, however, did not withdraw 

 anything and was not called upon to defend a libel action. The 

 board was a mixed one of English and Spanish speaking gentle- 

 men, and of course every one was quite ready to believe that the 

 Lcndon directors had no personal knowledge of the cruelties 

 perpetrated in the carrying on of the rubber business in Peru. 

 When the indictment appeared they promptly caused all en- 

 quiries to be made, and gave every assistance to certain govern- 

 ment officials who were deputed to look into the matter. The 

 latest news of the company is that at a meeting of shareholders, 

 held in Lcndon in September, a resolution for voluntary liqui- 

 dation was brought forward by the directors and adopted by 

 the meeting. This does not mean that the company comes 

 altogether to an end, as in all probability it will be reconstructed. 

 On a former occasion when dealing at some length with the 

 use of rubber at metal mines I referred to the Buss vanning 

 table which has a surface of vulcanized 

 rubber which I have frequently found 

 to be in poor condition. As a rule the 

 rubber used for this purpose is more heavily compounded than in 

 the belts used for the Frue vanners. I recently visited a lead mine 

 in rather a remote spot in the north of England, and found the 

 rubber on the Buss vanners very far advanced towards decay. 

 I found also that the foreman had been supplied by the man- 

 agement with a patching outfit with which he had been strug- 

 gling with very partial success. It ought to be more generally 

 understood that compound vulcanized rubber is not everlasting 

 and should, be renewed at intervals. This is where the Wilfley 

 table with its linoleum surface seems to have an advantage over 

 the Buss table. 



This firm is one of the most recent additions to the list of 

 reclaimers in England, if indeed it is not the most recent, hav- 

 THE MERSEY '"S been formed just about a year ago. 



RECLAIMING It is located in convenient premises at 



COMPANY, LIMITED, the Phoenix Mills, Daw Bank, Stock- 

 port, about five miles from Manchester. The directors include 

 G. H. Cartland, of Enwick Grange, Worcester ; W. H. Veno and 

 N. Barnes. The two latter are well-known Lancashire business 

 'men, while I\lr. Cartland, though he has many business interests 

 is perhaps most widely known in his capacity as president of the 



A METAL 

 MINE PROBLEM. 



