January 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



179 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



TRADE 

 CONDITIONS. 



AN INDEX to the improved condition of trade generally is 

 to be seen in the rise in ocean freights. Ship owners after 

 a long period of grumbling are now obtaining very satis- 

 factory rates, owing to the shortage of available tonnage. They 

 don't flatter themselves that the present spell of activity will 

 prove lasting, but still they are too 

 jubilant at the moment to indulge in 

 gloomy forecasts of what the future 

 may have in store. Activity in shipping, of course, has its efifect 

 upon stores among which mechanical rubber goods hold an 

 important place. Another revival which deserves mention is 

 the important though more local industry of Lancashire. This 

 trade, owing to the high price of the raw material, has been in 

 a depressed condition for quite a long time. Now, however, with 

 the fall in price of cotton a great improvement, amounting almost 

 to a boom, has taken place. Mills are filled up with orders for 

 six or nine months ahead, and even those new mills which sprang 

 up like mushrooms during the last boom of five or six years 

 ago, and which were never put into commission, have now hur- 

 riedly been got into working order. In one way the rubber man- 

 ufacturers are suffering because they cannot get their orders for 

 cotton cloth filled as quickly as they would like. On the other 

 hand, the boom, of course, means an increased demand for the 

 mechanical and other rubber goods used in the cotton manufac- 

 turing industry. As a set-off to the cotton revival the engineer- 

 ing trades generally are very quiet, many large engine makers 

 being glad to take orders at almost any price in order to keep 

 their works going. Turning to the raw rubber market, what is 

 agitating the minds of directors of plantation companies is the 

 fact that rubber remains at a comparatively low figure. The ex- 

 planation seems to be that at the boom time the manufacturers 

 somewhat lost their heads and bought in advance at any price, so 

 as to cover their requirements in case of further phenomenal 

 prices. They got hit on that occasion and now hold off the mar- 

 ket when prices show a tendency to rise beyond a certain figure. 



With respect to the operations of this company, in ex- 

 tracting rubber from jelutong, the end aimed at seems to have 

 been achieved, the rubber having been 

 extracted from the jelutong on a 

 large scale and sold at a satisfactory 

 price. I have often wondered whether the sale of the large 

 amount of resin produced in this process is necessary in order to 

 render the process dividend-paying, and I have further wondered 

 if so, whether a sufficient outlet could be found for it. Now it 

 appears that if the market has hitherto been restricted this will 

 not be the case in the future ; that is, if Mr. Carleton Ellis' patent 

 for utilizing it in the manufacture of varnishes for cement turns 

 out as successful as he seems to think it will (see India Rltbber 

 WoRLDj November 1, 1911). Mr. Ellis states that this resin, 

 owing to its being unsaponifiable, is well adapted as a base for 

 paint and varnish on material containing free alkali. I know 

 nothing of the amount of such paint or varnish likely to be wanted 

 or whether its adoption will be opposed by vested interests. Any- 

 how, the project is of some importance and will encourage the 

 producers of jelutong resin until some other proposal is made 

 for its use. Apropos of this it may be mentioned that in earlier 

 days the resin removed from gutta-percha by a big cable company 

 on the Thames was buried in waste ground and when demand 

 for it arose the stuff was disinterred and sold, none now being 

 wasted. 



The volume about which I propose to say a word or two is 



A NEW 

 BOOK. 



UNITED MALAYSIAN 

 KTTBBEE. 



not directly connected with rubber, but rather with what are 

 known as plastics, a group of substances of technical importance, 

 which are to be discussed in conjunction 

 with rubber at the forthcoming Interna- 

 tional Congress of Applied Chemistry 

 in New York. The title of the book is the Nitro-cellulose In- 

 dustry, its author being Edward Chauncey Worden, of Milburn, 

 New Jersey, and the publishers Constable & Co., of London. In 

 its two large volumes is gathered together practically everything 

 of importance concerning the chemistry, manufacture and applica- 

 tions of celluloid and the pyroxilin plastics, an important and 

 growing industry which largely owes its development to Ameri- 

 can workers. There are several references to rubber in the book, 

 many of them being to old friends in the form of patent com- 

 positions designed to oust rubber from some of its applications, 

 but which in the event never caused the rubber manufacturer any 

 uneasiness. It might perhaps have been more useful if the author 

 in his references to the proposed applications of nitro-cellulose 

 compounds in the rubber trade had given his readers some details 

 as to the course of their life; whether, for instance, they soon 

 came to an untimely end or whether they justified their existence 

 for such applications as artificial leather or electrical insulation 

 where the special properties of rubber are not essential. Then 

 in the case of viscose, though this has found a useful application 

 in the artificial silk manufacture, as far as I am aware its use was 

 given up in the mechanical rubber trade after a short period of 

 probation. A feature of the book is its very complete list of 

 patents connected with the numerous applications of celluloid and 

 pyroxilin solutions in such widely diverse bodies as blastng gela- 

 tine, celluloid combs, medical plastics, artificial silk, imitation gold 

 leaf, etc. The full description of the various solvents used in the 

 industry has certainly an interest for the rubber manufacturer 

 who, if he was previously ignorant of the celluloid manufacture, 

 might also derive useful hints from the well illustrated chapters 

 on its manufacturing details. Among references to very recent 

 discoveries is one to Bakelite, which is now, I understand, being 

 applied as an insulating material in America. As there is a good 

 deal of scientific interest in this body, it would be interesting to 

 hear something authentic as to the position it has achieved. In 

 connection with this reference I may say that a company called 

 Bakelite Co., Ltd., has been recently registered in London with 

 a capital of i2,500. I may say that the importance of a foreign 

 company forming an English subsidiary must not be judged by 

 the capital, as such companies are often formed in order to 

 comply with the new requirements of the patent laws and are 

 financed by the parent company.. 



Dr. Worden, I may say, is on the committee of the sub-section 

 for rubber and other plastics of the forthcoming International 

 Congress of Applied Chemistry in New York. 



In a recent American official paper on the estimation of sulphur 

 in rubber reference is made to carbonate of barium as a com- 

 ponent of rubber goods. Whether the 

 use of this mineral is on a large scale or 

 not in America I do not know, but as far 

 as I know, it is not used in England, Its mineralogical name is 

 Witherite, and its specific gravity is 4.3 against 4.6 in the case 

 of heavy spar, the sulphate of barytes, which has long been used 

 in rubber goods in England. The carbonate is about twice the 

 cost of the sulphate, a fact which is due to its greater rarity. In 

 England there are only two mines yielding carbonate against 

 about twenty yielding sulphate ; moreover, those twenty could 



BAEIITM 

 CABBONATE, 



