June 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



441 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



BALLOON 

 fABEIC. 



IN a recent editorial in The India Rubber World reference was 

 made to the manufacture of balloon and aeroplane fabric as 

 a new department in the rubber industry, which has recently 

 been taken up by various firms. The subject has had a good 

 deal of attention drawn to it lately by reason of a legal case in 

 the King's Bench Division, London, in 

 which the North British Rubber Co.. 

 Limited, of Edinburgh, sought to re- 

 cover £253, balance of account from E. T. Willows, the well- 

 known aviator, for rubber cloth supplied in 1910, for the envelope 

 of his dirigible balloon. The case was heard before Justice 

 Scrutton on April 24, 25 and 26, judgment in favor of the North 

 British Co. being given the following week. 



In the space available I can only deal briefly with the salient 

 points of the trial. It was admitted by both sides that after five 

 months the fabric of the envelope was, in the judge's words, 

 ^'past praying for," as regarded its hydrogen-holding capacity, the 

 point at issue being, who was to blame for this condition of 

 affairs? Was it due to faulty fabric or to rough usage? In this 

 matter expert evidence was given by Augusta Gaudron, balloon 

 manufacturer, and Mervyn O'Gorman, superintendent of the 

 government airship factory at Aldershot, for Mr. Willows ; 

 while E. Short, balloon manufacturer and aeronaut; Percival 

 Spencer, balloon manufacturer and aeronaunt, and H. L. Terry, 

 consulting chemist, Manchester, were for the plaintiffs. 



The excessive leakage of hydrogen after five months was at- 

 tributed by Mr. O'Gorman to a rapid resinification of the rubber, 

 which appeared to have been of perfectly good quality when 

 ■supplied. He was unable to give any reason for this deteriora- 

 tion, though such occurrences were by no means unknown. 

 With reasonable care the life of such fabric in regular use should 

 be about two years. The plaintiffs agreed with this, though they 

 said that Mr. Willows' balloon had received such treatment as 

 to preclude its lasting that period of time. Mr. Spencer thought 

 that six months' regular use was about the length of life for the 

 fabric supplied in this case. 



Mr. Short said that he had made a balloon out of North 

 British Co. fabric, and had used it in Chili with quite satis- 

 factory results, though it had been inflated with coal gas and 

 not hydrogen. Mr. Terry testified to the high grade of the 

 rubber proofing used on both the inner and outer coating of the 

 fabric. This analysis was not questioned in cross-examination, 

 though various matters relating to possible defects in the manu- 

 facture were put to the witness. The judge said that there was 

 no proof of any guarantee having been broken, as he was con- 

 vinced that the fabric as supplied was up to the catalogue figures 

 with regard to tensile strength, moisture-absorption, and per- 

 meability to hydrogen. He was also of opinion that there was 

 no rubber, as at present made, that did not gradually become 

 more permeable to hydrogen, owing to some change which did 

 not appear to be understood, but which was described as "in- 

 creasing porosity." The British government specification had a 

 clause : "The increase in leakage after exposure to all weather 

 conditions for 50 days must not exceed SO per cent, which showed 

 that these goods could not be considered permanent." 



It was for the defendant to satisfy the court that the failure 

 of the fabric was due to the warranties in the catalogue being 

 broken. The result of the mass of the evidence given on both 

 sides had been, his Lordship said, to leave him completely in the 

 dark on most of the points discussed, his only consolation being 

 that in the darkness he had plenty of company. This sort of 

 thing, I may add, has no doubt often occurred before when 



technical evidence is called on both sides. No one could read, 

 his Lordship said, the report of the Advisory Committee on 

 Aeronautics without appreciating that explorers were by experi- 

 ment gradually ascertaining the qualities of the materials they 

 were dealing with. An attempt was made by the witnesses to 

 show that the ordinary life of the rubber material used for 

 dirigible balloons was two years, so that a five months life 

 showed inefiiciency, but he thought that the witnesses were 

 merely guessing in the dark. There was not, he thought, any 

 sufficient experience of the life of dirigibles, or of their ordinary 

 work, and its effects on their fabric, to enable any opinion to be 

 expressed on which legal results could be founded. 



Mr. Willows, I may say, put in a counter claim for some- 

 where about f600 for expenditure on hydrogen and loss of fees 

 due to the failure of the balloon. Judgment was given against 

 him on the counter claim as well as in the main claim. It is 

 understood that the defendant will take the case to the Court 

 of Appeal, but this has not been decided at the time of writing. 



I may perhaps add a word or two in concluding this report. 

 More than one reference was made to the balloon cloth made 

 by the Continental Rubber Co., though in the newspaper reports 

 reference was generally made to o Continental Co. An un- 

 fortunate error occurs in the report of the judgment given by 

 our London contemporary. The statement that the colored 

 fabrics were found to lose all their hydrogen-containing efficiency 

 in 50 days weathering should be the uncolored fabrics were 

 found, etc. This is an important point and a good deal was said 

 by various witnesses about the different yellow coloring matters 

 now in use generally on such fabrics to protect the rubber from / 

 the injurious action of the actinic light rays. As to what is the 

 best yellow dye or pigment for the purpose there does not seem 

 yet to be any general agreement, though there is a pronounced 

 tendency to discard chromate of lead for some of the aniline 

 dyes. A point of interest about the rubber was raised by Mr. 

 O'Gorman, who said that it had not yet been proved that Para 

 rubber was the best for retaining hydrogen ; it might be that 

 some other brand of rubber was superior in this respect. 



Independent of any claims which may or may not have been 

 settled in trade circles, by reason of the premature decay of 

 elastic thread in woven goods, there is 

 a good deal of grumbling among retail 

 purchasers of elastic webbing as to the 

 quality, compared with ten or twenty years ago. When 

 complaint is made at the shops of the reduced lasting power, the 

 answer is given that the purchaser must remember the lower 

 price now paid — for instance, in the case of hat ribbon, 2d. per 

 yard instead of 6d. as is old times. When the shopman is told 

 that price is no consideration, that the quality is what is wanted, 

 he replies that better qualities are not now stocked. I don't say 

 that this condition of affairs is universal, but it is quite common 

 from inquiries I have been making, and it seems to me that it 

 is a very unfortunate result of trade competition, combined with 

 parsimony on the part of some purchasers. The cotton fabric 

 appears to be much the same as in the past ; but the rubber is of 

 finer count and is possibly woven too much on the stretch. I don't 

 think there is anything wrong with the rubber ; the economy in the 

 weaving factories seems to be the adverse factor. In some cases a 

 merchant buys a quantity of elastic thread from the rubber manu- 

 facturer, and gets quotations from the weaving factories for 

 making it up into fabric. He probably places the business at the 

 lowest quotation, without going into details of cost, which are 

 beyond his ken ; and in this way there is room for future trouble 



ELASTIC 

 THREAD. 



