A-ucusT 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



541 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



SYNTHETIC 

 RUBBEE. 



WHEN referring to this matter in my notes last month, I 

 did not anticipate that the publication of my remarks 

 would have synchronized with widespread and lengthy 

 reference to the topic in the daily press. The latter resulted 

 from the paper read by Professor Perkin on June 17 before the 

 London Section of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry. The main fact of 

 interest in the paper was the announce- 

 ment that one of his colleagues in this research, Professor Fern- 

 bach of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, had successfully solved the 

 problem of the transformation of starch into the higher alcohols 

 by fermentation, and at a cost which would enable the product 

 butadiene to be polymerized into rubber by metallic sodium, so 

 as to compete ;n the market with natural rubber. In the numer- 

 ous articles in the press the public have been let a good deal into 

 the mysteries of the higher alcohols, a subject which is not par- 

 ticularly easy of comprehension to those without any acquaint- 

 ance with organic chemistry. On the present occasion I do not 

 propose to go into detail, but an important fact, or one which is 

 presumably important, has been generally ignored, and to the 

 best of my knowledge has only received mention in the "India- 

 Rubber Journal," and in the remarks contributed by Mr. B. Blount 

 to the "Morning Post." That point is that the new fermentation 

 process is not really a cheap process of preparing isoprene, but 

 its homologue-butadiene. Both of these bodies yield a rubber- 

 like substance when polymerized by metallic sodium ; but whereas 

 the isoprene rubber has the same chemical structure as natural 

 rubber the butadiene rubber differs in having one atom of 

 ■carbon less. Of course the mere fact of this difference in chemical 

 structure proves nothing against the new rubber ; it may for all 

 we know be a point in its favor. Still it forms an interesting 

 point for examination. Synthetic rubber made, I understand, 

 from isoprene has already reached the stage of being made into 

 tires in Germany, and it is said to have resisted wear and tear 

 better than the natural rubber. It now remains for the same 

 thing to be done with butadiene rubber — to prove its value. In 

 the meantime criticisms of this sort are useful to cheer up the 

 drooping spirits of rubber plantation shareholders. It will 

 probably be at least three years before the synthetic product 

 -makes any effect upon the market ; but the announcement cer- 

 tainly had the immediate effect of depressing values upon the 

 Stock Exchange, losses being shown on every quotation except 

 one on the 20th of June following the publication of the details 

 of the process on the 19th. The financial papers talk of the re- 

 appearance of the synthetic rubber bogey, and affect a tone of 

 incredulity as to there being anything in it. Everything of 

 course depends upon the price at which it can be produced. Pro- 

 fessor Perkin talks airily of l.f. per lb., but as the experiments 

 have not yet emerged from the laboratory stage, I don't see how 

 the estimated working costs can be ba^ed on any sure foundation. 

 This more particularly in regard to the fermentation part of the 

 process, which has only been discovered a very short time. It is 

 stated that the fusel-oil yielding the butadiene will not cost 

 more than about i35 per ton, or about one-fifth its present 

 price, and it may yet turn out that the estimated cost is unduly 

 optimistic. Recently two or three forward contracts for planta- 

 tion Para over 1913 have been made at 4j. 6d. per pound, an in- 

 dication of the opinion of the stability of present prices for some 

 time to come. The shooting of the synthetic bolt will probably 

 result in an increased desire on the part of plantation directors 

 to sell for forward delivery, and it will be interesting to see what 

 effect the synthetic announcement will make upon the prices. 



Since writing the above the prospectus of the Synthetic Products 

 Co., Limited, has appeared with a capital of iS0O,0(X). Profits 

 are to be earned at first upon the acetone and fusel oil, and the 

 potential wealth to be derived from synthetic rubber is a matter 

 for a year or two ahead when the manufacturing details have 

 been thoroughly worked out. Certainly no very great progress 

 has as yet been made, as only a few pounds of somewhat doubt- 

 ful rubber have as yet been produced. The name of Dr. Gold- 

 smith, who makes a report in the prospectus on the rubber, is not 

 a particularly familiar one to rubber men; in saying which I 

 don't wish to be understood as making any reflection upon the 

 report. Of course it is only natural that those who see their 

 interests threatened by new discoveries should attempt to belittle 

 these, and it is rather important for outsiders to distinguish be- 

 tween the published criticisms of chemists, botanists, etc. in the 

 pay of plantation companies, and others who write as disinter- 

 ested persons. I don't know how the subscriptions to the new 

 company have come in, but from general conversation I gather 

 that much importance is attached to the statement that tires have 

 been made of synthetic rubber in Germany with excellent results, 

 and the general feeling is expressed that if the new company's 

 product had arrived at the same stage, the issue would have 

 been at once oversubscribed. Of course this may have been the 

 case as it is, but there is no information on the point at the time 

 of writing. But I must not occupy more space with this inter- 

 esting topic, especially as it will no doubt be dealt with in our 

 editorial columns. 



This article is being increasingly used in England, especially 



in grain elevators, flour mills, oil seed crushing works, etc., and 



like the "bulk of rubber articles the rub- 



CONVEYOR t,gr mixing, owing to competition, shows 



BELTING. • , J V ■ IV nf 



a continual declme in quality. Ut 

 course there is not the same friction in the above cases, as is ex- 

 perienced by ore conveying belts, and a low quality rubber is in 

 most cases considered good enough. Some firms when buying 

 new belts get samples and submit the rubber to an expert, but 

 the more general course is to rely on a mechanical test which 

 determines the strength or weight necessary to part the layers of 

 rubbered canvas. In the case of the belting just supplied to a 

 large new seed crushing mill in the north of England, nothing 

 was said by the buyers as to the quality of the rubber, but the 

 manufacturers had to guarantee the belt to stand definite me- 

 chanical strength tests specified by the buyers. I am told of 

 rubber belting used for grain having lasted thirty years, which 

 I should imagine is much beyond the life of many belts of today's 

 make. With regard, however, to the large diameter suction 

 tubing used in grain elevators, the life is usually very short, the 

 corn having a surprisingly strong cohesive action, and it would 

 seem that here there is room for research and improvement. 



This year's list of honors and promotions included the name 

 of Mr. V. H. Smith, who received a baronetcy. Sir Frederick 



Smith recently succeeded Mr. Arthur 



Birley as chairman of Messrs. Chas. 



Macintosh & Co., Limited, with which 

 firm he has been associated for about ten years, and upon the 

 fortunes of which, I believe it is not too much to say, his wide 

 commercial experience has made its mark. This firm, however, 

 affords an outlet for only a portion of his energies, as he is chair- 

 man or director of several other important concerns, including a 

 colliery, and the cotton spinning business founded by his grand- 

 father about 100 years ago. The new baronet is a well-known 

 temperance advocate, and is of course a liberal in politics, seeing 



A BIRTHDAY 

 HONOR. 



