February i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



155 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



IT cannot be said that the past year witnessed anything of 

 particular note in the trade. No new works were started 

 and only one minor concern got into difficulties. That 

 it has been a trying year, more especially in the latter 

 half, on account of the high price of crude rubber, needs no 

 emphasis, and it is satisfactory to note that the 

 90 New Year opens with a better outlook in this 



A RETROSPECT. r 



direction. American and German firms con- 

 tinue to establish London offices and to swell the competition 

 for the home trade, a fact which is causing erstwhile Free 

 Traders to examine Mr. Chamberlain's proposals with attention. 

 Among firms whose position has materially improved during 

 the year may be mentioned the Midland Rubber Co., Limited, 

 of Birmingham, who have successfully emerged from a troub- 

 lous period. A good deal of experimental work has been done 

 in the endeavor to compete with the Russian makers of rubber 

 sponge, but only a limited amount of success has to be re- 

 corded. It would appear that the lasting property of such 

 sponges has been somewhat exaggerated, and I should not be 

 surprised if their popularity became less pronounced. Un- 

 doubtedly the particular branch of trade which has shown the 

 largest degree of expansion is that concerned with the rubber 

 heel-pad, which has become immensely popular with all classes. 

 The files of the Patent office show that inventors have been 

 busy in this direction during the past year, and many develop- 

 ments may yet be expected before the business reaches its ze- 

 nith. Outside tire litigation, the law courts have not had to deal 

 with much of trade interest. A case, however, in which a rub- 

 ber firm was fined for causing a nuisance by the emission of 

 affluvia from albuminous rubber is of importance, and it should 

 strengthen the hands of those who advocate the cleansing of 

 rubber from its principal impurities before it leaves the port of 

 shipment. The fires that have occurred have been principally 

 on the premises of dealers in waste rubber, euphoniously de- 

 scribed in newspaper reports as rubber manufacturers. The 

 failure to take reasonable precautions, coupled with the non- 

 employment of night watchmen, is largely reponsible for these 

 fires. With regard more especially to the north of England, 

 the unsatisfactory state of affairs in the cotton and iron trades 

 makes the outlook as regards mechanical rubbers not a very 

 brilliant one for the first portion of the New Year. 



There can be little doubt that the working of railways by 

 electric power will increase in Great Britain. That such form 



of traction is eminently suited to the Metropoli- 

 ELECTmcA tan ra '' wa y °f London admits of no question ; 



that is, primarily, as regardsthe smoke nuisance. 

 With regard, however, to non-subterranean lines, the question 

 becomes one of economy only, and much interest attaches to 

 the electrification of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway 

 between Liverpool and Southport, which is now in progress. 

 The matter is interesting to the rubber trade mainly because of 

 the insulated cables required. With regard to the line just re- 

 ferred to, a current of 6000 volts with transformers is used, the 

 cable work being sublet by the contractors to Messrs. W. T. 

 Glover & Co., of Trafford Park. Talking of Trafford Park leads 

 me on to say a word or two about the British Westinghouse 

 company. It has come, somewhat as a surprise to a good many 

 people, that the financial results of the past year do not admit 

 of a dividend on the ordinary shares. It was generally sup- 



footwear. 



posed that smaller British firms doing much the same class of 

 business as the Westinghouse would find the new competition 

 a very weighty matter, instead of which we find that firms like 

 Dick, Kerr & Co., of Preston, have not only maintained their 

 10 per cent, dividend but are successfully competing with the 

 American invasion. It is said, though I speak without any 

 personal knowledge, that American methods of management 

 are not easily adaptable to the British workingman, and cer- 

 tainly to rely on the somewhat slender reed of analogy there is 

 plenty of evidence from other countries to support this con- 

 tention. Turning to another matter, acrimonious discussion is 

 not at all infrequent among members of local governing bodies 

 with regard to the placing of contracts for electrical equipment 

 with foreign firms. The explanation given is generally either 

 that the particular goods are not made in Great Britain or that 

 the foreign mateiial is cheaper. At the present times the dry 

 core telephone cables of the General Electric Co. {Allgemcinc 

 Elektricitdts Gesellsckaft) of Berlin, are being laid in Man- 

 chester, though the British Insulated and Helsby Cables Co. 

 are large and successful manufacturers of this same class of 

 cable. 



The British acting-consul at Corufia, northwestern Spain, in 

 a Foreign olfice report, draws attention to the fact that the de- 

 mand for galoshes in that damp climate is nearly 

 all met by the Boston Rubber Shoe Co. Much the 

 same must be said, I think, in the case of a larger town, Lon- 

 don, to wit., for on all hands one hears appreciation of the 

 goods of this company. As regards Spain, the Americans apart 

 from any particular excellence of their goods, have been quicker 

 than the British to issue circulars and price lists in Spanish, the 

 British defection in this respect being a cause for continual 

 jeremiads on the part of our consular representatives. As re- 

 gards the weather so far in Great Britain, the absence of snow 

 will no doubt prove a deterrent to sales, compared at any rate 

 with Spain where the snowfall, especially in Madrid, has been 

 very heavy. 



Always ready to make amends for any false impression 



which I may inadvertently have given rise to or appeared to 



support, I have pleasure in testifying to the 



N °r,Too^,f^ ERN great progress recently made by this company 



RUBBER CO. 



in their business with the rubber trade. The 

 fact may not be altogether palatable to older established firms 

 in this country, but there is no use blinking it. Probably the 

 reports which were current as to the paucity of the company's 

 business arose from ignorance of its continental transactions. 



Brief reference to this motor tire has already been m3de in 



these notes, and I now propose to amplify my former remarks. 



The name of Mr. E. H. Seddon is by no means 



the seddon unkn^n t0 t h e cycle tire world, though it is 



MOTOR TIRE. ' & 



only recently that he has turned his energies 

 towards the perfecting of motor tires. In Seddon's new red 

 motor tire the strands of the fabric have unvulcanized rubber 

 forced between them, being molded by high pressure into a 

 compact material, the idea being to lessen the internal heat by 

 preventing friction between the several cards. This arrange- 

 ment, in conjunction with a high quality of rubber, has given a 

 tire of great durability, as evidenced by the numerous and se- 

 vere tests to which it has been subjected. In this tire an inner 

 tube may or may not be used. I understand that in the trials 



