374 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August i, 1904. 



THE INDIA-RUBBER TRADE IN GREAT' BRITAIN. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



TAKING a retrospect over the last few years, there is 

 comparatively little change observable either in the 

 kind of chemicals or in the prices thereof. Certain 

 oxides, like zinc oxide and litharge, have fluctuated in 

 consonance with the market prices of the respective metals, 

 but in many other chemicals the bottom prices 

 , E „ S ° F obtained by competition have shown practically 



RUBBER 



chemicals. no variation ; in this category come French chalk, 

 barytes, whiting, carbonate of magnesia, sulphides 

 of antimony and zinc and sulphur. In the case of red oxides 

 of iron and lampblacks there has always been wide divergencies 

 in price, according to quality, and it is more the tendency than 

 it used to be to have these tested for their tinctorial power and 

 to pay accordingly. I imagine that there is not much sale now 

 for the heavy black of old time, which consisted largely of 

 whiting, though would-be sellers of pure oxide of iron often 

 complain of the difficulty they have in competing with oxides 

 which look much the same and which by reason of a large ad- 

 mixture of foreign matters can be offered at a low price. Sul- 

 phur of good quality free from grit and acid is now selling at 

 prices which do not admit of further reduction unless business 

 is carried on on philanthropic lines. With regard to precipi- 

 tated sulphur, the firm who supplied what little was used gave 

 up the business because it was more bother than it was worth. 

 Considerable fluctuations have been experienced in solvents ; 

 for a long time low prices ruled for 90 per cent, benzol and 

 some manufacturers took to using this in place of the ordinary 

 solvent naphtha. The main difference between them lies in 

 the boiling point, and unless dough made with the coal tar ben- 

 zol is kept covered more evaporation takes place than with the 

 higher boiling naphtha. Coincident, however, with the decay 

 of the waterproof branch came a demand for benzol for gas en- 

 richment and these factors led to a reversal of the market 

 prices, solvent naphtha during some periods of last year being 

 sold as low as 5 pence per gallon. Naturally the decline in the 

 demand for the latter has been a matter of great concern to 

 the producers, the market for this product being a restricted 

 one. There are only four or five producers of bisulphide of 

 carbon, and since the retirement of the old established firm of 

 Jesse Fisher & Son, three years ago, the price has gone up. 

 Sulphide of zinc is a chemical which still has a restricted em- 

 ployment ; its price being about three times that of the oxide, it 

 needs no further explanation as to its undoubted merits failing 

 to secure due recognition. 



A London contemporary has recently had some severe 

 strictures upon rubber manufacturers who undertake contracts 

 for goods according to specification and then light- 



A PLEA FOR 

 CAUTION. 



ly alter the mixings to suit their own convenience, 

 ignoring the fact that the customer may have very 

 particular reasons for wishing the specification to be rigidly 

 adhered to. That conduct of this sort is reprehensible and 

 inimical to the best interests of the trade can hardly be denied, 

 but there is another side to the question which ought in fair- 

 ness to receive consideration. This has reference to the fact 

 that a particular brand of rubber may not be always procurable, 

 and further than this, brands of rubber which are bought and 

 sold in good faith under one name often vary a good deal in 

 their resinous contents— quite enough to cause the chemist 

 of the purchaser of the goods to become suspicious. It is 



pointed out by our contemporary that testing of goods is much 

 more commonly carried out at the present day than was the 

 case a few years ago. There is nothing to be urged against 

 this procedure except that as a good many of the analysts work 

 entirely by published methods and have had no special ac- 

 quaintance with the manufacture they are apt to think that 

 rubber goods ought to yield figures as consistent as those ob- 

 tained say in the case of metallurgical products. To arrive at 

 correct deductions from the analytical figures obtained is by no 

 means an easy matter, and it is readily conceivable that injus- 

 tice may be done. This, however, is not the particular point I 

 wished to emphasize. My main object was to point out that 

 alteration in the rubber contents of a mixing may often be 

 made as a matter of necessity and not at all for any nefarious 

 purposes of gain. It is a question whether in cases of this sort 

 it would not be advisable for the manufacturer to put the posi- 

 tion clearly before his customer, taking of course the risk of the 

 work turning out unsatisfactorily. At any rate this would 

 clear him in the eyes of the customer from any intention to de- 

 fraud and so prevent a rupture of amicable business relation. 

 The fact that the natural resins of rubber are increased during 

 vulcanization to an uncertain amount should be constantly be- 

 fore those who base the acceptation or rejection of goods on 

 the alcoholic extraction test alone. Where the matter in dis- 

 pute is merely concerned with an excess of mineral matter the 

 analyst can of course express his opinion in precise terms and 

 manufacturers who err in this way are in no way deserving of 

 sympathy. Despite the great strides which the chemical an- 

 alysis of rubber goods has made of late years, there still re- 

 mains need to caution the analyst against hasty deductions if 

 justice is to be done all round. 



It is a moot point with many chemical and allied manufac- 

 turers whether or not to patent any new process they bring out. 

 The publication of the details naturally gives the 

 chemical unscrU p U ] ous opportunity for surreptitious infringe- 

 ment ; on the other hand, if a patent is not taken 

 out there is always the danger of the process being given away 

 by workmen. I was forciby reminded of the complexity of the 

 situation during a conversation with the discoverer of a chemi- 

 cal process closely connected with rubber. On my asking the 

 patentee — for the process was duly patented — if he was not 

 afraid of infringement he replied " Not at all," because the 

 published specification was purposely incomplete and mislead- 

 ing. " Any one," he went on to say, " who attempts to work 

 by its aid will not be able to effect the object in view." Pro- 

 cedure of this sort it is conceivable may easily prove disadvan- 

 tageous to the patentee in a court of law, but leaving this 

 contingency aside there is undoubtedly a good deal to be said 

 in favor of the retenion of essential details. If the case re- 

 solved itself into one of actual misrepresentation or misstate- 

 ment I am not sure that the patentee would not become 

 amenable to the law, though I cannot point to any judicial 

 utterance on the point. It is well known that Thomas Han- 

 cock worked his " pickle " as a secret process for many years 

 until he was given away by a workman, and in the present age, 

 when commercial morality seems, if anything, to be on the 

 downward grade, there is so much chance of a workman being 

 " got at " that the risk attending the working of a secret pro- 

 cess is one that needs careful consideration. It is no use 



