December i, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



75 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



ADMIRALTY 

 CONTRACTS. 



BORNEO 

 RUBBER. 



HESE important contracts are now let at a somewhat dif- 



Tferent date than was custoinary in former years. The 

 specifications go out about the end of October, to be re- 

 turned by the end of November. So far as I know there is no 

 alteration this year in the tests decided on three years ago, the 

 alcoholic potash extraction being prin- 

 ipally relied upon as indicating whether 

 the best rubber has or has not been used 

 by the contractor. By the way, if rumor is correct, there has 

 been more than one rejection of goods during the past year for 

 not standing the test, but this is a matter which in its details is 

 as well hid beneath the kindly veil of silence. It may not be 

 without interest to mention that a certain amount of repairing 

 work is given out by the admiralty authorities to private dock- 

 yards on the Tyne and at Barrow. These sub-dockyards, as they 

 may be called, are obliged to obtain their rubber supplies, valves, 

 packing, etc., from the admiralty dockyards, or they may get 

 them direct from the admiralty contractors. In cither case the 

 testing for quality is carried out by the admiralty chemist. 



A FRIEND of mine who has recently returned to England after 

 a good many years trading in Borneo had some interesting facts 

 to relate concerning the rubber industry. 

 Borneo rubber, in the white, rectangular, 

 wet slabs in which it used to be known 

 in England, is now rarely to be met with, the United States 

 having been the principal market in late years. It has always 

 been persistently adulterated by the Chinese collectors, mainly 

 with pontianak. The degree of wetness is atttributable to the 

 fact that the natives put it under the water tap, as water, they 

 say, prevents oxidation during transit. My friend, having passed 

 through several years' chemical training, was accustomed to test 

 the raw product, before buying it, in the following way : The 

 slabs were carefully sampled down to a small bulk which was dis- 

 solved in chloroform. After standing to allow impurities to settle 

 out the solution was poured into a flat disk and allowed to evap- 

 orate. Strips were then cut from the dried rubber and roughly 

 tested for tensile strength with the hand. This mode of testing, 

 although it might be improved upon, is certainly more advanced 

 than appertains in the great bulk of rubber sales. 



I vv.\s sorry to hear of the decease of this company, the only 

 concern in Great Britain devoted entirely to the vulcanite manu- 

 facture. I cannot pledge myself to the 

 exact date of its inception, but I know 

 it is somewhere about fifty years ago 

 that it was founded under American auspices. The com- 

 plaint from which it has died has been variously diag- 

 nosed, the company itself being emphatic that it was the 

 "dumping" of German vulcanite in England under cost 

 price, and something to this effect has occurred in the Scotch 

 newspapers. A rejoinder to this comes from Mr. Winter, the 

 well known London representative of Heinrich Traun ■& Sons, 

 of Hamburg, it being averred that the cause alleged had nothing 

 to do with it. Mr. Winter does not say what the real cause is, 

 but his tone rather leads one to suppose that he attributes the 

 loss of trade in some way to the management. Without wishing 

 to join in the fray myself, I will merely say that the statement 

 that the price of certain German made goods having been raised 

 since the Scottish company closed its doors seems to deserve 

 notice at the hands of the disputants. The closure of the works 

 is of course a hardship to the hands and staff, some of the latter 

 having been with the company over 40 years. The works are 

 situated in close contiguity to those of the North British Rubber 



SCOTTISH VTTLCANITE 

 CO., LIMITED. 



Co., Limited, at Edinburgh, and it has been suggested that the 

 latter company will probably take them over as additional 

 premises. 



[The Scottish Vulcanite Co., Limited, was founded about 1861 

 under these circumstances : There had been formed in America 

 the New York Gutta Percha Comb Co., which, though using 

 gutta-percha for its products, was proceeded against by the 

 owners of the Goodyear hard rubber patents and also the newer 

 patents granted to L. Otto P. Meyer. A verdict unfavorable to 

 the company was granted in the United States circuit court at 

 New York May 19, 1859, after which there was a sale of the stock 

 and machinery. The price realized is reported to have been 

 $25,000, and the purchaser was William Judson, the owner of the 

 Ejighsh patents to Goodyear for both soft rubber and hard 

 rubber. Judson was one of the directors — then called "founders" 

 — of the North British Rubber Co., then still owned wholly by 

 American interests. The machinery referred to was shipped to 

 Edinburgh and was the first used by the Scottish Vulcanite Co., 

 formed through Judson's agency. It was installed by John 

 Murphy, who had been manager of the New York Gutta Percha 

 Comb Co. Mr. Murphy later returned to the States and for 

 many years was active in the rubber industry, being at different 

 times connected with some very important companies. He is now 

 living retired, in his eighty-fourth year. At one time an interest 

 in the Scottish Vulcanite Co. was owned by Conrad Poppen- 

 husen, the principal licensee in America under the Goodyear and 

 Meyer hard rubber patents, and the founder of the India Rubber 

 Comb Co., at College Point, New York. While the Scottish 

 Vulcanite Co. always maintained a separate corporate existence 

 from the North British Rubber Co., a close business relation at 

 one time existed between them, and their factories were near 

 together, being separated only by Viewforth road, in Edinburgh. 

 The shareholders of the Scottish Vulcanite Co. at a meeting on 

 September 12 last confirmed a resolution "That the company be 

 wound up voluntarily." 



Regarding the suits against the New York Gutta Percha Co., 

 above referred to, the charge was made freely at the time that 

 the result was a collusive verdict; that is, that the defendant 

 company consented to Poppenhusen's taking a judgment, in con- 

 sideration of a certain price being paid for their factory. Poppen- 

 husen fearing that, if the case were defended strongly, his patents 

 might not be sustained. (See The Indi.\ Rubber World, April i, 

 1898 — page 184.) This charge, however, was strongly resented 

 during the trial of a subsequent suit for infringement of the same 

 patents, brought by Poppenhusen against another New York 

 company and won by him. — The Editor.] 



The somewhat overdue annual meeting of this concern was 

 held in the middle of October, when Sir Harry Johnston made 

 LIBERIAN ^ ^"" statement as to the position of 



RtTBBER affairs. From this it would appear that 



CORPORATION. the trouble which has been experienced 



was largely of a legal nature, relating to the concessions, and that 

 this has now been satisfactorily settled. Still the prospects of 

 rubber production, judging by the progress already made, are 

 by no means so rosy as predicted in the prospectus, and it is 

 not surprising that some discordant notes were struck at the 

 meeting. Some vengeful Nemesis seems to take an interest in 

 Liberian rubber companies which, from that started by Mr. 

 Meiter more than 20 years ago, have been more closely associated 

 with disaster than with success. The contract entered into with 

 the Dunlop company for the purchase of the output of rubber 

 for a term of years has been modified in the interests of the cor- 



