76 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December i, 1907. 



RECLAIMED 

 BUBBER. 



poration. the chairman said, though it is conceivable that the 

 other side do not consider themselves the losers. Some comment 

 was made on the fact that Sir Gilbert Parker, m. p., had re- 

 signed his seat on the board. This was due, it was explained, to 

 pressure of parliamentary duties; however, as he has just had 

 a new novel published, these duties evidently leave him a certain 

 amount of leisure. 



I UNDERSTAND that the Penther machine, the patent rights of 

 which for the world have been acquired, as already reported in 

 these notes, by Mr. James E. Baxter, 

 will shortly be in full work at the new 

 Leyland factory. The delay has been 

 due to the installation of high pressure boilers and high speed 

 engines in order to minimize the cost of the power required to 

 run the machine. In this respect there can be no doubt that the 

 new machinery will prove much more efficient than was that 

 originally used in Germany. 



Another obituary notice calls for insertion this month. This 

 has reference to Dansk Afvulkaniserings Aktieselskabet, the 

 management of which Copenhagen reclaiming works, Mr. Albert 

 Theilgaard seems to have found too much even for a man of 

 his superabundant energ>-. The concern had only been in exist- 

 ence two or three years, and worked processes the details of 

 which were not apparent from the patents which formed their 

 basis. I understand that Mr. Theilgaard is now working on the 

 Continent in the interests of a former competitor, the North 

 Western Rubber Co., of Liverpool. 



Spain, more particularly Barcelona, is reported as buying in- 

 creasing quantities of reclaimed rubber, and it has been argued 

 from this that the rubber manufacture in the Iberian peninsula 

 is proceeding apace. 



North Wales now has its rubber factory, or at least it is com- 

 monly reported to have. Inquiry, however, reveals the fact that 

 the concern in question is by no means on an extensive scale, 

 and that the business at the Holywell factory is limited to deal- 

 ing in a certain way with waste rubber. 



A RUBBER manufacturer of considerable position in the trade, 

 who has paid close attention to Ceylon rubber, in the course of 

 some remarks on the subject to me ex- 

 PLANTATION pressed his disappointment at the 



present state of affairs. He had been 

 in hopes, he said, that careful cultivation and preparation would 

 have yielded a high class rubber, but it was clear that anxiety 

 to realize had induced planters to rush the preparation and so to 

 reduce quality. Quantities of not first rate quality were now 

 coming into the market, and this, despite its dryness, was being 

 sold at or below the price of fine Para. There is a ready market 

 for all this rubber, as it is being used instead of African quali- 

 ties. The above remarks, coming from an authoritative source, 

 are important when compared with statements which have re- 

 cently emanated from scientific laboratories in London where 

 the subject of rubber has just commenced to receive attention. 



The death of Mr. George Banham removes from our midst 



a typical Lancashire man, and one who during the protracted 



lawsuit of Reddaway v. Banham, now a 



OBITUARY. matter of ancient history, was a familiar 



figure in the precincts of the London 



Law Courts. Of somewhat rugged exterior, Mr. Banham was of 



a thoughtful and kindly disposition, which showed itself in many 



ways in his business dealings. The success attained by the belting 



works which he established in Pendleton, Manchester, are a 



tribute to his indomitable energj- in business matters. 



The melancholy reports issued by the London companies have 



given a setback to ideas of fresh enterprises. Of course a good 



many factors have combined to prevent 



CONCERNING HOTOE , •' • • j -,-, u j 



the success anticipated. The bad 



weather during the spring and summer 



and the over provision of carrying facilities in London have to be 



VACUUM 

 DRYING. 



considered in addition to the expense for repairs, etc., directly 

 connected with the omnibuses. The Manchester and District com- 

 pany came to an early end mainly because of the opposition of 

 inhabitants on the lines of route. At present the future of the 

 commercial motor wagon seems much more promising. A type 

 that is attracting some attention is the Berna commercial motor 

 lorry of 4 to 6 cylinder and carrying one to five tons. These 

 are made in Switzerland and have for some time been used as 

 mail carts in that country. I understand that manufacturing firms 

 who have goods to deliver a few miles off are not showing keen- 

 ness to purchase motors for themselves, but are more disposed 

 to pay a motor transport company to do the carrying ; this is more 

 especially the case with engineering firms who have no daily 

 use for carts or motors. These commercial motors are fitted 

 mainly with "twin" solid tires, such as are supplied by the 

 Dunlop, Shrewsbury and Challiner and other companies. Refer- 

 ence to solid tires reminds me of the recent dictum of the London 

 commissioner of police objecting to the use of sectional block 

 tires on omnibuses ; more will probably be heard of this, as it 

 applies not only to omnibuses but to the freight motors which 

 travel at about the same pace. 



From an engineering firm largely concerned with the manu- 

 facture of plant for rubber plantations in the Malay States, I 

 have it that there is an increasing demand for 

 vacuum drying plant. With plantation rubber 

 in hot climates steam raising is troublesome 

 as well as apt to be expensive, and besides there is necessity 

 for absolute dryness being obtained. The main facts which 

 appear to have militated against the wider use of vacuum plant in 

 European rubber factories are the initial cost and the ainount of 

 labor involved in charging and discharging compared with what 

 obtains in the the case of steam heated rooms. 



In connection with pumping operations in mines where the 

 water frequently contains sulphuric acid derived from the oxida- 

 tion of pyrites, a good deal of trouble has 

 '^^v^vis''^^ been caused by the wearing of the valves, 

 whether made of phosphor bronze or other 

 special alloys. In several cases such valves have been replaced 

 by gutta-percha valves with very satisfactory results. Probably 

 other bodies, such as rubber or Dermatine, would answer the 

 purpose equally well. The action is not merely that the acid 

 water dissolves the metal, but that electrolysis is set up between 

 the dissimilar metals, i. c, the iron piping and the valve alloy, 

 the metals being rapidly eaten away. With the use of gutta- 

 percha the iron piping is not appreciably attacked. 



Although, as has always been the case, engineers still find it 

 a cause for complaint that rubber body blocks are not everlast- 

 ing, their use shows no great diminution. To 

 some extent they are being replaced by felt or 

 cork, as possessing greater longevity, but in Eng- 

 land at any rate vulcanized rubber is still the principal material 

 in use by the railway rolling stock manufacturers. Perhaps it 

 may not be superfluous to state that the bod}' block, the object 

 of which is of course to lessen vibration, is placed between the 

 sole bar of the iron frame and the bottom rail of the body 

 of the coach. The ordinary size is 5x3x1 inch, and numbers of 

 them are used, as many as 60 being utilized in one coach of the 

 large bogey type. Messrs. Spencer. Moulton & Co., so well 

 known in connection with railway rubber fittings, had a patent 

 which I believe has now expired for body blocks, but although 

 this is one of the goods they still specialize in, it is evident that 

 in the case of such a simple article a good deal of competition 

 exists. The patent for Spencer's railway buffer having expired, 

 buffers of similar make are now being made by one or two 

 other firms. While on the subject of the Bradford-on-Avon 

 firm, it may be mentioned that the title is now abbreviated to 

 Messrs. George Spencer & Co., the place of Mr. Johnson, the 

 late manager, being now filled by Mr. Sidney Spencer. 



BODY 

 BLOCXS. 



