February i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



143 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular 



THE perennial interest attaching to this topic makes unneces- 

 sary any apology for further reference to it. Recently 

 in Chemical A'cics Messrs. Beadle and Stevens have given 

 the results of further experiments made in the laboratory but 

 approximating closely, in their opinion, to actual working con- 

 STEENGTH OF ditions. The conclusions they arrive 



PLANTATION at are in favor of the Ceylon and Straits 



PARA RUBBER. product as compared with fine Para 



rubber from Brazil. This will no doubt prove eminently palatable 

 to the planter, but this expression of opinion will have no com- 

 mercial significance until the conversion of the manufacturers 

 has been effected. So far I am unable to record any progress 

 in this direction. Of course I don't profess to have canvassed 

 the whole trade, but from inquiries among those who have 

 tried the plantation product for widely different purposes I 

 find a remarkable unanimity of opinion as to the deficiency of 

 nerve in the Eastern as against the Brazilian product. It might 

 perhaps be thought that this defect was really only of im- 

 portance in a few branches, such as cut sheet, for example, but 

 thi? is by no means the case. One of the strongest demmciations 

 I have heard emanated from the director of an important proofing 

 works in which I am told that plantation rubber, after having 

 had an extended trial, had been altogether banished, for the 

 present at all events. Although rubber is not supposed to figure 

 largely in a proofing compound, it is important that what is there 

 should have a good covering power. This is the property l^ar 

 exceUcHce of fine Para, and for this reason it can be shown that 

 the use of the best rubber is really quite as economical as a 

 mixture of second quality brands for waterproofing purposes — • 

 nn cost of production alone and quite independent of wearing or 

 lasting properties. As it is not customary in British rubber 

 factories to make accurate determinations of tensile strength, 

 such as carried out by the authors mentioned above, it is unlikely 

 that refutation will come from the trade. It is still less likely 

 tliat the manufacturers will throw over the fruit of their own 

 experience merely because they are told that they are wrong 

 in their conclusions. 



The new year does not seem to have opened very auspicicnisly 



for the rubber scrap collector and dealer. There is a general 



complaint of the fall in prices and ac- 



SCRAP RUBBER. Cumulation of stocks and the prevailing 



tone is one of pessimism rather than 

 optimism. It is hardly necessary to point out that there is much 

 more systematic collection of scrap rubber going on at present 

 than was the case only a few years ago, and that the prices of 

 old rubber articles have advanced as the result of competition 

 among the increased body of collectors. In the case of embedded 

 wire hose, of which large stocks are held in some quarters, it 

 seems somewhat strange that the price has not fallen, seeing that 

 it continues to be barred by the majority of the reclaimers. 

 Apropos of this topic a friend who holds a high scientific position 

 quite unconnected with rubber tells me that he thinks he was 

 the first to make a reclaimed rubber from railway hose, some 25 

 or 30 years ago. The hose was dissected by army pensioners and 

 the wire sold at Sheffield. The canvas was rotted out with hy- 

 drochloric acid, the sediment produced being sold to the Lincrusta 

 Walton company at a price sufficient to pay all working ex- 

 penses. The rubber was then sheeted with the help of unvul- 

 canized waste from card clothing and sold at i shilling 6 pence 

 per pound. I doubt if any market could be found nowadays for 

 the rotted canvas deposit and I should say that if much pure 

 card cloth rubber was procurable in these days of glue sub- 

 stitutes it could be sold to better advantage by itself than as a 

 component of recovered vulcanized scrap. 



DERMATINE 

 CO.. LIMITED. 



Correspondent. 



Rubber goods of various kinds are in regular use at Alder- 

 shot, especially in the army service corps and royal engineers. 

 Rubber hose pipes are prominent articles and these together 

 with tires and other goods are collected from the various depart- 

 ments and sent to the ordnance stores, whence they are sold 

 periodically by tender on certain dates. 



With regard to the present slump in prices of rubber scrap, 

 though it is no doubt due chiefly to the lower price of raw rubber 

 yet in some quarters I find that the plantation rubber is held 

 largely responsible. 



Old or used motor and cycle tires come to London from all 

 over England, some of the former being rejuvenated for sale as- 

 second hand tires, and others, perhaps the bulk, going to the 

 scrap and reclaiming works. Business is done in large and in 

 quite small lots, old tires being forwarded as freight and cash 

 at current values sent in two days. 



I UNDERSTAND that a patent valve emanating from the manage- 

 ment of this company is shortly to be put upon the market 

 both in England and America by the 

 Anchor Bush Co., which is concerned 

 with engineering matters. The valve, 

 which is of course made of Dermatine, has metal let into it in 

 such way as to prevent wearing at important points and thus 

 prolonging its life. The patent should interest steam users 

 generally, as in many cases, notably in the marine work. Der- 

 matine valves have of late made great strides, the employment 

 of this material for jointing purposes in the steamer Lusitania 

 being a case in point. 



Mr. J. F. Cooper (a son of the late Mr. John Cooper, who was 

 for many years general manager of the Dermatine company) is 

 not now connected in any way with the firm, having joined the 

 Motor and General Rubber Co., Limited, of Euston road and 

 Harpenden. 



Two prosecutions under this act have to be recorded, both 

 in connection with tires and in both of which, curiously enough, 

 the Dunlop tire company figured. In 

 the first and most important case, heard 

 in London, the Polack Tyre Co. com- 

 pany complained that the Dunlop company bought some Polack 

 tires, removed the letters and marks indicating their German 

 origin, and supplied them to a London motor omnibus company 

 with nothing to intimate that they were not made in Birming- 

 ham. The complainants had the magistrate's decision in their 

 favor, but as the Dunlop company have appealed, the case must 

 still be considered sub judicc. It may be permissible, however, 

 to say that the case has proved a good advertisement for the 

 Polack tires. In the second case the Dunlop company were 

 the complainants and on the ground that ;Mr. Walter Cheetham, 

 of Hyde, a rubber tire dealer and manufacturer, had sold some 

 tires as being made by the Doughty patent process. It was 

 stated at the local police court that the Doughty patent w-as of 

 great value to the Dunlop company, a statement which other 

 British maimfacturers recognize as far at least as rapidity 

 of output is concerned. The defendant was fined £10 and costs, 

 though it should be said that the offense was attributed to a 

 workman who had acted contrary to instructions in the de- 

 fendant's absence. 



Every now and then I make reference to rubber goods which 

 are sold to order for special purposes and do not find a place 

 on ordinary trade lists. One such article 

 which has not had previous reference 

 is the rubber cap for large glass jars 

 and in connection with certain analytical work. These were first 

 made, I believe, by Charles Macintosh & Co. about 30 years ago 



MERCHANDISE. 

 MARKS ACT. 



RUBBER CAPS. 

 FOR GLASS JARS. 



