April i, 1908.J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



221 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



AT THE Manchester Motor Show, held February 7-15, 

 there were one or two tire novelties that may claim 

 attention. At Messrs. Charles Macintosh & Co.'s stand 

 were exhibited several Kempshall tires, this firm being the man- 

 ufacturers for the Kempshall Tyre Co. of Europe, Limited, 

 whose head offices are at Trafalgar 



TIRES AT^A MOTOR buiidjngs^ Northumberland avenue, Lon- 

 don. The main feature of this tire is 

 the broad square tread containing elliptical depressions at inter- 

 vals — at least this is my way of putting it. Some of the cars in 

 the Show were fitted with this tire, which I have heard highly 

 spoken of. In contradiction to what prevails in other quarters 

 the company announce that they do not give any guarantee 

 whatsoever with the tires, though no trouble or expense is 

 spared in their production. The form of the tread is of course to 

 act as a non-skid device and judging from results it gives great 

 satisfaction on this head. An exhibit which attracted a good 

 deal of attention was the Slee tire, a Manchester product which 

 has had extensive trials during the last two years. The novelty 

 in its construction is that it is a solid tire with the resiliency of a 

 pneumatic, bands of flexible steel being placed between the tire 

 and the rim and a considerable air space being allowed in the 

 tire. No inner tube is used, and there is consequently no danger 

 of puncture. Satisfactory results are stated to have been ob- 

 tained on 10,000 mile runs. 



The Palmer Cord tire is now no novelty, but one cannot say 

 this of the complicated looking electrically driven machine which 

 was in operation at the show, making up the tires from the solu- 

 tioned threads. This proved a popular attraction, biscuits of 

 Para rubber having now lost their erstwhile powers of drawing 

 public attention. The North British Rubber Co. were not in 

 evidence this year, but a new comer in the firm, L Frankenburg 

 & Sons, Limited, invited attention by their show of "Franken," a 

 new filling for motor tires. This substance has the general ap- 

 pearance of brown substitute and a filling costs from £1 iss. to 

 £4 igs. per wlieel, according to size. The Elastes Co. also had an 

 exhibit, their product looking much more like brown substitute 

 than it did at first, when it was a yellow color. 



Apropos of this topic, I may say that a good deal of experi- 

 mental work has been done in various quarters during the last 

 year or two to improve these fillers, the general composition of 

 which is well known. An important point about the Franken- 

 burg product seems to be in the short time required in filling, this 

 in the case of other elastic fillings being usually three or four 

 days in order to allow the liquid to get thoroughly solidified. 

 Another material of this class, though not represented at the 

 show, is that brought out by Herr Pfliimet, of Dresden, and 

 called "Pfliimatic" ; it is composed of gelatine and glycerine, but 

 has compressed air blown into it to form a spongy material in 

 which the air is retained in the cavities. 



The spring wheel is continually being heard of in some form 



or other. One of the latest ideas comes from America and I was 



solemnly informed the other day that the 



OTHER TIRE TOPICS, rubber tire was doomed. I am told, 

 however, by those who had paid a small 

 sum of money for an option to purchase the patent rights that 

 they had sacrificed the deposit in preference to going any fur- 

 ther in the matter. The main drawback seems to be the loss of 

 speed, amounting to nearly 50 per cent. 



Motor tires generally have been reduced in price in accordance 

 with the fall in rubber, but the causes of the fall have not as a 

 rule been entered into. Messrs. Michelin, however, have let 

 their customers into some trade details and in their circular 

 explain that the fall is due to the closing of 17 American facto- 



WERNETH RUBBER 

 WORKS. 



ries and the consequent accumulation of Para rubber at Liverpool. 

 I do not find in this announcement any list of these factories, 

 however, and the fact of any such shutdown probably will be in 

 the nature of news to American readers. 



On February 18 this works was put up for sale by auction at 

 Manchester, but the bidding was not at all brisk, and, despite 

 the eulogies of the auctioneer, the first 

 bid of ii,ooo only rose to £1,400, at 

 which the property was withdrawn. This 

 works, which is by no means of imposing dimensions, was started 

 about ten years ago by Mr. Cresswell, who at that time left the 

 Hyde Imperial Rubber Co. (now the Unity Rubber Works), 

 after making a fortune in the cycle tire boom. Mr. Cresswell 

 had built himself a large residence in the neighborhood of the 

 Hyde Imperial Works, and the Werneth Works, which he subse- 

 quently started, are less than a mile away. After a few years 

 Mr. Cresswell gave up the business, and in 1903 the works passed 

 into the possession of Mr. Salmond, whose main idea was to 

 install his son therein. The son, however, having embarked upon 

 other ventures, the owner now wished to dispose of the works 

 as a going concern, which, though small, has shown regular 

 profits. 



The conversion of this prosperous private concern into a 

 limited company only concerns the rubber trade to a small ex- 

 tent. If the business had consisted only 

 R. J. DICK, LIMITED, of the well known balata belting and 

 horseshoe pads one might easily have 

 supposed that the new competition arisen since the expiring of 

 the balata belting patent was the primary cause of the conver- 

 sion, and the large figure of £150,000 for good will might have 

 come in for criticism. The business, however, is verj' largely in 

 ordinary leather boots and shoes, and is competing successfully 

 with the large concerns at Northampton and Leicester. From 

 what I hear the capital of £650,000 and the sum asked for good 

 will are not considered excessive. 



Next to the prevailing topic of the decline in prices of raw 

 rubber, the topic which has of late attracted the most attention in 

 the Liverpool trade is the action between 

 TRADE JOTTINGS. the North Western Rubber Co., Limited, 

 against Huttenbach &: Co., in which the 

 former sought to entirely reject a large consignment of pontianak 

 on the ground of its inferiority. The other side maintained that 

 the North Western company were bound to accept it at a reduc- 

 tion in price fixed by arbitration, according to recognized Liver- 

 pool custom. A large number of brokers and rubber manufac- 

 turers have given evidence in London on one side or the other, 

 but owing to the indisposition of the judge trying the point as 

 to the Liverpool custom the case has been adjourned and at the 

 time of writing is not concluded. 



All sorts and conditions of people seem nowadays to take a 

 close interest in the rubber trade and the use of rubber street 

 pavement is being widely discussed as the only panacea for a 

 forthcoming glut in the raw rubber market. I cannot say that 

 I have much faith in an immediate revolution in this direction, 

 and I am interested to note that our London contemporary 

 does not think that there are enough data yet to go upon to show- 

 that rubber pavement is suited to heavy traffic. At the same 

 time the Journal recognizes that some new use for rubber is im- 

 perative in order to sustain prices and proposes therefore a 

 meeting of those interested in order to discuss the situation. 

 Personally I think this is rather a matter for the future when 

 the plantations produce a much larger proportion of the world's 

 output than is at present the case. 

 A fire recently occurred at the Dialene recovered rubber works 



