September i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



397 



The India-Rubber Trade in Great Britain, 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



REFERENCE is made by the Editor in the July issue of 

 The India Rubber World to the very limited use of tur- 

 pentine in the trade now-a-days. A few barrels a year 

 in certain varnishes evidently is the extent of its application^ 

 in spite of what Jias been said by non-technical writers on the 

 rubber industry. Of course, in the very 



TURPENTINE , , , , . , . ,-,v 



AND THE early days of the mdustry it was dmer- 



EESIN INDUSTRY. ^„j_ turpentine being largely employed 

 by Hancock as a solvent. I think if an actual account could be 

 obtained of the turpentine used in British rubber works to-day 

 the Editor's estimate would be somewhat, though not largely, ex- 

 ceeded. For certain manufactures where the goods are not sub- 

 sequently vulcanized the solvent used is turpentine, the formula 

 having remained in use since Hancock's time. This is the case 

 at any rate with one firm of standing; I have no knowledge as to 

 whether the practice is general or not. The inquiry as to the 

 use of turpentine was put to the Editor by officials of the United 

 States department of agriculture, which is engaged in standard- 

 izing and grading the products of the turpentine industry. I 

 should think that a more important work is necessary — that is, 

 the preservation of the future supply. A recent American book 

 connected with the paint trade points out that the high price 

 of turpentine is due to a growing scarcity owing to the falling 

 of the trees, and it says that the time is not far distant when 

 the paint trade will have to depend entirely upon benzine. I 

 don't know how the increased production of turpentine in Rus- 

 sia, France and Spain will aff^ect future supplies, but I should 

 certainly think that when an article has doubled in price within 

 a few years the country where it is mainly produced should take 

 steps in the interests of future supply. Of course a good deal 

 of benzine is used to-day as a turpentine substitute or adulterant, 

 but its price seems destined to rise as the use of a less volatile 

 spirit than petrol for motor cars becomes more general. The 

 growing scarcity of petrol owing to the greatly increased de- 

 mand has already led to the adoption of hydrocarbons of less 

 volatility and the results are quite satisfactory. With the in- 

 crease in the adoption of by-product coke ovens the production 

 of naphtha is likely to show a great augmentation ; at one of 

 the largest iron works in England which I recently visited solvent 

 naphtha was being produced as one of the coke oven by-products. 

 There is no likelihood, however, of the price of solvent falling 

 away, owing to overproduction, as it seems destined in the near 

 future to find regular employment as a motor fuel. 



A PATENT for an improved buffer, recently taken out by Mr. 

 Christian H. Gray, of the Silvertown rubber works, has aroused 

 my interest. In order to obviate the 

 disintegration and wear of the rubber in 

 the ordinary buffer placed between two 

 iron plates, Mr. Gray proposes to vulcanize the solid annular 

 buffer to two brass plates which enclose it. Instead of brass 

 a similar alloy or a brassed metal plate may he used. With 

 regard to the improvement effected in a pure mechanical way I 

 have nothing to say, but it seems to me rather curious that brass 

 should be proposed in this connection. I may be quite wrong. 

 but I should have thought that any copper alloy was dangerous 

 in such close connection with rubber. I recently extracted quite 

 a quantity of sulphide of copper from the outer layer of some 

 vulcanized rubber which had rapidly decayed when used for 

 a specific purpose. This was in no way connected with the 

 patent I am referring to, of which, as I have already said, I 

 have no knowledge or experience. It may be that a good deal 

 depends upon the composition of the alloy ; the term brass is 

 very loosely used by engineers nowadays, and the same may be 



NEW BUFFER 

 PATENT. 



RUBBER 

 IN TOBAGO. 



said of gun metal which frequently contains no tin at all. Orf 

 former occasions 1 have referred to the decrease in popularity 

 of the rubber buffer. On locomotives it is now the general rule 

 to use volute springs instead of the rubber buffer, and for car- 

 riage stock laminated springs of tempered steel are rapidly com- 

 ing into favor. 



I don't think it is going beyond the limits of this correspond- 

 ence to make a brief reference to this now largely used con- 

 trivance, because rubber forms an im-- 

 KENNEDY'S PATENT portgnt jjem in its equipment. Besides 



WATER METER. ', ,, . ^ , 



the two rubber seatings or washers, a 

 pure vulcanized rubber ring of i inch or yi inch diameter is used 

 to pack the movable vulcanite piston. These meters are now 

 being largely adopted where a water rate is levied on workshops 

 and factories by urban authorities. They are manufactured by 

 Messrs. Glenficld & Kennedy, of Kilmarnock, Scotland, and when 

 in use are, as a rule, the property of the water company or urban 

 authority whose officials keep them under supervision. Relia- 

 bility of action has not always characterized the water meter 

 of the past, but I hear nothing but satisfactory reports of the 

 one under notice. 



I HAD a chat recently with Mr. T. M. Orde, who has been 

 spending a holiday in Northumberland, in which county his fam- 

 ily has been well known for many gen- 

 erations. Mr. Orde is connected with 

 the West Indian Rubber Plantation 

 Syndicate, Limited, and is full of enthusiasm as to the prospects 

 of the Castiiha trees under cultivation in Tobago. Hardly any- 

 thing has been done in the West Indies it seems with the He-c'ea, 

 it being considered the better policy to stick to the indigenous 

 tree, which is expected to j'ield a first class rubber under proper 

 conditions of tapping and preparation. Exactly what these con- 

 ditions consist of by no means seem to be a general matter of 

 agreement, and it is clear that much experimental work remains 

 to be done. Mr. Orde is emphatic that over-tapping is being 

 carried on in Ceylon, and that certain systems of tapping asso- 

 ciated with well known names are not in the best interest of the 

 plantations where they have been adopted. With regard to 

 coagulation he expressed himself strongly in favor of the cen- 

 trifugal machine, not in the form first proposed by Biffen, but 

 after a method worked out by himself and associates in To- 

 bago. The rubber so prepared and air dried has been valued by 

 London brokers at a shade less than some of the best Ceylon 

 qualities, but so far only very small lots have been put upon the 

 market. With regard to the general planting situation it would 

 seem that cocoa has been better business than rubber in the 

 island, the price of the former reaching an unprecedented figure 

 last year. This matter of cocoa I notice was referred to at 

 the not very exhilarating meeting of the Kepitigalla Rubber Es- 

 tates on July 27, the Ceylon planters, owing to climatic troubles, 

 not having been able to benefit by the high prices which have 

 ruled. There does not seem likely to be any increased amount 

 of rubber coming forward from the native West India vine 

 Forsteronia Aoribunda, or from the bramble Cryptostegia which 

 is commonly met with in Tobago. Many large land owners in 

 Trinidad and Jamaica are giving up the sugar business and 

 going in for CastiUoa planting. 



The difficulties which arose as to validity of title to its prop- 

 erty when this company was first brought out seem now to have 

 been satisfactorily settled, and the orig- 

 BRiTisH GUIANA j^al lease and license have been largely 



rubber CORPORATION. , , , r ^u l, -•„ 



extended. .\ prospectus tor the subscrip- 

 tion of 3.608 shares, the balance of the working capital, was is- 



