>rAY 1, 1916.) 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



437 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Corrcspondciil 



BL'SIXESS at the works continues brisk, both for go\ernmcnt 

 account and private orders, but the all-absorbing topic is how- 

 to get the work done with the continual withdrawal of 

 men for military service. Comparatively few of the applica- 

 tions to the tribunal for the total e.xemption of men have been 

 granted and works managements have been compelled to fall 

 back more and more upon the services of women. With regard 

 to this change, the managing director of a large works tells me 

 that the ctTecti\eness of the substitution has been an eye-opener to 

 him, more particularly with regard to the volume of work turned 

 out. In fact, it seems to be the general result that women have 

 proved efficient in the various forms of manual labor to which 

 they have been introduced for the first time, while the results 

 have been by no means so satisfactory where they have re- 

 placed men in office and other clean-hand work, this being prob- 

 ably accounted for by the fact that the recruits come from 

 somewhat different social strata. 



THE NEW BUDGET DISAPPOIXTING. 



The new budget is mainly of home interest and, much to the 

 disgust of fervent tarifT reformers, there are no new import 

 duties, which are naturally the main interest for foreigners. 

 The considerably increased duties on motor cars, coupled with 

 the market rise in the price of petrol, will probably have some 

 elTect, but not much on the demand for tires, pleasure motor- 

 ing having fallen off already to a great extent. The value of 

 tires, tubes and accessories for motor cars imported from 

 America from October 1 last to February 29 is stated officially 

 to be £912.397 plus £4,365 for motorcycle tires. It will be re- 

 membered that the import duty proposed in the last budget on 

 these goods was abandoned, though it was retained on motor 

 cars. Ford motor cars, which formerly paid a license of £6. will 

 now have to pay £18 under the new budget. 



BEI.Tlxr, QU.ALITIES CRITICISED. 



The old controversy as to the respective merits, as regards 

 strength and longevity of Brazilian Para and plantation Para, 

 v.as renewed in the discussion of Mr. Tinto"s paper on rubber 

 and balata belting before the Manchester Association of Engi- 

 neers. Mr. Bentham expressed the opinion that the rubber 

 belting of 30 or 40 years ago, made from wild rubber, could 

 not be obtained today, because plantation rubber was being 

 used in place of the Brazilian rubber, which was now prac- 

 tically exhausted. Quite probably the speaker was correct 

 in saying that the average rubber belt, as indeed the average 

 compounded rubber article, is not today equal to what was ob- 

 tainable in earlier days of the manufacture before competition 

 among makers became keen, but this matter of belting is not 

 one in which the relative lasting values of the two rubbers can 

 be summarily determined without careful consideration of many 

 details of the manufacture, and I have reason to suppose that 

 this view is supported by the author of the paper. Mr. Bentham, 

 I may say, is an engineer of wide experience and holds an 

 important position, Init he is not a rubber manufacturer. 

 With regard to the statement that the wild rubber of which 

 belts were formerly made is now practically exhausted, if this is 

 meant, as is presumably the case, to refer to Fine Hard Para, I 

 fancy that our friends in Brazil would be inclined to disagree. 

 G.\RME\T WORKERS' W.VGKS IN'CRE.'\SED. 



.An agitation among waterproof garment workers in the Man- 

 chester district for an increase of pay has led to the increase 

 being granted in practically all cases. This branch of the trade 

 remains fully employed, and it would be a serious matter if any 

 stoppage occurred. .At the same time, although the manufac- 



turers liave perforce all come into line, it must not be assumed 

 tliat they all ^ee, eye-to-eyc, the necessity for, or advisability 

 ni, tliis concession. 



.\ QUESTION Ol- HONESTY— OR ETHICS. 

 Some time ago 1 referred to the sale in one shop of "The 

 Kleenquick'' eraser, made entirely of substitute and mineral mat- 

 ter. I must say that it answers its purpose very well and does 

 not get soiled on the rubbing surface as does ordinary india 

 rubber when left lying about. A question of ethics, however, 

 arises in the sale of it as india rubber, as it has come to my 

 knowledge that compositions of the sort are supplied to buyers 

 at shops who ask for a piece of rubber without any explanation 

 as to the fact that it is not india rubber. The problem is a 

 knotty one because it would doubtless be easy to show that 

 various goods supplied as made of rubber, have frequently con- 

 tained that substance in but infinitesimal quantities. It might be 

 argued successfully that as it rubs out pencil marks with ease 

 and completeness, the buyers' expressed wants are filled, despite 

 the fact that the composition is diflferent from what has been 

 supplied in the past. 



snORI 



t.^DE NOTES. 



It is one thing to get out plans for the extension of works 

 and another to get the work done in these days of labor short- 

 age. Thus it is not surprising that delay has been experienced at 

 the large new works of the Dunlop Rubber Co. at Bromford, 

 near Birmingham. Another firm whose large extensions are 

 making but slow progress is the Premier Waterproof & Rubber 

 Co., Limited, of Danzig street, Manchester. 



J. V. Worthington, general manager of the Dunlop Rubber 

 Co., has been appointed a director both of this company and the 

 parent tire company in place of Sir W. G. D. GofT, Baronet, one 

 of the original Irish directors, who has retired from business. 

 The new director is a qualified medical man who took the some- 

 what unusual step of leaving the profession to go into com- 

 merce, where he has been a recognized success and proved popu- 

 lar with the large numbers under his control. 



.Among the alien enemy companies recently wound up by gov- 

 ernment order is the Continental Tyre & Rubber Co. (Great 

 Britain) Limited, South Kensington, London, and the Polack 

 Tyre & Rubber Co., Limited, Shepherd's Bush, London. 



The vulcanite manufacture has been taken up. as regards vari- 

 ous articles, by several rubber manufacturers, and an extension 

 of the home manufacture is to be seen in the case of certain 

 firms using vulcanite in their businesses. For instance, a large 

 firm of tobacco pipe manufacturers, who, when former supplies 

 of vulcanite from Germany were cut ofif by the war, got its re- 

 quirements filled by home manufacturers, though at a consid- 

 erably higher price, has installed machinery made by one of our 

 leading rubber machinists and is now turning out its own 

 vulcanite. 



.A novel contract lias been made between the Bradford Tram- 

 ways Committee, Bradford, and the Dunlop Rubber Co., Limited, 

 Birmingham. The latter agrees to furnish rubber tires for rail- 

 less street cars for two years from February, 1916, at .75d [1^4 

 cents] per mile run per vehicle. 



\ouT correspondent has been informed that an item in the 

 February issue of The Indi.^ Rubber World regarding a position 

 of commercial manager at the works of the Leyland & Birming- 

 ham Rubber Co., Limited, Leyland, England, was incorrect. 

 The position, which was made vacant by the death in active 

 service of Lieutenant Colonel Fallows, has been filled ky the 



