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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[August 1, 1916. 



The India Rubber Trade In Great Britain. 



By Our Rcguhir Correspondent. 



JUDGMENT has now been delivered by the House of Lords 

 (the unusual number of eight law lords silting) in the 

 action of the Daimler Co., Limited vs. the Continental 

 Tire and Rubber Co. (Great Britain), Limited, in favor of the 

 plaintiff company. The Continental company brought an action 

 to recover a debt for tires supplied to the Daimler company, 

 which refused to pay on the ground that the Continental com- 

 pany was an enemy firm. Both the Court of First Instance and 

 the Court of Appeal decided in favor of the Continental com- 

 pany, because it was registered in England, although 24,999 of 

 its 25,000 shares were held by subjects of the German Empire, 

 who reside in Germany. The final Court of Appeal has now 

 upset this decision and decided that the Continental company 

 cannot sue the Daimler for the money due during the period of 

 the war. This decision is of considerable importance as it has 

 been taken as a test action w-ith regard to numerous other com- 

 panies of the status of the Continental. 



CHANGED TAX REGULATIONS. 



The extra tax proposed in the last budget on private motor 

 cars has been abandoned, and an additional tax of 6d. per gallon 

 on petrol substituted for it. Further, there are special regulations 

 relating to the purchase of petrol by car owners, all of which 

 have the object of still further reducing the use of motor cars 

 for pleasure. Commercial motor vehicles and parts thereof have 

 now been put on the list of prohibited imports. 

 TRADE DISPUTE SETTLED. 



The long drawn-out dispute at the Premier Rubber Works, 

 Manchester, has now been amicably settled, a standard price list 

 having been arranged between the Waterproof 'Garment Manu- 

 facturers' Section of the India Rubber Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion and the United Garment Workers' Trade Union. 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY EXHIBITION. 



This year's show was held at Manchester at the end of June 

 and proved a great success, both as regards exhibits and attend- 

 ance. With respect to rubber there is not much to report, as 

 owing to the embargo put upon the exhibition of tires of any 

 sort by the Ministry of Munitions, many rubber manufacturers 

 who would otherwise have had a general display did not exhibit. 

 The only manufacturer who had a stand was the North British 

 Rubber Co., Edinburgh, which made a comprehensive exhibit of 

 hose used for various purposes connected with agriculture, also 

 driving belts for machinery. A few waterproof garments were 

 also on view, but here the firms dealing with the wholesale 

 trade only, did not attempt to rival the exhibits of the retail 

 firms, such as the Palatine Rubber Co., of Manchester; J. H. 

 Peck & Co., of Wigan; Davis & Co., of Oxford, who had ex- 

 hibited collections of waterproofs, rainproofs and oilskins. Ex- 

 hibitors of this sort are about the only people who smile when 

 the weather breaks after a bright morning, as they make a large 

 number of sales among those who have come unprovided. James 

 Wilson & Co., of Manchester, had a good display of waterproof 

 covers of every description, carriage rugs and oilskins, here as 

 elsewhere, being much to the fore. 



Some buildings were roofed with Ruberoid, which is a British 

 invention of earlier date than its rival, the asbestos slate. The 

 name and plasticity of Ruberoid might lead to the supposition 

 that it contained rubber. This, however, the makers, the Rub- 

 eroid Co.. Limited. Brimedown, Middlesex, expressly disavow, 

 stating that it is a special form of bitumen and felt. 



The mechanical milking apparatus, which is by no means 

 novel, attracted a good deal of attention this year, owing to the 



scarcity of farm labor. A considerable amount of white and 

 red one-inch and half-inch rubber tubing is required for the 

 equipment. 



THE CHEMICAL OUTLOOK. 

 The recent break in the high prices which have ruled for some 

 time in the case of many chemicals, and more especially metals, 

 is welcome to those who are not contracted far ahead. This 

 break is attributed, rightly or wrongly, in many cases, to in- 

 creased production in America, where factories have been rushed 

 up regardless of cost. Of course, the fall in the market quota- 

 tions for zinc and lead is not immediately reflected on com- 

 pounds like zinc oxide and litharge, but buyers who will be in 

 the market shortly are expecting better terms than they obtained 

 a few- months ago. Solvent naphtha has slumped considerably 

 from the contract prices of six months ago. It is noticeable 

 that some of the chemicals which have been coming to us from 

 across the Atlantic are now being bought at much more favor- 

 able prices than six months ago, while others, notably carbon 

 black, maintain their inflated price level. One result of the war 

 will be a coordination and more general working together of our 

 chemical manufacturers than has been the case in the past, when 

 each firm kept its doings to itself. A powerful chemical manu- 

 facturers' association has been formed, including most branches- 

 of the chemical industry, and this association will be in a posi- 

 tion to present its views forcibly to the government of the day. 



According to statistics, America has increased her output of 

 barytes to a much greater degree than we have since German 

 supplies fell off. Before the war we produced about 50,(X)0 tons 

 per annum and imported about an equal amount from Germany. 

 The imports had developed, not only because of the finer grind- 

 ing and other preparative machinery, but because the German 

 deposits generally are of more uniform purity. Our deposits 

 are in many cases of somewhat variable constitution, other 

 earthy minerals being apt to intrude, and lower the grade, thus 

 leading to increased cost of production. 



FOUNDER OF THE INDIA RUBBER JOURNAL. 



Mr. Herbert Slandring, who has been known to the rubber 

 trade for more years than perhaps he cares to remember, and 

 who has, since the war broke out, been connected with the mechan- 

 ical transport section of the Army Service Corps, has now re- 

 turned to business life as the representative of Messrs. Laughton 

 & Sons, of Manchester, for London and the southern counties. 

 This firm, which deals in reclaimed rubbers and substitutes, is 

 the one which I recently reported to have taken over the Holt 

 Town Rubber Co., Manchester, formerly belonging to the late 

 Mr. Openshaw. 



TRANSPORTATION OF RECLAIMED RUBBER. 



.\lthough in the great bulk of cases the regulations for the 

 carriage of various commodities by railway are very much the 

 same in Great Britain and America, there are some notable ex- 

 ceptions. Reclaimed rubber, for instance, is evidently considered 

 as more dangerous in America than it is in England. The fol- 

 lowing is the American regulation for rubber shoddy, regen- 

 erated or reclaimed rubber. It must be packed in tight metal 

 containers or in wooden boxes, complying with shipping con- 

 tainer specification No. 17, except when in the form of dense 

 homogeneous non-porous sheets or rolls, the sheets of thickness 

 of Yf, inch or greater, packed flat or in rolls. 



Rubber scrap, if ground, powdered or granulated, whose rub- 

 ber content exceeds 45 per cent as determined by subtracting the 

 sum of the per cent ash and the per cent acetone extraction from 



