April 1, 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



417 



The Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Rcguhir Correspondent. 



Dl'RJNG last November a prominent waterproofer told me 

 lie could book orders for 100,000 waterproof garments, 

 but tbat it would be utterly impossible to turn out tbe 

 goods as the whole capacity of his factory was required for 

 government work. Since that time we have had an almost un- 

 interrupted spell of wintry weather, our coldest time for 35 

 \ears. It is not surprising, therefore, that the home demand 

 for w^aterproof goods has slackened off considerably. On one 

 or two occasions there has been a run on goloshes, which are 

 by no means superabundant, and it is noticeable that two or 

 three tirms are now repairing old and leaky ones, a thing one was 

 told a few years ago could not be done, ft is remarkable how 

 the official pronouncement to save money by wearing your old 

 things has been carried into practice, all sorts of commodities 

 being either utilized in their worn state or made presentable by 

 some process of renovation. Mention ma5' be made of the use 

 of old bicycle tires bj- the cobbler for patching boots. This men- 

 tion of tires leads me to remark that the decrease in the output 

 of tires for private motor cars, owing to the available hands 

 being wanted for government work, has now been followed by 

 severe restrictions on private motoring, so that the lack of tires 

 will hardly be felt. 



RlT.r.ER BUSINESS SL.\CK. 

 Although raw rubber remains at about pre-war prices in con- 

 ■ iradistinction to most other coinmodities, the immediate future 

 r,t the time of writing is full of imcertainty, owing to' prospective 

 developments in the international situation. As regards the 

 rubber business generally, there is a decided slackness, owing to 

 many large government orders having been worked off and 

 home demand for private consumers bei-ng decidedly small. The 

 high price of cotton has proved a setback to the staple Lan- 

 cashire industry, which is in a very imsettled state. It is an- 

 nounced that the imports of many classes of goods, especially of 

 the luxury type, are to be strictly curtailed. Whether American 

 rubber sponges sold at 6rf. each, and Japanese air-cushions at 

 \s. 6d.. will lie considered as luxuries I do not know, but it is 

 certain that their classification as such would not be objected to 

 by home manufacturers, who have watched their advent and sus- 

 tained popularity with some concern. 



EMBARGO LIST ADDITIONS. 



The extension of the embargo list of May 10. 1916, affects 

 among other exports those of goods made wholly or partly 

 of rubber, gutta percha or balata, which can now be exported 

 only to British possessions and protectorates, all other des- 

 tinations being prohibited. This, of course, takes them out 

 of a previous class, where they were prohibited being exported 

 to any and all destinations. 



ACCELER.\TORS. 



Before the Manchester Section of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry on February 2. S. J. Peachy, of the local school of 

 technology, read a paper on this subject, dealing mainly with 

 para-nitrosodiniethyl aniline, patented bj' the author, and now 

 on the market under the name of accelerine. The facts pre- 

 sented regarding accelerine were much the same as in the 

 review of the organic accelerators in the January 1, 1917, issue 

 of The Indi,\ Rubber World. It was emphasized that the 

 accelerating effect of aniline is extremely small, though 

 methyl aniline is decidedly better. In order to produce a 

 non-blooming rubber with accelerine there can be no saving 

 of time, the ordinary length of cure, as with sulphur alone 

 being necessary. Accelerine is sold in bulk with .30 per cent of 



water, which must be removed before use. The substance 

 shows a tendency to cake m\ the back roll of the mixer, and 

 it is desirable to mix 20 per cent of Kisselgahr with it to over- 

 come this. 



An interesting discussion followed the reading of the paper. 

 In reply to some remarks by Mr. Terry, the author said that 

 he had experimented only with low-grade reclaimed rubber 

 and that, therefore, the statement that accelerine was of no 

 use with reclaimed rubber might have to be modified in the 

 case of high-class alkali reclaims. With regard to detection 

 of accelerine it was usually noticed that tli« acetone extract 

 l.ad a dark color. Mr, Smith, as one who had used a good 

 deal of accelerine, commented on the fact that all the samples 

 shown were in sheet form press-cured, and suggested that 

 difficulties had arisen from blowing in the case of solid rubber, 

 steam-cured. On this matter, and also as to whether accel- 

 -erine was useful in eliminating the effect of the variability in 

 plantation rubbers, the author said that the present extent 

 of his experience did not allow him to express a decided 

 opinion. It was agreed that accelerine had a decided though 

 faint darkening effect on rubber and that its use was not de- 

 sirable in the case of very white rubbers. 



BAYER ACCELERATORS TO BE MADE IN ENGLAND. 

 An interesting matter in connection with the use of ac- 

 celerators came before the patent authorities a little time ago. 

 This was an application by the North British Rubber Co., Lim- 

 ited, to manufacture for its own use accelerators patented in this 

 country by the Bayer Co. This application was opposed by 

 Alfred Smith & Co, a Manchester firm of rubber chemical 

 manufacturers, which had obtained the sole agency for the 

 manufacture and sale under royalty. At a later date an appli- 

 cation was made by the Hooley Hill Rubber & Chemical Co., 

 located a few miles from Manchester, for a license to manu- 

 facture for its own use and to sell to others the piperidene 

 accelerators patented by the Bayer Co. These licenses have 

 been granted. It is noticeable that though either time or 

 sulphur may be saved by the use of accelerators in practice the 

 saving in time is always aimed at, despite the phenomenal rise 

 in the price of sulphur in the last two years. Of course, it may ' 

 yet turn out that the rapidity of vulcanization is not altogether 

 to the benefit of the rubber goods as regards lasting capacity. 

 BUSINESS PRINCIP.\LS REQUIRED TO REGISTER. 

 The Registration of Business Names Bill having now come 

 into operation it is imperative for the ABC and X Y Z Rub- 

 ber companies which may be doing a retail business in towns 

 to register the names of their principals. Although the act 

 is essentially a piece of war legislation aimed at alien traders 

 it may be remembered that the idea is by no means new, as 

 previous bills have been brought before Parliament by private 

 members to achieve the same object. These bills, however, 

 failed to pass into law, owing to non-alien obstruction. 

 THE LABOR PROBLEM AFTER THE WAR. 

 The period of demobilization is seen to be one in which 

 troubles, if not actually chaos, may well be expected if the 

 matter is not taken in hand by experts removed from official- 

 dom. It is interesting, therefore, to note that a strong execu- 

 tive committee has been formed by the I'edcration of Em- 

 ployers and Employeesto tackle the problem of the reabsorp- 

 tion into industry of labor released from military duties. On 

 this committee the name of James Tinto, head of the Irwell 

 & Eastern Rubber Co., Limited, appears as representative of 



