November 1, 1918. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



The Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



RAW RUBBER. 



THOSE firms who are the buyers of Hard and Soft Fine 

 Para are getting somewhat nervous about their supplies. 

 It is stated that the stock in England is practically nil, 

 and though this is probably an exaggeration, it is certain that 

 the amount on hand is small. Purchases at the present time at 

 the price of 3s. 2d. a pound for Hard Fine are all on the basis 

 of delivery ex first available steamer from Para. In these days 

 of reduced and to some extent incompetent staffs, mistakes are 

 of more frequent occurrence than was formerly the case and 

 in this connection it would be interesting to hear how many 

 orders were received by the London rubber brokers, whose list 

 quoted Hard Fine Para at 2s. 3d. when it obviously should 

 have been 3s. 2d. Of late years, owing to rapidity of transport, 

 the washing loss of Fine Para has shown a rise of two to three 

 per cent, owing to the retention of more moisture, and now 

 that transit has again become slower, buyers are speculating 

 whether they will get back to IS per cent losses again. 



Tile number of patents recently taken out by the General 

 Rubber Co. of New York in connection with the treatment of 

 raw rubber and latex, and made particularly with the idea of 

 improving the plantation product, show the zeal with which 

 the American rubber chemists are cultivating a new field of 

 research — a field which has hitherto been largely monopolized 

 by the British and Dutch. The subject matter of the patents is 

 too extensive to be profitably referred to in a few lines, and 

 I shall only make the remark that whereas in these patents im- 

 portance appears to be attached to the retention in the rubber 

 of nitrogenous bodies and carbohydrates, one is always reading 

 in contemporary rubber literature of processes for purifying low- 

 grade rubber by the removal of all bodies which are found in 

 conjunction with the rubber hydrocarbon. If we take it as 

 proved that the small amount of resin in high-class rubber is 

 a good thing and the large amount in low-class rubber a bad 

 thing, it is clear that deresination must not be carried 

 too far. It was probably the overlooking of this point which 

 caused the trouble which manufacturers experienced some years 

 ago when deresinated low-grade rubber was more prominent in 

 the market than is the case to-day. 



Probably only very few rubber manufacturers rewash their 

 plantation rubber before use, but I know of some who do this 

 so as to be absolutely certain that no foreign matter enters 

 into their goods. Of course, a quality such as barky crepe has 

 to be washed, but I have in my mind firms who religiously 

 rewash first-quality pale-brown crepe. 



PROSPECTIVE COAL SHORTAGE. 



The troubles of the trade in the past, prominent among which 

 has been labor, seem likely to be added to by the shortage of 

 coal. At the time of writing, the effect of this shortage has not 

 actually been felt, but the apprehensiveness is such that quota- 

 tions for price and deliveries of rubber goods are being made 

 with a clause having reference to probable developments which 

 the manufacturers cannot control. With regard to increase in 

 the price of rubber goods, what has recently occurred with 

 balata belting, now double the price of five years ago, this is 

 bound to occur with all goods in which cotton fabric predom- 

 inates, as the stock of cloth made from cheap cotton gets ex- 

 hausted. 



Meanwhile, despite all attendant worries, the manufacturers 

 generally show satisfactory balance sheets. One of the latest 

 is the Leyland & Birmingham Rubber Co.. Limited, which has 



a profit of £77,750 ($376,310), against £63,896 ($309,256) a year 

 ago. The dividend is 15 per cent for the third year in suc- 

 cession. Moreover, £10,000 ($48,400) is carried to reserve against 

 nil in the previous year. The issued ordinary share capital of 

 the company is £268,257 ($1,298,363), while the preferred capital 

 issue is £50,000 ($242,000). 



MANUFACTURE OF RUBBER IN NORWAY. 



The paragraph in the July issue of The India Rubber World 

 referring to the prospective enlargement of the rubber factory 

 at Mjondalen reminded me of a tour in Scandinavia in 1905. 

 During my stay in Christiania, on coming from higher latitudes, 

 I took the opportunity of visiting these works. After a jour- 

 ney of about thirty miles in the customary narrow-gage train 

 drawn by two diminutive but energetic Baldwin locomotives, 

 I arrived at the seaport of Drammen on the Christiania Fjord 

 and managed to find my way to Mjondalen and its factory. 

 The correct title of the latter is Aktieselskabet den Norske 

 Galoge & Gummivare Fabrik, Mjondalen-Drammen. The super- 

 intendent of the works is or was at that time, G. M. Harrel, 

 who had learned his business in America. The capital of the 

 company was 400,000 krone ($108,000). Though some rubber 

 boots were made, the main output was galoshes and soles for 

 tennis shoes. Norway has always obtained much of her rubber 

 footwear from Sweden, where there is a large factory at Hels- 

 ingborg, and from Germany, though I gather that she is now to- 

 satisfy her requirements by the enlargement of the Mjondaleri' 

 factory. The Helsingborg works, which must feel the new- 

 competition, had a capital of 1,500,000 krone ($405,000), em- 

 ployed 600 workpeople and turned out 5,000 pair of galoshes a 

 day. By way of completeness I give the correct title of this 

 works— Helsingborg Gummifabriek Actiebolaget, the last half 

 of this alarming word corresponding to the American "Inc." 



SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



It is hardly surprising that what progress has been made with 

 the synthetic rubber problem has to be reported from Germany 

 rather than from other countries in a better position to obtain 

 the natural product. The new factory at Leverkusen is said to be 

 capable of producing 2,000 tons yearly, though as far as I am 

 aware, the cost has not been made public. It is not surprising to 

 hear that the product is more suitable for hard rubber than for 

 soft rubber goods, as the range of materials, by no means all 

 of the rubber class from which satisfactory hard rubber goods 

 can be made, is now quite extensive. No progress in this 

 direction is to be reported from the British company which 

 was floated with a flourish of trumpets in 1912. I might, 

 however, remind those who are apt to be severe on the com- 

 pany, that the Synthetic Products Co., Limited, capital £500,000, 

 ($2,420,000), was formed, as stated in the prospectus, for 

 manufacturing acetone and fusel oil and for making further 

 experiments in developing synthetic rubber. At present the 

 latter object has been apparently abandoned in favor of the 

 former. 



"CRUDE RUBBER AND COMPOUNDING INGREDIENTS." 

 I see that a new edition of this now well-known work by the 

 Editor of The India Rubber World has been issued. Even if in 

 these days when we are exhorted to save our spare cash, there 

 may be some who, already possessing the last edition, do not 

 buy the new one, I feel sure there must be many among the 

 newcomers into the rubber manufacturing field who will send 

 in their orders. Tliat they will obtain up-to-date information, I 



