December 1, 1918. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



The Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



AT the time of writing, the constitution of the committee 

 which is to advise the Ministry of Munitions as to what 

 steps if any are advisable with regard to the government 

 control of rubber, has not been made pubUc, but it is understood 

 that the Rubber Manufacturers' Association will be represented 

 on it. Meanwhile, though there is a good deal of, ferment in 

 plantation companies, prices are keeping up well, as there is 

 little disposition on the part of the public to dispose of shares. 

 In the trade the general feeling is that when peace comes the 

 price of rubber and also of shares will go up because so many 

 countries are almost denuded of rubber goods. At the same 

 time the huge war demand will of course fall off, and with the 

 further increase in the output which is to be expected, prices 

 will then fall again. The opinion is expressed that the trade 

 will not be able to absorb all the rubber produced in a. few 

 years. A lot of rubber is now being used in place of leather, not 

 because people prefer rubber soles to leather, but because of the 

 scarcity and high price of leather. When leather comes down 

 to more natural prices the rubber sole will go, to a large extent, 

 unless the makers cut their present large profits. At the recent 

 exhibition of footwear and leather substitutes in London, Sir 

 Edward Fenton, chief inspector of boots for the Army Clothing 

 Department, said that during July and August 200,000 pairs of 

 boots had been made in this country with leather substitutes, 

 though such substitutes were not used for army boots. That 

 there is nothing like leather still seems to sway the official 

 mind. The trade generally remains very busy and, unlike some 

 others, it has no apprehension at all as to its immediate future 

 if the peace 'rumors which are prevalent as I write come to an 

 early maturity, such is the congested state of order books for 

 civilian requirements. 



Trade has continued much on what are now normal lines, 

 though a feature has been the demand for waterproofs, owing 

 to the incessant rain of the later part of the summer, a business 

 in which advanced prices have proved no deterrent. In civilian 

 business the sales to men always exceed those to women ; now it 

 is the reverse as so many women are engaged in work 

 of one sort or another, and moreover they have more money 

 to spend on themselves. With the present high prices of textiles 

 the waterproof, whether rubber or merely rain-proof, is likely 

 to remain at a high price for some time. 



DETERMINATION OF THE STATE OF CURE. 



In a recent paper entitled "Comparative Methods for Deter- 

 mining the State of Cure of Rubber," embodying work done for 

 the Rubber Growers' Association and communicated to the 

 "Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry" for .August 31, 

 1918, Dr. H. P. Stevens raises an important point with regard 

 to the testing of rubber samples. Specifications usually state that 

 the rubber goods must stand certain physical as well as chemical 

 tests in order to show the state of vulcanization, and Stevens 

 shows that whereas the chemical test for combined sulphur is 

 independent of the age of the sample, the physical tests, particu- 

 larly the load supported per unit of cross-sectional area at a 

 given elongation and vice versa, depend upon the age and ex- 

 ternal condition of the rubber. Comparable results are obtain- 

 able, therefore, only when the samples arc tested at a fixed 

 period subsequent to vulcanization. Further, the temperature to 

 which the samples have been exposed also affect the results, 

 as Stevens proved by testing at both summer and winter tem- 

 peratures. In the specifications with which I am familiar there 

 is no reference to the above causes of discrepancy and noth- 

 ing definite is known as to the age of the samples being tested. 



It is not uncommon for a sample to be submitted a day or 

 two after manufacture, and if this is approved of, tlie manu- 

 facture of the bulk quantity is then proceeded V/ith. It may 

 lake some months to complete the order so that a sample 

 taken on delivery may be as many months old as the original 

 sample was days. Moreover, summer may have given place to 

 winter, or vice versa. It certainly seems, then, that Stevens' 

 paper should be taken to heart by those responsible for physi- 

 cal tests made in connection with important contracts. As has 

 been said, the chemical tests are not affected in the same way 

 and Stevens' main objection to these seems to be the time 

 they occupy. Many will agree with him on this point. I 

 remember, when Weber's book was first published, hearing 

 a Teutonic rubber chemist — if I may be allowed to say so — 

 remark that life was too short for Weber's methods. I doubt, 

 however, if Weber mentioned extracting rubber for a week 

 as Stevens does in his painstaking and methodical work. 



GOVERNMENT SUPPRESSION OF RUBBER IMPORTS. 

 On October 11 the trade received notice that a committee of 

 the Ministry of Munitions with Sir Clarendon Hyde as chair- 

 man, had been formed to regulate the import and supply of 

 raw rubber to manufacturers. The notice was also sent to 

 reclaimers, as all scrap and waste rubber are included in 

 the regulations. Under the various salvage schemes the au- 

 thorities have recognized that the scrap rubber business has 

 become quite a big thing and that the reclaimer is now con- 

 sidered a much more important personage than in days of 

 yore. 



JOURNALISTS ON THE TRAMP. 



It will not be neivs to American readers tti hear that a 

 party of American journalists have been doing Great 

 Britain. . More, I believe, are to come, though whether the 

 Editor of The India Rubber World will be among them I 

 have no information. British journalists have also been on 

 the tramp, and a special article contributed by one of them 

 to a prominent paper in the North of England contains refer- 

 ences to Pirelli's works which are of more than passing in- 

 terest. After saying that Italy has not drawn much upon wom- 

 en for industrial war work, tlie writer remarks that Pirelli's 

 great ruliber works have always had many women but even 

 to-day the proportion to men is not much higher. The women 

 work nine hours on an average and get from 7 to 9 lire 

 ($1.35 to $1.74) a day. In only one room were women seen 

 in men's clothes, and this had always been the case. Further 

 on the writer says : "At Pirelli's rubber factories we beheld 

 in their stately chapel-like laboratories the production of an 

 electric spark at a tension of 600,000 volts— a high act of 

 modern scientific ritual that cannot be performed any- 

 where else in the world. It appears that they can actually go 

 up to 800,000 volts." 



GUAYULE. 



The illustrated article on the guayulc industry in the issue of 

 The India Rubber World for July 1. 1918. was very interesting. 

 No doubt many besides myself were surprised by the scientific 

 developments which have taken place. Those who introduced 

 guayule rubber to the English manufacturer found that their 

 path was not all roses, as a good deal of prejudice existed. I 

 remember the extensive exhibit at the Second London Rubber 

 Exhibition, under the egis of H. van der Linde. This at- 

 tracted a good deal of attention because of the rubber-manu- 

 facturing machinery installed. The sample of guayule which I 

 took away with me seems to be in much the same condition 



