452 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[Mav 1, 1919. 



The Rubber Trade In Great Britain, 



By Our Regular Correspondent 



THE raw rubber position remains without change, owing to 

 the continuance of the blockade. Customers here know 

 that the stock in the country is equal to nearly a year's 

 consumption and that the East has about 80,000 tons available. 

 It is recognized that the lifting of the blockade— which may be 

 a fact before these lines get into print— will sec a jump in 

 rubber prices. Authoritative opinion here, however, does not 

 anticipate a jump to more than three shillings per pound, and 

 it is held, moreover, that it will soon fall again to a lower level. 

 It will be interesting to see how these prognostications pan out. 

 NATIONAL OR WHITLEY COUNCILS. 

 Other topics tlian the price of the raw material have been 

 much to the fore lately; these include the demands of the 

 organized workers, not only in the rubber trade but in almost 

 all occupations and industries, for shorter working hours 

 coupled with no reduction of or an increase in weekly pay. 

 The negotiations which have been going on between masters 

 and men have resulted in an agreement for a week of 47 hours 

 instead of the present 55 hours, and this will shortly come into 

 force. The allocation of the hours over the week is a matter 

 of arrangement for individual firms. In the case of a reclaiming 

 works, where the 47-hour week was adopted in February, the 

 whole of the time was put in the first five days, Saturday being 

 a whole holiday. The decision as to the 47-hour week was 

 reached at a meeting in London of the National Joint Indus- 

 trial Council of the Rubber Manufacturing Industry in which 

 the employes and other operatives are both represented. This 

 Council is a permanent affair, having as its object "to secure the 

 largest possible measure of joint action between employes and 

 work people for the safeguarding and development of the rubber 

 manufacturing industry as a part of national life, and for the 

 improvement of the condition of all engaged in that industry. 

 The employer's representatives are the following: P. A. Birley, 

 Chas. Macintosh & Co., Limited; H. C. Coles, Wm. Warne & 

 Co., Limited; E. Healey, W. & A. Bates, Limited; Sir Chas. 

 Mandleburg, J. Mandleburg & Co., Limited; Stuart .\. Russell, 

 Silvertown Co., Limited; J. T. Goudie, chairman, Leyland & 

 Birmingham Rubber Co., Limited; W. G. Wilson, joint secretary, 

 India Rubber Manufacturers' Association; F. C. Baiseley, Dun- 

 lop Rubber Co., Limited; F. W. Hinde, Avon India Rubber Co., 

 Limited; Alec Johnston, North British Rubber Co., Limited; 

 R. H. Mallett, The Beldam Tyre Co., Limited; Hon. F. H. 

 Hamilton Smith, The New Liverpool Rubber Co., Limited. 



An important effect of these National or Whitley Councils has 

 been to bring together the leading spirits in the same line of 

 business and thus to foster amicable working arrangements 

 tending to the formation of combines or rings. Britain's 

 tendency in this direction was referred to in an editorial in the 

 January issue of The India Rubber World, and the facts were 

 not overstated. A friend of mine in a rather specialized and 

 restricted business tells me that before the Whitley Councils 

 came into being he knew personally only two out of his twenty- 

 five competitors in Great Britain. Now he knows many of 

 them, and they have formed a combine recently. Although, of 

 course, the main ostensible reason for these trade combines is to 

 further the general interests of the particular trades, the results 

 as far as the consumer is concerned seem to be all in the 

 direction of having to pay more than the mere rise in wages. 

 Then as soon as labor recognizes that profits have increased, a 

 demand is made for increases of pay, and so we go on. 

 RUBBER GOODS EMBARGO. 

 I do not propose to deal with the recent ministerial statement 

 with regard to the embargo on manufactured goods, though the 



matter is, of course, of great interest to rubber manufacturers 

 on both sides of the Atlantic, though from somewhat diverse 

 standpoints. I may say, however, that the fact of the arrange- 

 ment having only six months' life has caused it to be somewhat 

 coldly received in business circles generally, the demand being 

 for a definite policy on which to base contracts. Meanwhile, an 

 opportunity has arisen for Canadian rubber footwear to popu- 

 larize itself in this country, though as the prolonged winter is 

 now about over, it is not to be expected that any great demand 

 will arise. 



GOVERNMENT SCIENTIFIC WORK. 



Details of scientific work carried out for Government depart- 

 ments in the last four years are now continually being referred 

 to in the press, but so far we have not had anything of the 

 nature or completeness of the article on gas defense apparatus 

 contributed by Major Johnson to the March number of The 

 Indi.\ Rubber World. I feel sure that this article will be read 

 with much interest in the rubber trade and would also be of 

 great interest to many in other spheres of employment who are 

 unlikely to come across it. 



,\mong the stocks of chemicals which the Ministry of Muni- 

 tion is disposing of by public tender there is not much of 

 interest to the rubber trade. Sulphur figures to a considerable 

 extent, but it does not follow that it will be disposed of in 

 terras which will enable rubber manufacturers to buy at pre- 

 wai prices, as the situation will continue to be dominated by 

 freight costs and facilities from Sicily. 



DUNLOP RUBBER COTTON MILLS. 



The first sods of a big extension of these mills at Castleton 

 near Manchester were cut early in March by the wives of two 

 of the directors. The object of the extension is to afford a 

 large increase to the productive capacities of the existing mills 

 for the spinning and weaving of tire cloth. The expenditure 

 involved is in the neighborhood of $7,260,000, and it is estimated 

 that the new mill when completed will raise the number of 

 employes from 800 to 3,000. 



THE NORTH BRITISH RUBBER CO., LIMITED. 



A meeting of the Edinburgh Section of the Society of Chemi- 

 cal Industry was recently held at this company's works, a 

 thorough inspection of several of the departments being made by 

 the members under the guidance of W. A. Williams, works man- 

 ager. Great interest was taken in the special laboratory — in- 

 spected on a former occasion by the writer — where balloon 

 fabric is tested for its permeability to hydrogen. The failure 

 under examination forms a septum in a gun-metal drum im- 

 mersed in an electrically treated and controlled thermostat. 

 Hydrogen is maintained at a certain pressure on one side of 

 the fabric and through the other division of the aperture a 

 uniform current of purified air is passed. The hydrogen carried 

 over by the air is, after drying, oxidized by an electrically 

 heated platinum spiral and weighed as water. The capacity 

 of the installation is such that 32 tests can be carried at the 

 same time. 



A lecture entitled "The Rubber Industry — Past and Present," 

 was given recently before the Royal Society of Arts, London, 

 by B. D. Porritt, the chief chemist of the North British Rubber 

 Co., Limited, and constituted an interesting and able summary 

 of the development and progress of the industry. 

 THE MONARCH RUBBER CO., LIMITED. 



This company is one of the latest additions to the ranks of 

 proofing works. The works are in Gleden street, Bradford 

 Road, Manchester. George Spencer, who has been connected 

 with the rubber trade for many years, is the governing director. 



