August 1, 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



The Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



f_v Oxtr Regular Corrcsfoxdcnl 



IT IS NOW RECOGNIZED that the prognosticated rise of one shill- 

 ing per pound in raw rubber on the ratification of peace 

 is unlikely to occur. Owing to the large stocks in England. 

 America, and Singapore it is evident that the demands of the 

 Central Powers, large though they may be, can easily be met 

 without undue pressure on the market, though it is expected 

 that the price may go up three or four pence per pound. Of 

 course things would have been different if the output had been 

 stringently reduced, but with the large output not interfered 

 with by the war the present level of prices was only to be 

 expected. 



With new rubber at Ij. S'/srf. per pound and oil substitute up 

 to \Qd. per pound it is not surprising that there has been a 

 lessened demand for the latter from such branches of the trade 

 as are customarily large users. The position of the substitute 

 trade will also not be rendered any easier by the reimposition 

 of government control over oils, owing to the profiteering which 

 has come into play since restrictions on trading were removed. 

 WATERPROOF CAP COVERS. 



The proofing branch is now almost wholly occupied again on 

 civilian work, new government orders having ceased. One ques- 

 tion of the movement is the disposal of large quantities of spe- 

 cial goods, such as waterproof cap covers, which the authorities 

 evidently think it is not worth while putting into store. Con- 

 sidering the short time in which such goods were ever used by 

 troops in active service it seems a pity that they were made to 

 such high-class specifications ; many of the manufacturers, I 

 understand, advocated a lower quality as being quite good 

 enough to answer the purpose required, but their representations 

 appear to have been unavailing. As regards cap covers, there 

 does not appear to be any public demand for them which would 

 encourage a merchant to bid for those at disposal, and it would 

 seem that their ultimate destination is the reclaimers' works. 

 This sort of thing is not peculiar to the rubber trade, because 

 we hear of metal goods and chemicals that appear to have no 

 market but the scrap heap. 



SOLVENT NAPHTHA. 



The cessation of war work has resulted in a considerable fall 

 in the price of solvent naphtha, present quotations being Is. lOd. 

 to \s. \\d. per gallon. I note that the American figures for 

 solvent naphtha and benzol have also been much reduced, and 

 are now lower than they were. This was only to be expected 

 considering the great increase in the output during the last five 

 years. This fall in the price of solvent cannot be without its 

 effect upon the various proposals with regard to the recovery 

 of solvents in rubber works. It is well known that very little 

 has been done in this way in the past because the matter is not 

 so simple as it appears to be. The subsidiary advantage that 

 it rendered the atmosphere of the spreading rooms much more 

 pleasant for the war-people did not appeal with any force to 

 manufacturers who held the opinion that the recovery plant 

 could be worked only at a loss. Such a plant has. however, 

 been adopted in several cases by card clothing manufacturers, 

 the machinery having been put in thirty or, perhaps, forty years 

 ago by the Liverpool firm of Siddeley & Co., Limited, not now 

 in existence. 



These machines work with ether, and are of a type which is 

 now chiefly found in tropical countries. The reason why the 

 card-clothing manufacturers with their limited number of spread- 

 ing machines were more attracted by solvent recovery plants 

 than were the rubber proofers was because the refrigerating 

 plant was also used for freezing the blocks for cut sheet and 



for supplying cold water to the cutting machines. The actual 

 recovery of naphtha does not exceed 30 per cent of the original 

 naphtha used. Proposals, I hear, are now before the rubber 

 trade in which a plant will be erected on a new system giving 

 a guaranteed recovery of a higher figure, and the matter is there- 

 fore one worth careful consideration by the trade. 



I do not know the details of artificial leather manufacture, and 

 it may be that the process which is said to be giving satisfactory 

 results in American artificial leather works may not work 

 equally well in a rubber works. At any rate, after the stagna- 

 tion of the last 30 years it is interesting to hear of the problem 

 being resolutely tackled again and by those who express them- 

 selves as confident of its proving a financial success. 

 CABLE WORKS CHANGES HANDS. 



The old-established insulated cable works of Connolly Broth- 

 ers, Limited, Blackley Vale Mill, near Manchester, was sold at 

 auction on June 17, 1919. as a going concern. The sale was 

 by order of the High Court resulting from the action of Wood 

 vs. The Company, 1911, and should have taken place some years 

 ago. During the war, however, the concern has been profitably 

 worked by a receiver and a great deal of government work has 

 been carried out. At one time; the firm bought its prepared rub- 

 ber from rubber manufacturers, but at a later date, as in the case 

 of other insulated wire firms, it installed its own rubber machin- 

 ery. All of the buildings and plant were included in the sale, 

 the stock to be taken over by the purchaser at the auctioneer's 

 valuation, the probable figure for this being put by the auctioneer 

 as somewhere in the neighborhood of £20,000. 



With regard to the Vogelsang patents, which had been worked 

 by the firm at a royalty amounting in recent years to about 

 £1,000, it was stated that an arrangement had been made by 

 which the purchaser of the works would have the benefit of the 

 patents without any further payment of royalty. The rubber 

 calenders and the Krupp lead-covering machine were singled out 

 for special mention by the auctioneer, the latter being a machine 

 of high merit which cannot be duplicated, and special reference 

 was made to the enameling processes for which the company 

 has long been noted and the details of which will pass into the 

 purchaser's possession. Although there was a crowded attend- 

 ance at the sale it was soon clear that the bidding was restricted 

 to two, who raised the initial bid of £15,000 to £3?. 500, at which 

 figure the concern was sold. 



CALLENDER'S CABLE CO., LIMITED. 



The annual report shows a profit on the last year's working 

 of £134,968 compared with £121,784. The dividend of 121/, per 

 cent, is really the same as that of 25 per cent declared last year 

 as the capital has been doubled by the distribution of bonus 

 shares from the reserve. The report lays stress on the trading 

 difficulties likely to be experienced, but is couched in an opti- 

 mistic vein. The shareholders have nothing to complain of in 

 the present report, though some of them expected to receive 

 more. At the present quotation for the £5 shares, the return is 

 6J4 per cent. 



GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP. 



The editorial under this heading in the June issue of The India 

 Rubber World seems very apposite in these Bolshevistic days 

 when everyone is wanting more money for doing less work, and 

 labor is clamoring for the nationalization of this and that indus- 

 try under the idea that all will be well if the private capitalist 

 is done away with. One may be excused for referring to the 

 topic because, in these parlous days, if you meet a man in the 

 rubber trade, the conversation does not, as of old. run on tech- 



