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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1914. 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



CENERAL SITUATION ARMY AND NAVY REQUIREMENTS. 



THIS has changed but slightly since I posted my last cor- 

 respondence Among additions to goods classified under 

 conditional contraband o{ war is raw rubber, which, as 

 before intimated, has been going to the enemy through the 



neutral country of Holland Many of the rubber works are still 

 exceedingly busy on army and navy orders and as early delivery- 

 is important small works which do not in normal times share in 

 this business have come in for a share. Hundreds of thousands 

 of ground sheets have been called for and these have been made 

 both by the regular contractors to the War Office and also, more 

 01 less on "spec," In others who have sold them to agents. 

 With regard to the regular contracts the inspection of the goods 

 by the authorities is reported to he as close as ever, but so great 

 has been the demand in connection with the new volunteer army 

 that the ground sheets made by non-contractors, and not neces- 

 sarily of the standard pattern, have found a ready sale. 



The official ground sheet. I may say. has undergone some 

 change in recent years. Formerly it consisted of a grey wigan 

 double texture; that is the rubber was not visible. The modern 

 Eorm, however, is of khaki col, .red cloth, costing somewhere 

 about 10 pence per square yard, and is double texture single face: 

 that is one side is rubber surface. Every sheet, which is of 

 rectangular form, has 36 holes near the edges. These holes 

 are more numerous than formerly and seem to he largely in 

 excess of requirements, as when in use very few holes are used 

 fheir purpose, of course, is to afford facilities for lacing the 

 sheets to the tent pegs, though it may be added that in many 

 i i 3 no lacing is used at all. the sheet being merely laid upon 

 the ground to afford a waterproof base for the bed. A good deal 

 of this khaki cloth is given out to the rubber works in the roll 

 to he proofed. It is then made up in outside factories into 

 knapsacks and various other articles of the soldier's kit. The 

 cloth used for this purpose is often of a lower quality and sold 

 at a correspondingly lower price than that for ground sheets, 

 which, as I have already said, is 10 pence per yard for the 

 ordinary quality, though business has been done lately at 9 pence. 

 \s time are only three firms who carry on the dyeing of khaki 

 cloth it need hardly be said that they are working overtime. 



The depression in the proofing and garment branch which has 

 been so pronounced is now much lessened owing to large orders 

 for mackintoshes from the War Office, both single and double 

 textures being called for. This is an important matter for many 

 works, especially in the Manchester district. 



I eaving the army for the navy, the mechanical rubber works 

 have a good deal on hand in connection with admiralty orders, 

 normal requirements being largely exceeded owing to pressure 

 of work in government and private dockyards. The most im- 

 portant article as regards bulk is the compound vulcanized sheet 

 rubber, made in three qualities from specified amounts of rubber, 

 /inc oxide and sulphur. Owing to the close competition the 

 margin of profit on this work is by no means excessive and there 

 is the ever-present risk of rejection should the strict letter of the 

 pecification not have been complied with. For these reasons 

 one or two of our largest firms have held aloof from such con- 

 tracts in the past. Among other goods may be mentioned gun 

 tubes, which arc 15 inches to 18 inches long, with a two-inch 

 hole, also shaped washers with lugs for guns and plain washers 

 perforated for both holes. ( )i these there are about a dozen 

 varieties which have to be made exactly to the templates supplied. 

 1 note, according to The India Rubber World of May 1, that 

 some revisions have been made in the United States Navy 

 specifications owing to representations made by manufacturers. 



but that the chemical tests still remain. No alterations have 

 been made in England for many years and the chemical tests 

 still hold good, though as no definite procedure in regard thereto 

 has been agreed upon by buyer and seller, disagreements in re- 

 sults are not unknown. 



RUBBER GOODS FROM THE CONTINENT. 

 I lie dislocation of the shipping trade during the initial stages 

 of the war has largely been rectified and goods, such as Michelin 

 tires, are again easily procurable. Russian imports, however, are 

 still obtainable only with difficulty, while trading with the enemy 

 is. of course, quite at a standstill. Many rubber goods appear in 

 the category of luxuries rather than necessities, and if they be- 

 come unobtainable no suffering need arise. Such an article which 

 comes to mind is the rubber sponge, which has achieved a con- 

 siderable degree of popularity in Great Britain and is one of 

 the very few rubber goods for which we are dependent upon 

 foreign countries. The Russian-American Rubber Co.. of 

 Petrograd, was the original maker and doubtless is still the largest 

 producer of the best article. Despite numerous attempts to solve 

 the mystery of manufacture, no British rubber firm has yet 

 succeeded in making a colorable imitation of the Russian sponge, 

 the main difficulty being the particular volatile constituent which 

 causes the intumescence, ammonium carbonate not being satis- 

 factory for the purpose. Others, however, have been more suc- 

 cessful than ourselves, and sponges are now being made by 

 one works in America and by the Hannover Gummi Karam Co. 

 and by another concern in Germany. 



During the last decade the few British firms specializing in 

 surgical rubber goods have had to meet a good deal of com- 

 pel h ion from abroad. Complaints as to quality have been by no 

 means uncommon, but the purchasers have had the remedy in 

 their own hands by buying the higher priced British goods. At 

 the moment, of course, they are compelled to do this. As regards 

 vulcanite, which has always come largely from the Continent, 

 considerable progress has been made of late years in the home 

 production of many classes of vulcanite goods, and naturally the 

 present state of affairs has given a great fillip to this branch. 

 It remains, however, to be seen whether the present advantage 

 will be fully retained in the future, as the conditions for polish- 

 ing goods in the workmen's homes do not obtain here as in 

 Germany. 



HIE RUBBER CHEMICA1 MARK] I 

 I have read with interest the paragraph in the September issue 

 of The India Rubber World dealing with the rubber chemical 

 position In America. With regard to oxide of zinc, I note that 

 America imports a good deal from Belgium. In some recent 

 correspondence I referred to the probability of American zinc 

 oxide coming to England. I find, however, that this has already- 

 been the case for some years, owing to an advantage in price. 

 It is a fact that the American product is not considered quite 

 equal to the Belgian — more commonly known in the trade as 

 French — and it is not used for the very best work. The defect 

 appears to be a trace of lead, which leaves black spots after 

 vulcanization. The Belgian zinc oxide is prepared by burning 

 the metallic zinc and is quite free from lead compounds. 

 Presumably the position is the same in America, the Belgian 

 oxide being imported for the best work. Whiting and chalk, in 

 the article under notice, appear to be somewhat mixed. If 

 the chalk referred to is produced in England it must be whiting, 

 which is put under a separate heading. In the British rubber 

 trade chalk always means "French chalk," silicate of magnesia, 

 which comes mostlv from Italy, while the real chalk, carbonate 



