\l w 11 1. 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



347 



The India Rubber Trade in Great Britain. 



By Our Re ' ndent. 



THE general position remains much as it has been for the 

 four or five months— exceptional activity with n 

 to military requirements for the Briti h Forces and their 

 allies, with a slackness in respect to general mechanical and 

 sporting requisites. As no doubt the arrangements come to 

 wiih regard to the raising of the embargo on the export of 

 British rubber to America have been closely followed in the 

 United Slates, any detailed account in these notes would be lack- 

 ing in news interest by the time of publication, and I shall there- 

 fore ; bstain from more than a word or two. That the general 

 trade o 1 America as well as the rubber trade in particular has 

 suffered by the war is no doubt a fact, but what other country 

 i if any importance has not also suffered, and without the com- 

 pensation of booking large orders for warlike material. The 

 number of American business men taking orders from the differ- 

 ent belligerents has been quite a feature of London hotel life. 

 With regard to the special committee of three which has been 

 appointed by the government to deal with all matters concern- 

 ing the export of rubber to America, viz., Lord Balfour of Bur- 

 leigh, Mr. Russell Rea, M. P., and Mr. Henry Birchenough, 

 none of them can claim to bring any expert knowledge of rub- 

 ber to bear upon their duties, though I do not wish to make 

 any reflection upon their general fitness for their task. Lord 

 Balfour — whose eldest son, the Master of Burleigh, has been 

 killed at the front — is a statesman of considerable experience on 

 departmental government committees. Mr. Russell Rea, who is 

 a coal factor of prominence, served as chairman of the depart- 

 mental committee on the Colliers' Eight Hour Bill, while Br. 

 Birchenough is a lawyer who has made a name for himself. The 

 existence of this committee should do a good deal to reduce the 

 expenditure of time formerly required in applying to the various 

 authorities for permission to get rubber off to America under 

 the new regulation. With regard to the shipment of rubber 

 goods, al! of which are conditional contraband, to neutral coun- 

 tries or British dependencies, manufacturers complain a good 

 deal of the vexatious delays which occur in getting the neces- 

 sary permits, such delays frequently causing steamer sailings 

 to be missed. More especially is the delay resented in the case 

 of small amounts of goods which could be of no possible use 

 for purposes of war. 



A record tender for 2,000.000 ground sheets was recently be- 

 fore the already busy British rubber trade. Naturally this was 

 apportioned between a number of works, one of the largest re- 

 cipients being Charles Macintosh & Co., of Manchester, 

 i 1 .UK TYRE CO. LIMITED. 



As some misunderstanding exists with regard to the position 

 of this company, which has recently fitted up rubber mills at 

 Crayford, in Kent, I may say that a special resolution has been 

 passed for a voluntary winding up, after which the company 

 will be re-formed to carry on business in the manufacture of 

 the pneumatic tire brought out by Mr. Clark when living in 

 Australia. The difficulty that arose in the management was due 

 to the holdings of those of foreign extraction, cases of the sort 

 havinc. been not uncommon since the commencement of Euro- 

 pean hostilities. 



WATERPROOF FOOTWEAR FOR THE TRENCHES. 



It will be known to all newspaper readers that the war during 

 the winter has been largely one of entrenchment, though, as our 

 tax papers show, by no means of retrenchment. Discomfort 

 would be a very mild expression for what the soldiers have ex- 

 perienced in standing in water, mud or snow, and it is not sur- 



prising that leather footwear has been rapidly ruined and that 

 many eases of frostbite have occurred For some time nothing 

 was done in the way of supplying rubber boots to the men, 

 though many letters urging this course appeared in the press. 



More recently, however, two been made. In the 



first place purchases of rubber boots were made from British 

 makers, and doubtless from American supplies in London, and 

 in the middle of January a large consignment of rubber boots 

 arrived in England from Canada for transshipment to Prance. 

 In the second place, what is called a wader stocking, to be worn 

 insidj leather boots, has been largely contracted for by the War 

 Office. This article is quite a novel one, being the invention of 

 .Mr. F. C. Behr, well known in connection with monorail trans- 

 port. Trenches have been dug near London arid the efficacy of 

 the new stocking proved in immersions of 14 to 20 hours dura- 

 tion. What the waterproofing consists of I have no reliable in 

 formation but have reason to suppose that it is not rubber but 

 wax, on the lines of the new waterproof capes lately brought 

 out. With regard to the suitability of rubber boots for contin- 

 ii' us wear there is a good deal of doubt in England, and in the 

 army they have only been used by officers for early morning 

 "stables," etc. Those, however, who can testify to their regular 

 use by lumbermen and others in Canada combat the idea of un- 

 healthiness especially if the boots have a fibrous lining and are 

 not too tight a tit. With regard to the shipment from Canada 

 mentioned above, it is no doubt a safe surmise that much of it 

 was made in the United States, seeing that the United Stales 

 Rubber Co. has such a large interest in an important Canadian 

 rubber shoe works. 



SOLYKNT NAPHTH V 

 Despite the large demand from spreaders, it is only quite re- 

 cently that there has been any appreciable rise in price and in 

 all probability this will not be permanent. The general situa- 

 tion with regard to tar distillation products is now largely con 

 trolled by the War Office Committee on the Supply of High Ex- 

 plosives, with which Lord Moulton. the scientific judge of the 

 Appeal Court, is prominently identified. Not only naphtha dis- 

 tillation works but also collieries recovering tar and bonzole 

 from coking plants have come under his close attention, and no 

 product containing toluol can be sold generally without a spe- 

 cial permit. Toluol of course is required for the manufacture 

 of dinitro and trinitro toluol, so largely used nowadays in high 

 explosives. Solvent naphtha consists mainly, and at the present 

 time no doubt entirely, of the higher boiling hydrocarbon xylol, 

 and as this must be produced in the distillation process and as 

 it i- not required for explosives, there is no reason to appre- 

 an shortage. 



FORTHCOMING MANCHESTER MOTOR SHOW. 

 Although there is a pretty general consensus of feeling amongst 

 engineers as to the undesirability of holding shows at the present 

 time, it is announced that the North of England Motor Shows, 

 Limited, are promoting an exhibition to be held in Manchester in 

 April, to include motor cars, light cars, motorcycles, commer- 

 cial vehicles, tires and accessories. It should be said that this 

 show has nothing to do with the Society of Motor Manufactur- 

 er- and Trades, who have abandoned their customary show- in 

 London and Manchester. In connection with this matter the 

 "Engineer," of London, remarks that the show can hardly ex- 

 pect to be representative of the motor industry of today as the 

 trade is in no mood for this method of publicity. There are few 

 new models to be introduced by leading British makers, while 



