SECTION IX. THE EVOLUTION OF THE 

 GELATINE AND GLUE INDUSTRY 



THE manufacture of gelatine and allied products has received 

 a great stimulus in this country from the circumstances 

 arising from the European War. The large restriction of 

 continental especially French and Belgian supplies of gela- 

 tine, led to greater demands for the British-made product, 

 and resulted not merely in a period of greater prosperity, 

 but in a period in which much greater efforts were made to 

 supply a high-grade article in larger quantities. Most 

 manufacturers strove to make high-class gelatine rather than 

 low-grade glue, great extensions were made, and many new 

 businesses were established. The development of the leather 

 trades, more particularly in respect of greater production, 

 caused a bigger supply of raw material for skin gelatine, 

 and the slaughter of home animals for food caused a more 

 plentiful supply of bones. At the same time it was realized 

 that greater production not only reduced working costs, 

 but also that a bigger turnover in any one factory involved 

 a proportionately less capital outlay. These facts tend 

 to counterbalance the heavy freight on the raw materials. 

 Production is thus not only on a larger scale but more 

 intensive. 



One of the greatest difficulties of this industry is to 

 produce a regular or standard article, for the raw material 

 is so exceedingly variable in quality ; that for skin gelatine 

 tends also to become less valuable. In such a case, as 

 Rideal has truly remarked, to ensure that supplies to customers 

 shall be always "up to sample," which is often a matter 



