7) 
other countries. Practically every marine engineer in the United 
Kingdom insists on ‘a different colour being given to the rubber 
used in packing the joints of engines. About 50 different sizes 
of belts are in use in the United Kingdom for driving motor cars, 
all within a millimetre of one another in size and, similarly little 
difference in shape. An analysis of the catalogues of four firms in 
the United States revealed that the number of varieties of rubber 
boots and shoes exceeded 77,000.* This enormous number relates 
bo pairs, ignoring the difference in shape between right and left 
boots or shoes. 
Functions 
of rubber 
industry, 
Standard- 
isation in 
the United 
Kingdom. 
125. Any - generalisation, however, regarding standardisation 
in the rubber manufacturing industry must be modified by very 
careful consideration of the different classes of goods manufactured 
and the purposes they serve. The functions of the rubber manu- 
facturing industry: may be divided into three main classes. 
namely :— 
(a) service to other industries and trades; 
(b) production of finished articles, like boots and shoes, some 
sports goods and surgical goods, in regard to which manu- 
facturers’ brands and trade names are being established ; and 
(¢) production of cables and thread (or elastic), where the 
rubber is only a portion of another manufactured article. 
While it is true, therefore, that possibilities exist for a greater 
measure of uniformity of practice in many directions, and that, in 
the past, unrestricted competition has done considerable damage, 
by tending to reduce the level of quality, it is necessary to proceed 
carefully in-'the matter of standardisation, for with a material 
such as rubber, which is put to a great many uses, too wide 
standardisation may do more harm than good. 
126. The problem of standardisation has not been overlooked by 
the manufacturers in the United Kingdom. There is, at the 
present time, a distinct movement in the industry towards stan- 
dardisation of the manufactured articles produced and towards a 
reduction in the number of varieties of the same kinds of articles 
manufactured. Recently, at the request of the India Rubber 
Manufacturers Association, the British Engineering Standards 
Association has prepared a specification for machinery belting. The 
result of the adoption of this specification has been that rubber 
transmission belting has already become superior in quality to that 
obtainable before the negotiations began some two years ago, and 
is rapidly superseding, so far as transmission drive is concerned, 
other makes of belting which are used as alternatives to leather. 
The trade association concerned, in conjunction with the Rubber 
Research Association of British Rubber Manufacturers is at the 
* «The.Reign of Rubber,” by N. C. Geer, 1922.