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.