TRADE TOPICS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14987, 6 June 1914, Page 6

TRADE TOPICS.

(fkom our own LONDON, April 29. THE TWO-POUND LOAF. A Select Committee is enquirin, whether any steps should be taken t protect purchasers or braid and o goods sold in packages against" shor weight or measure. The Deputy War clen of tho Standards, in giving ,cvi dence on behalf of the Board of Trade . aid that one of the suggestions whic! had been made with the object of pre venting short weight was that good sold by retail should be required to b xiid by not weight; but a probable re suit of such a requirement would h chat several classes of goods would b< packages without the weight bcini itaiea. Experience showed that then ,wis generally a deficiency of about ! per oeut. iv the "quantity of tea ii packages when the sale was by gros »veigiic. It would be to have i stauaard description of paper used foi packing tea. With reference to th< .sale of bread an important question o! principle was whether the purchaser ol a loaf should not be entitled to receive a definite minimum weight. Notice! were frequently used by bakers stating that the loaves sold by them were guaranteed to weigh lib 12oa or lib -3os :-ach, and. although it was recoyjnisee that in baking some loaves lost more m weight than others did, it was cer;ain that a loaf could be guaranteed tc weigh 2ib just as well as it could be guaranteed to weigh 3oz loss. Tho deiciency was sometimes as much as shree ounces. OIL FROM INDIAN SEAS. Tho Madras Government Fishery Department is establishing a local indus-Li-y to extract oil ironT fish caught in the Indian Ocean. Now some.forty or fifty small faetorio-5 are at work producing oil in Malabar and South Canara. and factories are to be started in Cochin and Trarancore. Besides the j oil, there is a valuable by-product obtained —that of guano—from the residue left after tho oil is extracted. Tho crude oil fetches some 10 guineas per ton of about 250 gallons at the factory, tho middleman supplying the casks and bearing tho cost of transport. The guano realises about £4, 10s per ton. Che method of production is extremely simple. The fish aro boiled in open pans holding from one-half to twothirds of a ton, and the resulting mass is p-iaced-in coarse bags and pressed in simple screw presses. The oil,exudes and is collected, and the prassod cakes of guano ara broken uo and put in the ran bo dry. Samples of the fish oil have been tested at the Imperial Institute, and pronounced suitable for tho purpose for which cod oil is generally used—leather- dressing and, to a smaller extent, soft «?oap manufacture, the tempering of steel, and admixture with paint oils.

TO PURIFY CLAY. An electrical device for tho purification of clay is announced. - In the new process the paste, to which is added a small quantity of electrolyte, is run through a machine, which consists of a wi-circular trough., in the centre of tvhich is a revolving metallic drnm, which is connected with ouo of the oolos of the battery or dynamo. Under this drum about half an inch distant, is a wire screen, which is connected with the otner pole. The paste thus has a current of from 60 to 100 volts, i passed through it. By this treatment I

'he pure clay substance collects on the slowly revolving drum, which is tho ruiodo, and the impurities attach to the screen, from which they are removed by a continuous worm. As the inner drum rotates slowly tho pure clay • ises to the top in the form of a continuous blanket about a yard and a nnlf wide, and a quarter of an inch think. In many rases tho yield of purited clay is greatly increased, and tho i-rte taken is much lees than by the old method. . ENGLISH PORT. «A ,J ? rc "o ouantity of spurious wire is made in London and designated "port." t , s £- xt has never }}6en near Porwhen used b- themselves, denote a fortified wine of a particular typo and having particular characteristics as to swoet-ess. colour, and bououet. made trom fresh grapes grown hi Portugal and shipped from Oporto. Tho ports" are nearly all made in London from dried currants or raisins together with a certain amount of real port wine. By so doing the mannfaeturere avoid the payment of import duties. The imnorters of genuine port wine fcfaam

that this competition is a hardship ospeciallv when the British wire is sold in battles bearing Tabels such as "port" or "hne .old p?»~f." It i s admitted that tfi3 British product is wine, and in some r-ases good wine, but it is not "port wi-e. 'and the importers of the latter state that they aro determined to nut ftp end to the sale of substitutes as Genuine port. LIRGE PEARS. A small consignment of pears o' un- ; usual size is among the latest impo-ta-hon of fruit from South Africa. The ; nears. which are finding a ready sale aro in two varieties. One is ' the Duchosso d'Argentiro, a pear which in shape closely resembles an apple, is

gr.jen m colour, and weieVe roarlv a pound Tho other is tho Beurre Bosc. rusty brown in colour and taperine to a fino poirt at the stem. The bi>? end of this pear when measured w.-w 102 in round, and the whole length 6Jin. FALSE LABELS. Efforts are to be taken to stop the use of fictitious British and French names which constitute a false description of origin, in the South American trade Label makers are requested to execute orders for labels bearing such indications .is "Smith. Resent street " "Brown, Pi?eadil!y," "Suszanno Rue do la Paix, Paris," when thero is every reason to believe that tho coods to whhh tho labels aro destined are neither English in the one case nor French in tho other. In cases whoro thov know tho fancy name employed to bo that of a really cxistira: house some firms refuse to exeruto the order, as thov do not want to be drs?wn into an action for infringement, but. when tho name is fictitious, it is very difficult for them to refuse and thus offerd customers. It is stated that years a<*o, the class of fraudulent merchant, ordering such marks, was co-tent with a simnle phrase, such as "Latest Fashion" or "Mode do Park." but tbop© phrases _ have now boon fraudulently uued for so lone and in such a wholesale way that they havo lost all their efficacy. "LINEN" COLLARS. A Pimlico firm has been heavily fined ot the irstanco of the Irish Department of Agriculture for applying a false trade description to cotcon goods, and soiling goods to which such description is applied. The manager said if a woman ] wanted a stiff collar ahe usually said j liaon, but he had never known a cus- ! tomer to ear, "Are these all linen?" If tho question was asked thoy would say "No." Ho admitted that he put the tickets on tho collars in the window. The owner of tho shop said tho only reason ho could give for the sale of those goods was that during tho forty -ears he had been a draper these things bad been known as linen collars. It was a trade term and a very old trade custom. CELLULOID DANGERS. By applying the _n_*uideriue end of a cigarette to a fancy comb Professor Vivian Lewis was- abio to illustrato to the members of the Select Committee of the House of Commons the dangers that are liable to arise from the use in various ways of celluloid. As the result of tho contact between the lighted cigarette and the comb fumes were given off, wjiicn, the Professor explained, con- ■ tamed a large percentage of the ex> ceediEgly pououous and nighlv inflammable carbon monoxide. a lighted match was next applied to the pierce of • comb, and when the temperature wa,« '

increased to .such a degree aa to cause, combustion, a fierce flame was produced.-i These experiments indicated therefore that there is a dual means of combustion in the case of celluloid, by fuming at the lower temperature and by fianK ing at the higher. When tho point is reached at which the gases ignite the fire becomes practically uncontrollable. The committee were also informed that the lire dancer of celluloid is in tha ratio of its weight to its surface. For instance, a wound of celluloid would represent about 200 ft of film, and if this wero suspended in a repairing room ifc would present close on 6000 sonar© inches of exposed surface. On tho other hand, a pound of celluloid in the form of knife handle* would expose a surface of less than a hnndred SQuare inches. So that a pound of celluloid in the form of film was something lik ß sixty times more dangerous than B nourd of collul__J in the form of knife handles.