THREE VITAL PRODUCTS

Evening Star, Issue 23882, 12 May 1941, Page 8

THREE VITAL PRODUCTS

SHELLAC, ASBESTOS, AND MICA BRITAIN CONTROLS MAJOR SOURCES This is the story of three raw materials —two minerals and a form of resin—that play an important part in the war and fight on the side of the British Commonwealth and its Allies, because the British Commonwealth controls the major part of their sources (writes V. S. Swaminathan, in the ‘ Australian Traveller.’ Oil, iron ore, steel-hardening minerals, copper, aluminium, and rubber—everyone knows those are important in modern mechanised war. Not everyone knows the importance of mica, shellac, and asbestos; but those three are practically indispensable. The British Empire is generously endowed with all these three key commodities. British India dominates the world mica market; shellac is virtually an Indian monopoly; and all foreign countries barring Russia depend to a varying degree upon the Empire countries for their asbestos. The United States depends mainly upon British Empire sources for her supplies of all three of these strategic commodities, and her purchases of them enrich the: Empire dollar pool. Germany and Italy are virtually bare of these products, and Europe as a whole is a heavy importer of them. MICA ESSENTIAL. The extent to which the electrical industry and all others incorporating electrical apparatus depend upon mica insulation was revealed during the last war. Then, the American industry could obtain sufficient supplies only by negotiations with Britain, since India controlled, and still does, 80 per cent, of the world’s supply of the mineral. Among the appliances in which mica is most widely used are electrical generators and their power distributing agents transformers and motors. Sparking plugs, radio valves, . condensers, and telephones all employ it as insulator. Sheet mica is used in electric furnace peepholes, goggles, and washers. Mica answering these requirements occurs only in limited quantities and relatively few places in the world, India being the chief source. Also, India is one of the few countries where skilled labour is cheap enough to enable the mica to be split up into thin sheets from which built-up mica or micanite is made. Other main producers are Canada, Rhodesia, Tanganyika, South Africa, Madagascar, the United States, Brazil, Argentine, and Scandinavia. Those producers, however, have little significance in international trade, except for Canada. GERMANY’S POWER NEEDS. The industrial production of Germany and Italy depends largely on electricity, and Nazi-dominated Europe needs more mica than ever before. There is a great shortage of power in Nazi Germany due to enormous demands for munitions and for ersatz products, and owing also to the exhaustion of reserves. Moreover, the enemy power stations have figured frequently as targets of R.A.F. attack. The dearth of mica in Europe is such that an annual output of 200 tons would severely strain the resources of the entire continent. And Russia is deficient in mica. The Allied blockade is preventing the entry of the commodity from the neutral countries of the New World and Madagascar into Europe. SHELLAC AND ITS USES. India accounts for 90 per cent, of the lac of commerce. Lac, from which shellac is made, is a secretion formed by insects feeding on certain trees. It takes nearly 150,000 insects to make enough lac to yield one pound of shellac. The bulk of lac production in India is carried on by the peasants as a cottage industry. Since large quantities of crude sticklac are customarily carried forward from year to year, Indian lac exports are easily expanded by 20 per cent, in an emergency. The lac- output of Burma and Thailand finds its way into India via Rangoon, Bangkok, and Singapore. This amounts only to some 5 per cent, of the world production. Before the war, the gramophone record industry was the largest user of the commodity. Protective and insulating coatings are applied with lac both in alcoholic and alkaline solutions. Though-readily soluble in alcohol, lac resin is insoluble in petrol, which- is why it is used to line tankers and oil reservoirs. , India’s exports of shellac and other lac products for the fiscal years 1936-37 and 1937-38 totalled 833,964 cwt and 665,171 cwt respectively. In the same two years, Germany took 50,345 cwt and 49,516 cwt. Now, the Third Reich and Italy must rely on more expensive synthetic plastics, which are at best only partially satisfactory substitutes for natural resins in the varnish industry and as insulating material in electrical industry, while the Allies have ample and dependable supplies of the genuine thing. i ASBESTOS HAS IMPORTANT PLACE. A wide range of industries supplying the war machine and civil defence find asbestos_ of great value. Apart from its use in brake hands and clutch facings, packings and gaskets of which asbestos is an essential item are vital to steam, compressed air, and certain other types of machinery, asbestos yarn is employed for insulating electric wires. Also, it is woven into fire-proof clothing, blankets for smothering fires, aprons, leggings, and overalls for use in steel works, in welding, in shipyards, and in metal, glass, and pottery industries. In chemical works, asbestos is used in acid-resist-ing packings and joints and for filters. Snuffers and other devices to prevent the spread of fire from incendiary bombs are made of asbestos. No satisfactory substitute has been devised matching this natural mineral fibre in fineness, strength, or flexibility, or in its fireproof and acid-resisting quahThe Empire countries increased their output of asbestos from 166,000 metric tons in 1913 to 462,000 tons in 1937, accounting in the latter year for 77 per cent, of the world production. The countries concerned are Canada, Southern Rhodesia, South Africa, and Cyprus. In 1937, the United States imported for consumption 274,000 toils of asbestos, mainly from Canada, Cyprus, Russia, and Africa; Germany imported .24,000 tons. France 18,000 tons, and Italy 13,000 tons. , Russia produces asbestos, but not enough for Europe’s needs, since her own consumption and her exports to the United States are increasing. The other European producers, Finland, Czecho-Slovakia, and Italy have a combined output of 12,000 tons—in-

sufficient to satisfy even Italy’s peacetime needs. The Axis Powers will shortly find themselves short of yet another commodity with unique properties and vital industrial applications, thanks to the British blockade.