HOSE FOR CONDUCTING LIQUIDS OR GASES.

SUMMARY.

Hose used to conduct liquids or gases is mainly of cotton with a rubber lining; a smaller amount, made of flax, hemp, ramie, and jute, is used only in negligible quantities.

The United States is the largest producer and consumer of this type of hose. It is probably also the largest exporter. Prior to 1918 imports were negligible; since then they have increased. The increase has been largely due to the fact that the high price of flax yarns destroyed the differential provided in the act of 1913 between the ad valorem rate on the yarns from which the hose is made and the specific duty on the finished hose. Imports have been almost entirely of linen hose.

During the fiscal year 1922 hydraulic or flume hose imported for consumption totaled 81,609 pounds, valued at $112,668, or $1.38 per pound, as against exports1 valued at $1,150,657, quantity not stated.

GENERAL INFORMATION.

TARIFF ACT OF OCTOBER 3, 1913.

Par. 274. Hydraulic or flume hose, made in whole or in part of cotton, hemp, ramie, or jute, 7 cents per pound.

DESCRIPTION AND USES.

Hose is a term employed to designate flexible tubing used for conveying fluids or air and other gases. Its important uses are for fire protection and as an item of equipment in every plant where water, steam, gas, oil, or other fluids are conveyed from point to point.

2

So varied are the uses of hose in industry that over 40 different types are produced, the most common being water, fire, garden, pneumatic, air-brake, and air-drill hose. Although a number of different kinds of material are used in the manufacture of hose, that made of fabric and rubber in various combinations is the most extensively used.

"Hydraulic or flume hose," specifically mentioned in the tariff acts of 1909 and 1913, is the only type of fabric hose suitable for conducting water, all other types with the exception of flexible metal tubing being provided for under general or catch-all paragraphs. Other types are in chief value of leather; of leather with metal rivets and couplings; or of rubber not made in whole or in part of cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, or jute. The last class was dutiable under the general paragraph relating to manufactures of rubber.

1 The classification covering these exports is "India-rubber, manufactures of-hose." ■"Water hose" is a restrictive term referring to a certain type of hose used to convey water. The term "water hose” does not include fire hose or unlined cotton anddinen hose.

The common varieties of hose used to convey water may be grouped, according to the materials used in their construction, into three general classes:

1. Rubber hose.

2. Unlined linen hose.

3. Unlined cotton hose.

1. Rubber hose is constructed of a rubber tube surrounded by a fabric covering. The great variety of uses to which it may be put, added to the fact that it canʼstand harder wear than any other type, makes it the most popular medium for conducting water, Rubber hose is ordinarily made and sold in this country in lengths of 50 feet, the sizes being indicated by internal diameters, expressed in inches. It may range in size from inch to 12 inches, and in the number of plies from one to six, according to the use for which it is intended. The principal size, 24 inches, is extensively used for fire-protection purposes.

The chief types of rubber hose are:

a. Cotton rubber-lined hose.-This type, consisting of a rubber tube surrounded by a tubular woven cotton jacket, is employed where high pressures are to be encountered and where light-weight hose is desired. The cotton jacket strengthens the hose and the rubber tube or lining prevents leakage.

Cotton rubber-lined hose, though largely used for fire-fighting purposes, is also made in smaller sizes for garden and other light uses. The size 2 inches, internal diameter, is most commonly used for fire service; sizes below 1 inch are for garden purposes.

b. Wrapped duck.-This type is made by surrounding a rubber tube with windings or plies of fabric, which has previously been coated with as much rubber as the fabric would hold. The chief advantage of wrapped duck hose is that its diameter may be of any size.

c. Braided hose. In this type of rubber hose the rubber tube is covered by plies of braided cotton threads. Its chief advantages are that it can be made in any length desired, limited only by the facilities of the factory; that its construction calls for a minimum of machinery; and that when in service, it suffers less from kinking than any other type of hose.

2. Unlined linen hose.-This kind of hose, usually made of flax line yarn and, under normal conditions only to a limited degree of flax tow yarn or of hemp yarn, is employed to convey water under pressure without excessive leakage. Flax line yarn is made from selected flax fibers, whereas flax tow yarn consists of the fibers that remain, together with some woody fiber or shives, after the better flax has been removed. Owing to the fact that unlined linen hose is not able to withstand frequent service, and is, therefore, not suitable where the fabric will be subject to chafing or to rough or sharp surfaces, and that it does not properly adhere to rubber, its chief use is for indoor emergency fire-protective purposes. The principal size constructed is 2 inches, though the 14-inch size, because of its comparative lightness and the ease with which it can be handled is gaining in popularity.

3. Unlined cotton hose.-This type of hose, of which there is comparatively little made, is sometimes employed where considerable quantities of water are to be conducted under little pressure, as in mining and railroad work. As it leaks to a considerable degree, it

is rarely used for fire-protection purposes. In size this type of hose ranges from 3 to 12 inches.

DOMESTIC PRODUCTION.

In 1914 there were 11 establishments manufacturing rubber hose as their chief product and 7 others that reported it among their other products. In 1919, 7 establishments produced rubber hose as a chief product and 20 establishments reported it as a subsidiary product. The value of the rubber hose produced by the 27 establishments in 1919 was $26,998,292, as against $16,853,693 produced by the 18 establishments in 1914.

There were 5 establishments in 1914 and 4 in 1919 making woven hose. The 5 establishments in 1914 were capitalized at $339,000, employed 114 wage earners, and had a product valued at $477,000. The 4 establishments in 1919 were capitalized at $4,258,000, employed 379 wage earners, and had a product valued at $3,344,000. Materials. Crude rubber, cotton yarn, flax line yarn, and, to a limited extent, flax tow yarn, are the chief raw materials entering into the production of hose manufactured to convey water. Hemp, ramie, and jute do not enter to any appreciable extent into the production of hose.

a. Rubber. During the years 1913-1917 domestic consumption of crude rubber, which is admitted free of duty, increased from about 50,000 tons to 175,000 tons, or from 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the world's consumption. The British and Dutch East Indies supplied 63 per cent of the crude rubber imported into the United States in 1917 and 77 per cent of that imported in 1921.

b. Cotton yarn. Because of its cheapness, great tensile strength, and its superior adhesion to rubber, cotton is the most popular fabric used in the making of rubber hose.

Sea-island cotton, because of its strength, is the preferred material for hose, but aside from its relatively high price it is not available because of limited production. Long-staple American cottons are used in large quantities, together with an appreciable amount of imported Egyptian. All of the cotton yarn employed is spun in the United States. No. 12 cotton yarn is the chief size used in the production of rubber hose.

c. Flax yarn. Because linen does not adhere closely to rubber, its use is chiefly restricted to unlined hose. The flax yarns used for hose purposes range in the main from 15 to 20 lea. These are mostly imported. During the war emergency, however, linen yarns as coarse as 10 lea were employed. Yarn made of domestic flax is not used for hose-making; the supply is small and it is said that the domestic method of retting the flax makes a fiber inferior to that made in Europe.1

8 This does not include the woven hose produced by establishments engaged primarily in the manufacture of rubber and leather belting and hose or in the manufacture of awnings, tents, and sails.

• Retting (rotting) the vegetable gum which holds the fiber and the woody material together is carried on in Europe by soaking the flax straw in water in rivers or in stagnant pools, or else by scattering it on the ground and leaving it to the action of dew and sun. Only to a very limited extent is chemical retting employed-a process of subjecting the flax straw to chemicals, which shortens the time of fermentation and eliminates a great deal of hard labor. In the United States chemical retting is essential to overcome labor difficulties, but this process has not as yet been perfected and the fiber produced is considered inferior to that obtained by natural methods, usually being harsher and weaker.

The flax from which the yarn is produced has in the past been chiefly of Russian production. Prior to 1914 Russia produced about 85 per cent of the flax fiber of the world, and was the only country in which the production of flax fiber was increasing substantially. Nearly all of the flax yarn imported comes from the United Kingdom, chiefly from Belfast, Ireland, and Dundee, Scotland.

The yarn is for the most part imported in the single, and is subsequently doubled and twisted into threads of the required size_and strength, the yarn as used ranging from 2 to 16 ply. It has been imported in the single mainly to avoid paying the higher duty on "threads, twines, or cords of flax.

Flax yarns for hose making are first freed of vegetable gums by being boiled in an alkaline solution.5

Previous to 1917 flax tow yarn was not extensively used as a substitute for line yarn in the production of linen hose. Of the total production in 1918, however, about two-thirds was made of flax tow and hemp yarn, principally of the former. In 1919 about half was flax line and half flax tow and hemp.

Although both flax line yarn and tow yarn make good hose, that produced from line is the more durable. Hose made of flax line has also greater durability than that produced from hemp line.

d. Hemp yarn.-As hemp does not combine well with rubber, because of its lack of elasticity, its use is confined to unlined hose. Under normal conditions very little hemp yarn is used in unlined hose. The British embargo on flax yarns in 1917 and 1918 caused the American manufacturers of hose to resort to the use of domestic hemp yarn as a substitute.

The American manufacturer, aside from being dependent on Europe for linen yarn, labors under no disadvantage in procuring supplies of raw materials adequate for his needs. During the years 1913– 1921 the price of crude rubber fell because production continually kept ahead of consumption.

In the matter of obtaining cotton yarn for rubber hose and unlined cotton hose, the American producer has an advantage in that 99 per cent of the cotton yarn consumed in this country is of domestic production.

Domestic manufacturers of unlined linen hose have always been dependent, however, on Great Britain for their supply of linen yarn. This was recently shown by the curtailment of their production following the establishment of the British embargo on flax yarns in 1917 and 1918. The production of fiber flax in this country previous to 1914 showed a steady decline. In the period 1910–1913 annual imports averaged 10,939 tons, or over 95 per cent of the total consumption of the United States. Though under the influence of the war the acreage devoted to the raising of domestic flax fiber increased from 1,000 to 4,200 acres, the American manufacturer of hose preferred to use imported flax tow and domestic hemp yarn to the yarn produced from domestic flax. The chief handicap to the more extensive production of flax in this country, under normal conditions, has been the fact that it can not compete with our standard agricultural crops, which permit of a greater use of machinery and which demand a far less amount of trained yet tedious hand labor. The

5 Underwriters' Laboratories specifications for unlined linen hose.