95 



ELECTRICAL TAPPING OF RUBBER TREES. 



According to The hidia Rubber JVorld of Xew York, there 

 appears a possibility of the old system of rubber tapping, which 

 has existed for nobody knows how many centuries, being super- 

 seded by a new invention of a German scientist,' jMr. George M. 

 von Hassel, who has been employed for many years by the Peru- 

 vian Government to explore the resources of its rubber territory. 

 This gentleman, says our contemporary, who is a civil engineer 

 by profession, has devised a method of extracting rubber from 

 the tree wdiich, if not instantaneous, is at least rapid and effi- 

 cacious in its operation, and if it works out in practice as it has 

 given promise of doing in the various tests to which the process 

 has been subjected, it may probably be adopted. Here, briefly, 

 is the apparatus that he has devised : He places upon the trunk 

 of the rubber tree a piece of sheet iron about five feet long, five 

 inches wide, with the two sides folded back against the tree to a 

 thickness of about two inches, constituting a hollow channel of 

 sheet iron. This hollow channel is divided into a series of fifteen 

 to thirty sections ; the number of sections depends upon the 

 number of days the apparatus shall be worked. Each section has 

 a mechanism for the extraction of the latex from the rubber tree 

 and a receptacle for receiving the flow, which also contains a 

 preparation for the coagulation of the latex. When working- 

 Hancornia and Castilloa trees, plates provided with longitudinal 

 canals are used instead of the receptacles for gathering the latex, 

 and the product thus obtained is known as "Sernamby." This 

 product is gained in the form of threads without the aid of acids 

 or other chemical substances. 



The method of operating is as follows : This channel of sheet 

 iron, with the above described mechanism and receptacles, is 

 fastened against the rubber trees. If it is a small tree there will 

 be two of these devices ; if it is a large tree, there may be as many 

 as nine circling the tree and about a hand span apart. This ap- 

 paratus is connected by an insulated wire with a central station 

 which is equipped with electric power. A machine devised by 

 the inventor makes it possible to send the electric current so that 

 it will set the first section in motion. The latex then oozes out 

 and flows into the receptacle immediately beneath. In the recep- 

 tacle there is an acid preparation that coagulates the latex, con- 

 verting it into rubber. The next day or preferably forty-eight 

 hours later, the current is turned on again afifecting the second 

 section, which in turn pricks the tree, bringing forth the latex, 

 which drips into the second cup and is there similarly coagulated. 

 After another interval of two days, the third section is set in 

 motion, and so on for the fifteen to thirty sections, which are op- 

 erated from the central station, tapping the tree and filling the 

 receptacles with rubber. It is not necessary to examine the tree 

 until the expiration of sixty days, when a handful of rubber will 



