AGKICULTUKAL BULLCTIFS 



OF THE 



5TKAiT5 



AND 



rERERATED HIALAy 5TATE5. 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTANICAl 



GARDEN. 



No. 4.1 



APRIL, 1912. 



I Vol. 1 



NOTES FOR A DEMONSTRATION CONCERN- 

 ING THE IMPROVEMENTS IN, OR RELATING 

 TO, THE CURING OF PARA RUBBER. 



(PATENTED). 



1. This invention relates to improvements in the curing of Para 

 Rubber and refers more paitii ularly to apparatus fcjr calculating 

 and curing the latex of Para Rubber knov/n as Hevea Braziliensis. 



2. It is an anti-metal process and as will be apparent, the appa- 

 ratus has been designed to accommodate the process of coagulating 

 latex as it is brought from trees, without the addition of chemicals. 

 In this first respect the process differs from all others that obtain, 

 viz : — the machinery or apparatus has been riiodified so as to coagulate 

 latex direct and not latex treated or tnanipulated to suit the machine. 



3. At the time of the first Rubber Exhibition held at Olympia,. 

 London, I inquired of some of the leading manufacturers (the real 

 masters of the rubber market) what they wanted from Plantation 

 rubber and wherein it differed from fine hard Para. Plantation rubber 

 was considered softer ; the addition of chemicals was disliked; and 

 there was serious objection to variation in the character of the rubber. 

 Not only did the rubber from different estates vary from one another 

 but even from any one estate there was considerable want of uni- 

 formity. What manufacturers retiuired was "latex as it came from 

 the tree, cured by smoke as was done in Brazil, without the aid of 

 chemicals." 



4. It is not asserted by manufacturers that fine hard Pa;ra is 

 always of an uniform character — indeed, I was informed that different 

 results has been obtained from the same ball of such rubber when 

 treated in Hamburg, Harburg, and Vienna — but it is' claimed that 

 the variation with Brazilian is far less than with Plantation rubber. 

 It is obvious that climatic differences have to be considered — and due 

 allowance should be made for the much shorter period of tapping in 

 Brazil (April to September) as compared with the almcst-all-the-year- 

 round seasons in Malaya — this difference is all the more important if 

 it is remembered that the dry season in Brazil, April to September 



