318 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1906. 



and evenly over the surface, where it embeds itself in the 

 nap which has been raised by the brush before the fibers are 

 subjected to the pressureof the rolls. In close proximity to 

 and co(")perating with the pressure roll is a third roll, also 

 carrying a temperature of 300°. Between these two rolls 

 passes a film of un vulcanized rubber which is drawn from a 

 plastic mass beneath them. The film is conveyed over the 

 center roll and between that and the bed roll it is pressed 

 against the already rubberized surface of the leather, the 

 first coating acting as a cement. The two coalings o( rub 

 ber adhere firmly to each other and form a layer which is 

 afterward vulcanized. When the rubber coating is vulca- 

 nized it is practically in.separable from the leather, as the 

 fibers of the leather are firmly embedded in the vulcanized 

 rubber layer. The patentee is Joseph J. Steinharter.of Phil- 

 adelphia. 



TWO NEW TAPPING TOOLS. 



CASTILLOA ELASTICA IN HOPE GARDENS. (TREE 3 YEARS AND 

 6 MONTHS OLD.) 



Reverting again to the Castilloa, there is said to be one 

 plantation of some 3000 trees at the western end of the 

 island, but it is carefully guarded and information refused 

 to all. 



I have not tou-^hed upon the varied delights of Jamaica to 

 the winter tourist, nor described the many minor adven- 

 tures that three Americans oft' for a holiday are sure to dis- 

 cover, for this after all, is not a holiday tale. It is rather a 

 suggestion to Americans and English, that Jamaica is a 

 good place in which to "get busy" on the short crop 

 proposition. 



COATING LEATHHR WITH RUBBER. 



BY a recently patented process and ajiparatus it is be- 

 lieved by the inventor that a solution of the problem, 

 how successfully to apply a coating of rubber to leather, has 

 been found. The sheet of leather to be coated passes over 

 a guide against which presses a rotary wire brush. This 

 brush revolves with great rapidity, and in so doing raises a 



nap on the surface 

 of the leather to 

 which the rubber is 

 to be ajiplied. The 

 leather is then pass- 

 ed on between two 

 rolls, one of which 

 is a bed roll heated 

 to a temperature of 

 100° F., and the 

 other, the jiressure 

 roll, with a temper- 

 atureof30o°. Above 

 the bite of these 

 rolls is a receptacle 

 filled with thin un- 

 vulcanized rubber. A funnel shaped nozzle conveys the 

 rubber to the face of the leather and distributes it smoothly 



A GREAT variety of tapping tools have been designed 

 and "tried out " by individuals interested in rubber 

 planting in Mexico and Central America. The illustration 

 shows two types designed for tapping the Castilloa. The 

 straight bladed knife is one that is used successfully in 

 Nicaragua, where planters are able to control their workmen 



and teach them to use 

 something beside the 

 machete. In Panama, 

 for example, where wild 

 trees are tapped it has 

 so far been found im- 

 practicable because the 

 workers complain that 

 it hurts the hand. 

 This is explainable 

 when one understands 

 that the knife is placed 

 against the porous 

 bark and struck a 

 smart blow with the 

 heel of the hand, driv- 

 ing it through the lac- 

 tiferous tubes. The 

 knife is theoretically 

 perfect, as it is impos- 

 sible to injure the 

 wood by its use and 

 it secures a good flow 

 of milk. 



The curved knife 

 also shown in the il- 

 lustration is the invention of Mr. Elliott Durand, who i.s 

 already using it successfully on his Mexican plantation, 

 "Cascajal." It comes so near to the machete that the 

 natives like it and the little guard on the blade makes it 

 easily adjustable for plantation work where the trees tapped 

 run in regular sizes and where the thickness of the bark 

 shows but little variation. 



Harold W. French, Akron representative of George A. 

 Alden & Co., and the New York Commercial Co., has an 

 attractive sample room, with an excellent arrangement of his 

 crude rubber samples, nearly 200 in number. 



