July x, 1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



327 



THE STURGEON RUBBER CO." 



TO THK IClMTOR OK TiiK iNniA KiitBEK WoRLD : Rcfcr- 

 rinjj to my letter to tlie New York Tnl)ii7ie about the 

 rubber producing goat, which was copied in your issue of 

 April I, although it is of great scientific interest, it does not 

 appeal to Americans, like the "rabbit weed " of Colorado, as 

 a new source of supply, but now comes another discovery in 

 the West, which l)i(ls fail to revolutionize the entire rubber 

 industrj-. 



Readers of I'arknian's histories will remember that when 

 DeSoto, in 1542, and I.aSalle, in 1682. explored the Miss- 

 issippi, they noticed that the ends of the Indian canoes were 

 littcd with elastic bumpers or shock absorbers, about 6 inches 

 in diameter, formed by binding together a number of pieces 

 of elastic substances about the size of a hen's egg, and in the 

 Jesuit relations of Fathers Marquette and Hennepin the mat- 

 ter is again referred to, and one of the canoes now being in 

 the Museum of the Chicago University, Professor Damsell, 

 of the Polytechnic (College of Terre Haute, Indiana, the 

 greatest living ichthyologist, had his attention called to it. 

 On examining these buflers he found they were made up of 

 the cartilaginous ends of the snouts of the Acipemcrrnbinin- 

 diis, or common lake and river sturgeon, which has all the 

 properties of rubber and which many years ago was much 

 used by boys for the center of their balls, to make them 

 bound well. 



The professor, having a strong commercial instinct, went 

 at once to Akron, Ohio, and communicated his wonderful 

 discovery to prominent rubber manufacturers there, and they 

 engaged him to make further investigations, advising him to 

 go to Sandusky, which is the center of the sturgeon trade, 

 large quantitiesofrajwr being there packed and exported to 

 Russia. Professor Damsell found that it would be necessary 

 in some way to vulcanize the product, and it occurred to him 

 to bring the fish itself to his aid. He therefore obtained a 

 boat load of iron pyrites and had it thrown overboard into 

 Sandusky harbor, and the sturgeon immediately gulped it 

 down with great avidity, it seeming to be just what their 

 sj^stems required — the iron to enrich their blood and flesh 

 and the sulphur to increase the size and actuall}- vulca- 

 nize the ends of their snouts — so that in about sixty day's 

 they were 3 inches in diameter and commenced to dry up at 

 their base and hang by a small ligament, like a wart or toad- 

 stool, and the sulphurated hj-drogen given off so choked the 

 fish that they gave a violent sneeze, which threw off the balls, 

 which rose to the surface of the water where boatmen gath- 

 ered them up and shipped a carload to Akron, where they 

 were found to be equal to Para rubber. 



Steps were at once taken to form the National Sturgeon 

 Rubber Co., and the member of Congress from that district 

 was requested to ask the government to make an adequate 

 appropriation to aid and stimulate the new "infant indus- 

 tr}-," statistics being sent on to show that each female stur- 

 geon 's roe contained a million eggs, and that it vi-ould require 

 to start with only 65.000,000 sturgeon to produce 65,000,000 

 pounds of rubber. (In other words, about the amount that 

 was imported last year, at a cost of about 75 cents per pound, 

 or $50,000,000.) 



Furthermore, the statistical petition went on to show that 

 if each egg of the number produced by 65,000,000 sturgeon 

 produced a living fish that it would require the whole of 



Lake Erie to hold them and that it would reduce the price 

 of rubber to less than 3 cents per pound, making it so cheap 

 that all the .streets of the principal cities could be paved with 

 it, the same as the driveway and court of the Savoy Hotel in 

 London ; again, trafiic on the elevated and street car lines 

 could be made absolutely noiseless by using rubber sleepers, 

 and in fact the whole railroad system of the United States 

 could be equipped with rubber ties at a great saving in cost 

 as well as a great comfort to travelers. 



Again, the cheapness of rubber might lead it to become a 

 great earthquake eradicator, as the Kansas City Times has 

 just reported the formation of the American Rubber Tube 

 and Building Co., who propose equipping water departments 

 in all the large cities with rubber water mains, as earth- 

 quakes cannot injure them, and freezing cannot burst them, 

 as being pliable they give room for expansion, and further- 

 more to prevent any of the great buildings from falling on 

 the water mains and choking ofi' the supply of water, the 

 company is perfecting plans for rubber construction in all 

 skyscrapers, so if an earthquake should topple them over 

 they will immediately bounce back into place. 



We may here mention a fact not generally known and one 

 which seems to be a wise provision of nature, that when the 

 sturgeon's .snout is removed it is (luickly renewed, the same 

 as the claws of the lobster and other crustacea. 



Again, it is the habit of the sturgeon at dusk to leap com- 

 pletely out of the water, and it is a sight well worth seeing, 

 and it is beautifully described by Jose|)h Rodman Drake in 

 the " Culprit Fay " : 



With sweeping tail and quivering fin 



Througli the wave the sturgeon flew. 



And, like the heaven-sliot javelin, 



He sprung above the waters blue, 



IiisUint as the star fall light 



He plunged liiui in the deep.ngain. 



But left an arch of silver. bright, 



The rainl)Ow of the moony main. 



FIT/, NIGKI.. 

 New York. May i6, tgo6. 



SOME WANTS OF THE TRADE. 



[S4()] T^ROiM England: "On page 231 of your issue for 

 ^ April I there is an interesting paragraph regard- 

 ing the cutting of forest trees by means of a saw operated by 

 compressed air. W'e should be pleased to learn how to secure 

 the apparatus. " 



[341] A jobber writes: "Can yoti tell me who manufac- 

 tures the Sutlive pillow ventilators ?" 



[34'iJ A New York firm of commission merchants sends an 

 inciuir3- in relation to bifurcated rivets, and where thej- are 

 to be obtained. 



[343] From Chicago : "We are in need of a small vul- 

 canizer for laboratory rubber uses. Do j-ou know of any 

 manufacturer who turns out such requirements? " 



That Mr. F. N. Ilamerstrom is making .so good a recov- 

 ery from appendicitis at the Medico-Chirurgical Hospital. 

 Philadelphia, is a source of much gratification to his many 

 friends and acquaintances as well as to his immediate busi- 

 ness associates at the Trenton Rubber Manufacturing Co. 

 (Trenton, New Jersey), where he is the general manager. 



