September i, 1906.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



401 



lAR RING CUTTING 1. ATI IE. 



'^T^lll-: illustration shown herewith represents an automatic 

 -^ jar rini; cuttin'j; lathe, which will cut ring's for frnit 

 jars and the like at the rate of about 125 per minute. This 

 Mi.K-hiue is entirely automatic in its work, it only being 

 necessary for the attendant in charge to place the mandrel 

 with the rubber on it in the machine and start the latter 



runnina;. It will cut in any diameter, provided the walls 

 are not to exceed 's inch in thickness, varying in width 

 from 12 to 24 to the inch. The only limit to the diameter of 

 the rings is that the hole through the same must be so large 

 that the mandrel will not spring when the knife enters the 

 rubber. (John Iv Thro|)p & Sons Co., Trenton, New Jersey. ] 



THE PISTON PACKING INDUSTRY. 



hemp, or soft rope, prepared for the purpose, kept supplied 

 with melted tallow by means of a funnel over the cylinder 

 lid. 



The use of India-rubber and cotton fiber packing is of 

 comparatively recent date. But, having engaged the in- 

 genuity of some of the most ingenious inventors in rubber, 

 and possessing decided merit, the increase in its use has 

 been steady and rapid. Still what is known as flax jiack- 

 ing j'ct retains a place of great importance in the trade. 



The list of modern piston packings — not to mention any 

 other — is practically illimitable, and their manufacture in- 

 volves no end of mechanical devices, in addition to skill in 

 com])oundiug, in order that a packing specially adapted to 

 any particular requirement may be produced. For examjile, 

 special braiding machines have been made for enveloping 

 rubber cores — round, square, or oval — with cotton or other 

 fabrics; machines for braiding packings composed of fiax 

 throughout and lubricated with suitable materials, and so 

 on. A concern with great experience in this field, and in 

 connection with whose work a number of special machines 

 have been developed, is the W. D. Allen Manufacturing Co. 

 (Chicago). The illustration on this page gives a view of tlie 

 interior of their piston packing factory, with a number of 

 braiding machines in operation. 



MACHINE FOR TEARING RUBBER WASTE. 



0(1 various and widespread are the uses for packings now 



^ -^ adays that it may not always be realized that the orig- ' ~ 



inal use for goods of this type was for steam pistons. The ^ I ^HE Caoutchouc Separator Co., Hannover, Germany, 



great desideratum in a piston is that it should admit of no -*- have in operation a machine built on the lines of a 



leakage, and have as little friction as is consistent with this recent patent granted to Herr Penther, which some German 



quality. Watt, the father of the steam engine as a practical 

 device, tried to arrive at these results by the use of metallic 

 packing, but with so little satisfaction that he gave it up. 

 Then came packings into which vegetable and animal sub- 

 stances entered. Pistons were packed with unspun long 



FISTON PACKING FACTORY OF W. 0. ALLEN MANUFACTURING CO. 



papers make a great deal of. A careful study of the claims, 

 however, is surprising to one who is acquainted with rubber 

 reclaiming on this side of the water. The machine in (|nes- 

 tion tears rubber waste to pieces and by a current of air 

 blows the fiber oiit of it. obtaining the product for so man}' 



years known as mechan- 

 ically reclaimed rubber. It 

 is perfectly possible that 

 the machinerj' described 

 may have some advant- 

 ages in tearing the scrap 

 to pieces more quickly, or 

 ma 3" remove the finer 

 fibers more completely, 

 but that It can produce a 

 better quality of mechan- 

 ical reclaimed rubber is 

 to be doubted. Anyhow, 

 the general plan is as old 

 as rubber reclaiming it- 

 self and the suggestion 

 that the fiber after removal 

 can be used for rubber 

 mixings is not to be taken 

 seriously. 



One of the most im- 

 portant Bolivian rubber 

 concessions has jtist been 

 marketed in Tondon, by 

 .American promoters, but 

 details are not published. 



