16 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October i, 1908. 



We have heard so much of late about the forthcoming synthetic 



rubber that a reference to another tree product which has been 



successfully synthetized may not be 



SYNTHETIC CAMPHOE. without interest. More than one chemi- 

 cal process has been employed for mak- 

 ing s>Tithetic camphor, and there is no special patent in existence 

 which makes the business a monopoly for one firm. It is im- 

 portant to recognize this because it has been assumed from the 

 failure of a company specially concerned with the manufacture 

 that the commercial production of synthetic in itself has proved 

 a failure. This is far from being the case, as one or two chemical 

 firms, by reason of their intimate knowledge of the processes in- 

 volved, are now making it successfully. Firstly, a product some- 

 what similar to camphor is made, this being iso-borneol acetate, 

 and this after being saponified and oxidized yields actual cam- 

 phor. This is the same as the natural product, except in its optical 

 character. Curiously enough, the synthetic camphor is composed of 

 equal parts of dextro and lavo rotatory sulistance while the nat- 

 ural is entirely dextro rotatory. Unless a very close combination 

 is effected between the Formosa producers and the chemical manu- 

 facturers it is clear that the celluloid makers who are the prin- 

 cipal users will reap most of the benefit from the discovery, 

 a considerable reduction in price having already occurred. At the 

 same time buyers of natural camphor are not disposed to take 

 up the new product without a considerable inducement in the 

 price, recent quotations showing that while the Formosa camphor 

 sells at 2s. sd. per pound, the synthetic is priced at is. lod. 

 According to those closely connected with the trade there is little 

 likelihood of any combination being effected between the growers 

 and the chemical manufacturers to keep up prices, so that a 

 further decline may be confidently looked for. 



SOLUTION FOR CEMENT WORK. 



UNDER the heading "Quellung oder Losung" (Turgescence 

 or Solution), an unsigned article in the Gummi-Zeitiing 

 contains some matter of considerable interest to the rubber 

 cement manufacturer. The writer thereof mentions Macintosh 

 as the pioneer in manufacture of waterproof cloth, who also 

 applied his rubber cement for sticking together his "kamptulikon" 

 tiles. These were cut from sheets made by mixing cork powder, 

 fibrous materials, and india-rubber. It is said that these tiles were 

 extensively used as a lining for the royal mews in Windsor. 



From the various solvents used, ether is given as one of the 

 least satisfactory ones, which has been already applied in early 

 days by Maquarh and Nees Von Esenbeck, who ran the latex of 

 a Ficus specimen into the solvent. Solvents in general use, as 

 gasoline, benzine, naphtha, toluole, and the like, are consid- 

 ered to swell only the india-rubber and make it sticky and flow- 

 ing — that is to say, to change only its consistency. The proof 

 of this proposition the author finds in the difficulty (the author 

 says impossibility) of filtering a benzine cement through a pa- 

 per filter. 



As the most advisable way to make a rubber benzine cement, 

 it is recommended to cut the raw rubber in thin slices which are 

 to be allowed to dry completely before they are soaked in ben- 

 zine, under careful stirring, and afterwards so much solvent is 

 added as to get the desired concentration. Any unnecessary stir- 

 ring is to be avoided, in order to save the tissue of the rubber and 

 give the cement the highest tenacity. 



For incorporating pigments into cement, the author points out 

 that this should be done on the mixing mill before the rubber 

 ever touches the solvent. Benzole is given as a specially good 

 turgescent for rubber. From such a thick india-rubber solution 

 the rubber itself can be precipitated by alcohol again as a white 

 substance, which, however, changes its color under the influence 

 of light and air. 



As a true solvent for rubber the author recommends amyl- 

 acetate which is said to dissolve india-rubber at a normal tem- 



perature in the course of a few days, the cement being of a more 

 or less dark color, according to the concentartion. After evapo- 

 rating this solvent the india-rubber is recovered unchanged. The 

 author suggests that this solution is most suitable for impregnat- 

 ing porous materials, and thinks that the application of such a 

 solution for impregnating leather gloves for electricians would 

 be a success. 



Though a solution of rubber in amyl-acetate is of a more liquid 

 consistency than a benzine solution of Para rubber cut from 

 the blocks and dried, it is hardly conceivable, why, for impreg- 

 nating purposes, a mechanically broken down rubber would not 

 answer as well. Such a cement is certainly much cheaper, will 

 filter through porous material, and make leather gloves certain- 

 ly as waterproof as an amyl-acetate cement. There is no rea- 

 son why such an amyl-acetate solution must not be considered 

 of a strictly colloidal character, which is signified by the qualities 

 of not being capable of ionisation or conductivity, and only to 

 very little degree of hydro-diffusion, but on the other hand, 

 being able under certain conditions to gelatinize or pectise. 



ERWIN MEYER, PH.D. 



ONE MORE "ARTIFICIAL RUBBER." 



[from "the home and colonial mail," LONDON.] 



THE claim is made for a professional man of Burton-on-Trent 

 that he has at last succeeded in making synthetic, or arti- 

 ficial, india-rubber. According to the Birmingham Daily Post, the 

 inventor, who does not wish his name to be made public, main- 

 tains that his is real rubber, which could be sold at quite 25 per 

 cent, less than the present price of natural rubber, and then a 

 margin would be left for a good profit. He has decided to pro- 

 mote a factory in Burton for the manufacture of the rubber — 

 that is, if everything turns out as he confidently believes it will. 



His achievement, he said, had involved tremendous work by 

 day and many sleepless nights, and on more than one occasion his 

 patience had been tried almost to breaking point. This limit was 

 once actually reached. He had got the material into a certain con- 

 dition, but could get no further with it. This, coming upon a 

 long series of disappointments, induced a feeling of disgust, and 

 in annoyance and despair he left the stuff, giving the thing up as 

 a bad job. A few days later, in passing through his laboratory, 

 he casually glanced at the mixture, and, to his astonishment and 

 unbounded delight, there it stood corigealed to the very point for 

 which he had been striving for years. "You see," he explained, 

 "it was necessary for the preparation to cool before it developed 

 correctly, and so, in a sense, the discovery — at least in its final 

 stage — was accidental." 



This is by no means the first time that artificial rubber has been 

 announced among new discoveries. There are reasons for believ- 

 ing, however, says our contemporary, the Financial Nezvs, that the 

 present scheme is more serious than any of its predecessors, and 

 that it is likely to be vigorously taken in hand. 



PROGRESS IN PERU'S RUBBER AREA. 



THE Loreto Commercial, a Peruvian newspaper, in a recent 

 article on the work of the Peru-Para Rubber Co. ( Chi- 

 cago), refers to what has been accomplished by their supervising 

 engineer, Senor Oscar Mavila, in the matter of constructing 

 roads through the rubber lands covered by the company's con- 

 cession. Those roads are expected to have an important influ- 

 ence on the business of Loreto, since rubber may now be 

 brought there overland in six days from points whence formerly 

 it could only be brought in a roundabout way by canoes, some- 

 times requiring thirty days or more. The Commercial also men- 

 tions the importation by the company a telephone system, with 

 sixty-two miles of wire, which is expected to facilitate the work- 

 ing of rubber at a greater distance from the water courses than 

 has been the case hitherto. 



