62 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November i, 1908. 



Some Synthetic Rubbers I Have Met. 



i?.V Hciiry C. Pearson* 



A GREAT many years ago the whole scientific world, wliicli 

 was neither very large nor very scientific, spent a whole 

 lot of time searching for the philosopher's stone, which, 

 if I remember rightly, if properly approached, would turn most 

 anything into gold. We laugh at such childish folly to-day, 

 and spend our time hunting for a philosopher's stone whicli 

 shall turn everything into rubber. The transmutation of col- 

 loids is the dream of the chemist as well as the experimenter. 

 The only trouble is they don't transmute. 



If he was correctly quoted, Professor Wyndham Dunstan, in Sep- 

 tember, 1906. went on record before tlie British Association that 

 synthetic rubber would be an accomplished fact within the year. 

 Exactly where it would break out he did not indicate, nor whether 

 it would be characterized by mild or virulent symptoms. 



I should like to say personally that my acquaintance with 

 synthetic rubber of certain sorts dates back to many years. It 

 goes without saying that when a man really discovers synthetic 

 rubber, he is more or less secretive about the materials of which 

 the artificial gum is made; indeed that 

 constantly growing class of discoverers, 

 whom newspapers introduce to us from 

 time to time, are the most secretive men 

 I have ever met. 



It was nearly 25 years ago that I was 

 first brought into intimate contact with 

 a gentleman who was apparently an hon- 

 est, blunt, hard-working experimenter, 

 who, in a private room behind locked doors, 

 showed me a small sample of what ap- 

 peared to be dry, fine Para rubber. It 

 gave out a faint odor of wintergreen. 

 which he explained was added to it to de- 

 stroy an odor that might lead some imitator 

 to a knowledge of ingredients used in 

 its manufacture. He assured me earnest- 

 ly, calling up the Creator of real rubber 

 to be his witness, that it was wholly an 

 artificial product and contained no atom 

 of caoutchouc; further than that, in a 

 burst of confidence he agreed to let me 

 see some of the materials of which the 



product was made. With much secrecy we crossed the city. 

 let ourselves into the basement of his house, which was part 

 workshop and laboratory, where I was shown a gum which 

 I partially identified as Kauri, and a grease which looked like 

 cocoa butter. There was a faint smell of bisulphide of carbon in 

 the air, and he acknowledged that he used this solvent at a 

 certain stage of the process, and upon heating it and the ad- 

 •dition of a secret material, rubber appeared floating upon the 

 liquid. 



While we were thus talking an eminent and somewhat grasping 

 ■capitalist appeared, claimed he was there by appointment, which 

 I did not believe then, but do now, and at once went into execu- 

 tive session with the inventor, leaving me on the outside. It 

 was a bitter blow to thus have millions torn so rudely from my 

 grasp, particularly as I had mentally already squandered several 

 hundred thousand pounds. However, I was out and had to make 

 the best of it. As for the gentleman who was in, just to com- 

 plete the story, it might be well to add that he erected a 

 spacious factory in which were strange machinery, secret rooms, 



•Read before the International Rubber Conference at Olympia, London. 

 The lecturer exhibited about 50 samples of alleged synthetic rubbers, sub- 

 stitutes, and rubber assistants, which the audience examined with much 

 apparent interest. 



Henry 



glass floors, and other unusual and expensive paraphernalia, 

 and for a number of years paid, while the inventor toiled, un- 

 til one day the building was closed and has remained so up 

 to the present time. 



From that day to this neither the capitalist nor the inventor 

 could be induced to say a word about their experiments or why 

 they failed. I fancy the reason the capitalist would not talk is 

 because he lost a great deal of money through the venture; and 

 the only reason the inventor doesn't talk is because he is dead. 

 [Iii*^the bottle marked A is a sample of this type of synthetic 

 rubber.] 



One of the Presidents of the United States had a relative 

 who had a little money and was anxious to make more. He 

 therefore intrusted some £8,000 of it into the hands of an ap- 

 parently cultured gentlemanly, persuasive cheinist, who had 

 brought to him some 20 pounds of what appeared to be a high 

 grade rubber, which the chemist, by the use of many technical 

 terms wholly incomprehensible to the ordinary business man_ 

 assured him was an entirely synthetic 

 production. The £8,000 went for the 

 equipment of a little factory near New 

 York city, the erection of a secret room, 

 from which daylight was excluded and 

 only a certain shade or red light was al- 

 lowed to illumine, and incidentally some 

 very excellent champagne suppers at New 

 York's most e.xpensive hostelries. It 

 was just as the initial investment was 

 about exhausted the matter was brought 

 to my attention, and in this way. 



With great secrecy a 10, 20 or 50 mil- 

 lion dollar company was projected and all 

 the machinery for selling much stock 

 was quietly set in motion. One of the 

 wealthy men approached had a lawyer 

 who knew something about rubber and 

 was very much of an investigator. He 

 came to me first to size up the prob- 

 abilities and to outline a method of in- 

 vestigation. The first move was to in- 

 sist that the rubber be made in his pres- 

 ence. This was agreed to, but the inventor stipulated that no 

 chemist be present. The lawyer was then given a list of in- 

 gredients which he was to purchase and carry to the factory. 

 These amounted to about 20 pounds in weight. The inventor 

 was to add one pound of secret material or coiuposition neces- 

 sary to complete the process and to protect the formula. 



A day was then set for the test. When that day arrived the 

 chemist was sick. Another day was set; the pound of material 

 necessary for the experiment had gone astray. Another day was 

 set; the chemist's grandmother had died and he had to attend 

 the funeral. Finally the test was begun, the materials, con- 

 sisting in part of cellulose, water and caustic soda, were set boil- 

 ing and kept at it all day long. During this time the lawyer 

 waited for the change in the cotton fiber to appear, when at a 

 certain critical moment the composition must be added, or else 

 no rubber would result 



About supper time the inventor stated that the material could 

 not be ready till about 11 o'clock that night, and suggested that 

 the lawyer go out and get something to eat. The lawyer at 

 first refused, but finally went, and although he was gone only 

 3S minutes, the critical moment came during his absence and 

 rubber appeared. 



Pearson. 



