November i, 190S.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



63 



The lawyer was very wrathful on his return, investigated the 

 (lark room where the final change took plnce, discovered a hidden 

 panel leading to another room, and enough evidence of fraud 

 to lead him to advise his client against risking a dollar in the 

 venture, and the business went no further. The inventor, by the 

 way, dropped rubber and took up synthetic camphor, and was 

 supported by a leading firm of chemists for a couple of years, 

 until they brought the matter before the law courts, and he is 

 now supported by the United States government, not in luxury, 

 however, and his habitat is very much localized. I don't know 

 how true it is, but it is rumored that he will be released next 

 year and plans to come to England and manufacture synthetic 

 shillings. [The jar B is this type of synthetic rubber..] 



There is at the present time in the United States a factory m 

 a prosperous town, with a high fence around it, with guards 

 in evidence night and day, where a little old man is at work 

 trying to do on a commercial scale what he alleges to have 

 done in the laboratory, and that is to produce synthetic rubber 

 from certain oils. He has been at it some three years, ana 

 is backed by very heavy capitalists. Further than this, a very 

 distinguished American chemist and physicist who is miles above 

 any suspicion of either collusion or lack of knowledge, has 

 possession of the formula, and under the inventor's guidance 

 made the gum himself and says over his own signature that the 

 product is real synthetic rubber. He said this some three years ago, 

 and his verdict resulted in the erection of a factory and the 

 attempt to get out a commercial product. Without cataloguing 

 the many delays that have followed the erection of the factory, 

 due to the lack of purity of material, the impossibility of getting 

 certain machinery, unfortunate breakdowns, etc., I want to say 

 that if this is real synthetic rubber the inventor has gone far 

 beyond anything that synthesis has heretofore been able to ac- 

 complish ; for he has reproduced absolutely up river fine Park 

 not only in texture, color, compounding capacity and vulcaniz- 

 ing ability, but he has successfully imitated the peculiar smoky 

 smell individual in that type of rubber. 



It is to be hoped that when he manufactures all grades of 

 crude rubber commercially, among them synthetic Africans, he 

 may be induced to leave out the synthetic African smell. [In 

 the jar marked C is the synthetic Para of the smoky smell.] 



I hope you don't think that the Yankees are the only ones who 

 indulge in synthetic pipe dreams. In an English paper of September 

 4 I read that synthetic rubber is now being made at Burton-on- 

 Trent, and is called Burton rubber. I have not seen it, nor do I 

 know the chemist, who may be the most honest and capable man 

 on the face of the earth. But if he can make synthetic rubber 

 commercially, why does he seek newspaper publicity instead of 

 making and selling his valuable product. If he found nuggets 

 of gold in his back yard, would he write The Times pages of 

 argument to prove they were really gold, or would he quietly dig 

 them up and put them into circulation? Just what base he 

 works from it is difficult to tell, but from his published formula, 

 the compound would seem to be equal parts of Old Burton ale 

 and ofTensive smell. 



In the bottle marked B is what was given me as a sample 

 of partially synthetic rubber made along lines which appeared 

 to be new. As you all know, the latex of a young CastUloa 

 tree contains a great deal more resin than the latex of an old 

 tree, the gum in the young tree containing about 40 per cent., 

 while that in a mature tree about 7 per cent. 



The theory of the producer of this semi-synthetic rubber, was 

 that the tree m maturing turned its own resins into rubber ; 

 that by the proper treatment of this resinous latex, the in- 

 ventor could do just what nature did. I could not see at the 

 time that he did it, and certainly the sample on exhibition does 

 not prove his claim. When I first put it in the bottle it was 

 very resilient but contained 40 per cent, of resin. 



Of course you are all aware of Professor Tilden's experiments 

 in Birmingham, where he succeeded in producing minute particles 



of india-rubber from tcrpenes. These results are of high scien- 

 tific value, but it's a question if that knowledge will ever be of 

 the slightest commercial value, because it is going to be easier 

 and cheaper to produce rubber latex, bearing a large percentage 

 of india-rubber, than to produce vegetable oils containing very 

 minute quantities of india-rubber. 



It is impossible to consider a subject like this without coming 

 in touch with a great variety of substitutes for rubber that have 

 been and still are in use to a certain degree in rubber manu- 

 facture. The rubber manufacturers know, of course, that none of 

 these are in any way real substitutes for the crude gum. They 

 can be used in connection with india-rubber and oftentimes add 

 certain qualities to the compound that are of value, but there are 

 very few places where they can be used alone in place of rubber. 

 The most widely known of these are the oil substitutes which are 

 so common that they need no explanation as regards their manu- 

 facture or use. There are also certain of the natural hydro- 

 carbons such as mineral rubber, which are of definite use in add- 

 ing certain quantities to many lines of rubber compounding. 



There is just one word of caution that the honest producer of 

 a rubber assistant should have or else he will deceive himself, 

 and for a time deceive others. Suppose he is able to produce 

 a fairly tough substitute that mixes well with rubber and is in no 

 way harmful — indeed under test the vulcanized product con- 

 taining his assistant is stronger than the same vulcanized prod- 

 uct without it. He at once believes that he has a wonderful 

 product, and perhaps he has, but he hasn't proved his case by 

 such a test. In fairness to himself and the manufacturer, he 

 should test not against a compound of pure gum and sulphur, 

 but against compounds that contain earthy matter or metallic 

 oxides that we all know add toughness to rubber compounds, and 

 if his is better or cheaper it is of value, otherwise not. 



It has occurred to me that in bringing some of my samples of 

 rubber assistants here and calling jour attention to them, it 

 might stimulate an interchange of ideas, both on the subject of 

 synthetic rubber and rubber substitutes, which will be much more 

 valuable than a prolongation of this paper of mine. Frankly 

 it's a subject I don't know much about, and even when I am 

 in a room full of rubber experts, I don't feel a bit isolated by my 

 ignorance. 



Every industry has its trials, and every manufacturer could 

 easily state his ideas of perfect bliss in the absence of such trials. 

 I fancy the rubber man's Utopia would be — cold water vulcani- 

 zation, no trade discounts, and the ability to produce synthetic 

 rubber from sea water and air. 



MANCHESTER AND BOSTON. 



""THE fact that Manchester is a larger consumer of rubber 

 ■^ than any other town in Great Britain led to a recent sugges- 

 tion that it was strange that Manchester had no spot market 

 for rubber. The Manchester Guardian points out that in mak- 

 ing this suggestion the important fact has been overlooked 

 that near-by Liverpool is much better provided than Man- 

 chester with steamship services from the various rubber pro- 

 ducing countries, and is therefore the most convenient entrepot 

 for all the diflferent varieties. 



The British situation here outlined is reflected in the United 

 States, where Boston, the center of such an important section 

 of the rubber industry, and the first American port to receive 

 any crude rubber, is credited with only 1Y2 per cent, of the 

 total imports of this material for the fiscal year 1906-07. There 

 are other ports — notably Naw York — where better facilities 

 now exist for transacting an important business in rubber. 



The American Hard Rubber Co. have taken over the tiling 

 business carried on hitherto by The Gutta Percha nid I' -bber 

 Manufacturing Co., and will manufacture goods in this i. le at 

 their factory in College Point, New York. 



