284 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I, 1909. 



THE PENTHER 

 HACHINE. 



NAPHTHALENE 

 IN RUBBER GOODS. 



business. His long connection with the local Artillery Volun- 

 teers, now Territorials, has just ceased by his retirement, this, 

 however, being in the ordinary course of events and not in 

 consequence of his illness. 



After the somewhat glowing account I gave about a year ago 

 of the prospects of the Penther rubber scrap machine, as erected 

 at Leyland, I was quite surprised to sci 

 it stated recently in a legal case that it 

 had proved an utter failure. It seems 

 that while sound in principle the mechanism proved too compli- 

 cated, or at any rate inadequate for continuous work, and that 

 firing was also of frequent occurrence. Looking at the number 

 of patents connected with rubber which have been taken out it is 

 remarkable how very few have attained any industrial im- 

 portance. The majority seem to have only done good service m 

 one direction — that of aiding the authors of books on rubber 

 to find sufficient material to fill their pages. 



So.ME German firm has gone to the trouble of patenting the 

 use of naphthalene as a component of rubber mixings. Claim is 

 made for its use in place of paraffine 

 wax or ceresin where these are com- 

 monly employed to diminish parority ; 

 as a reclaiming agent and as a solvent for spreading purposes. I 

 cannot myself see where the advantages of naphthalene comi;. 

 In solvent naphtha it has always been considered an objectionable 

 impurity, as it leaves a strong smell on the goods, owing to its 

 slow evaporation, and the difference between ordinary and odor- 

 less naphtha as sold for proofing purposes, has generally been 

 in the freedom of the latter from naphthalene. As for its re- 

 placing paraffine wax I should have thought that its volatility 

 was all against it. Even in its capacity as an insecticide in place 

 of camphor naphthalene has come to be generally regarded as 

 more nasty than useful, and I cannot think that there will be any 

 rush on the part of the rubber trade to avail themselves of the 

 new proposal for its employment. 



It has been my custom when leaving the shores of England to 

 write something on my return about rubber works I have seen 

 or heard of. In Ireland, however, 

 IRELAND. where I have just spent a fortnight, the 



rubber works come in the same cata- 

 gory as the snakes, so this paragraph will only be a short one. 

 Certainly the mackintosh is largely used by the well-to-do and 

 no doubt there is a demand for rubber goods generally. I did 

 not, however, notice in the towns I visited any shops devoted 

 entirely to the sale of rubber goods. The peasants of the wild 

 west laughed at the idea of mackintoshes and seem to heed noth- 

 ing of getting wet through. Perhaps their coarse homespun 

 woollens give them an advantage over those who buy Yorkshire 

 shoddy. By the way, I heard of a new use for gutta-percha in a 

 county which has always had a reputation for "rowdyness." A 

 very substantial walking stick, home made, is hollowed out at 

 the end, filled up with molten metal and plugged with gutta- 

 percha. This weapon, I was told, was very handy in scuffles with 

 the police. 



INVENTOR SIMPSON'S PERSISTENCY. 



A POPUL'\R periodical prints a story regarding the hard- 

 ■**• ships long endured, rivaling those of Charles Goodyear, by 

 another inventor, "who discovered that gutta-percha was a non- 

 conductor of electricity." At least so the story runs. The in- 

 ventor referred to is George Simpson, the history of whose insu- 

 lation patent has been given in The Indi.a Rubber World (June 

 I, 1906— page 290.) Some details from the lately published story 

 may be worth repeating, however. It appears that Simpson was 

 a Missouri man. When he made his first application for a patent 

 for insulating electric wires with gutta-percha, shortly after Pro- 

 fessor S. F. B. Morse had brought out the telegraph, he bor- 

 rowed money for the fees from Amos Kendall, a prominent 



politician, who was sometime postmaster general and who- 

 assisted Morse with his patent. 



From the date of Simpson's first application until congress and 

 the courts had established that he was entitled to a patent and 

 his rights under it had been construed, was just 29 years, dur- 

 ing which time Simpson derived absolutely no benefit from his 

 invention. The story is that he started out without any money,, 

 and rather than beg he worked his way by taking any employ- 

 ment that might be offered him. Walking from St. Louis to 

 Washington he would hoe corn at one place or drive a truck 

 at another and at the national capital is said to have worked as 

 a day laborer on the foundations of a building for the patent 

 office. 



A NEW INSULATION FROM MEXICO. 



A PLANT said to be abundant in most of the states of 

 ** Mexico and asserted to yield a wax which has proved 

 adapted for the insulation of electric wires is reported on at 

 length in the Monterey A'czi's. The plant is known locally as 

 "Candelilla;" it is described botanically as Pedilaiithus pavonies, 

 and belongs to the Eupborbiacece. The common name of this 

 plant is based upon the use of its product for making candles. 

 It has been used also as a substitute for beeswax, and is described 

 as having a value for varnish and polishes, giving more luster 

 than the high-priced carnauba wax, from Brazil. The candelilla 

 is said to contain rubber, but not enough to make its extraction 

 profitable but the wax content is high. The plants grow to a 

 height from 3 to S feet, as many as 100 stalks springing from 

 one root. The Cia. Candelillera Mexicana S. A., recently organ- 

 ized in Monterey, have patented a process for extracting the 

 candelilla wax, and are reported to be operating a factory, be- 

 sides which several other factories are at work in the republic, 

 all using this patented process. The people interested in this 

 product seem to think that the success lately experienced in re- 

 spect of guayule rubber will be duplicated with candelilla. 



NEW GUAYULE FACTORY RUNNING. 



The factory of Compaiiia Guayulera de Torreon, Sociedad 

 .\n6nime [see The India Rubber World, April i, 1909 — page 

 235], is now in operation. It is located at Puerto del Carmen, be- 

 tween Nadadores and Cuatro Cienegas, and convenient to the 

 International Me.xican railway. The location was decided upon 

 particularly on account of the waterfall there which affords 

 abundant power at a low cost. The company have at their dis- 

 posal a large amount of guayule shrub. El Fomento Industrial 

 (Mexico, .\pril i) contains a full account of the formal cere- 

 monies at the opening of the factory and of the banquet follow- 

 ing, with views of the works and of the waterfall. 



COST OF WATERPROOF GOODS IN MEXICO. 



In regard to the rubber clothing trade in Mexico the United 

 States consul at Vera Cruz mentions that the prices charged 

 are such that most people cannot afford to buy. He reports that, 

 largely on account of the import duty — 50 cents, gold, per kilo- 

 gram [=22y2 cents per pound] — a pair of overshoes will cost in 

 Vera Cruz abjout two and one-half times as much as in the 

 United States. A pair of rubber boots, he says, cannot be pur- 

 chased there for less than $8. In the line of rubber coats, capes, 

 hat covers, and the like, the same conditions prevail. The consul 

 writes : 



"A rubber coat, known in the states as a 'slicker,' and W'hich 

 could be bought for about $3.50 in any department store, costs 

 here $8 to $9. A so-called 'poncho,' worth about $2 in the states, 

 is proportionately costly. The import duty on this class of goods 

 amounts to $1.25 United States currency per 2.20 pounds [S6V2 

 cents per pound]. Native article in the shape of a 'poncho' is 

 on the market, but the vulcanizing is so poorly done that the 

 goods become worthless within a short time." 



