AfcusT I, 1909.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



383 



India-Rubber in North America — A Bird's Eye View. 



By Hciirv C. Pearson* 



CRL'DE india-rubber and rubber-like gums to the amount of 

 probably 170,000,000 pounds annually are used in the 

 world's manufacture of rubber goods. Of this amount 

 about 90,000,000 pounds, or more than one-half, are used by 

 manufacturers in the United States and Canada. This in turn 

 conies into the market in the form of finished goods of an esti- 

 mated weight of 6oo,ooo,OQO pounds. At first blush, when one 

 remembers that the shrinkage of the raw product would amount 

 to at least thirty-three per cent., this increase would not seem 

 possible. It is, however, easily explainable when the uses to 

 which rubber is put are considered, and its wonderful compound- 

 ing and amalgamating principles are appreciated. 



It is only rarely that the arts and industries call for much of 

 resilience in rubber goods. The demand is for plasticity, for 

 waterproof, airproof, oilproof, acidproof and wearproof qualities, 

 <ill of which can be added through compounding. The com- 

 pounding additions are reclaimed rubber waste, tlie annual 

 consumption of which amounts to 124,000,000 pounds ; of plastics, 

 such as mineral rubber, 10.000.000 pounds, and so on. These 

 added to crude rubber wonderfully increase its bulk and decrease 

 its first cost, which otherwise would be prohibitive for many 

 lines of goods. The next step in compounding is the addition 

 of various metallic oxides, earths, and dry compounding materials, 

 sometimes designed merely as cheapcners, but more often to 

 "bring out some quality essential to the line of product desired, 

 pow{lered asbestos or infusorial earth, for example, being added 

 as a heat resistant. Ingredients of this type amount to 200,000,000 

 -pounds. 



The third step in this compounding may be seen in the spread- 

 ing of rubber upon fabrics. In many lines of goods the fabric 

 ■weighs more than the rubber compound itself, as, for example, in 

 ■rubber belting, and it may be figured roughly that the rubber 

 trade uses 150.000,000 pounds of fabrics, this being chiefly in 

 the lines of mechanical rubber goods, including footwear, tires 

 and clothing. 



Add to this the metals that go to make up certain goods, 

 notably copper in insulated wire, and 600,000,000 pounds is 

 a very conservative figure for a gross weight. 



In their primary processes the various lines of rubber manu- 

 facture are almost identical in practice ; that is in the washing 

 and drying of the crude rubber and in mixing and forcing tlie 

 compound into sheets for making up. Beyond that the business 

 divides itself into wholly distinct industries that have their own 

 lines of compounding, making up and vulcanization. These lines 

 in the order of their importance are: Mechanical rubber goods, 

 embracing belting, hose, packing and a great variety of special- 

 ties for engineering and industrial men ; rubber footwear ; tires, 

 pneumatic and solid ; insulated wire and insulating compounds ; 

 druggists' and stationers' sundries ; waterproof fabrics, clothing 

 and carriage cloth; hard rubber or vulcanite; dental and stamp 

 rubber; rubber cements; sporting goods, including toys and golf 

 Ijalls ; notions and specialties, such as dress sliields, plasters. 

 etc. Closely connected with all of these is the manufacture of 

 reclaimed rubber from all kinds of rubber waste. 



American practice has been, as a rule, to concentrate on special 

 lines, rather than for any one factory to attempt to make all 

 these lines. There are, however, some factories making two. 

 :three, or more of the above lines. The number of plants making 

 rubber goods is about 260. Individualizing the lines, that is, in 

 cases whore a factory makes, say three lines, reckoning each as 



*.\ pai)er presented at the Seventh International Congress of Applied 

 <!hemistry, in .Mbcrt Hall, London, on May 27. 



three factories, there are 340. There are employed in these 

 factories about 50,000 workers. 



There is another class of small rubber manufacturer repre- 

 sented by those who buy unvulcanized gum and make, for ex- 

 ample, rubber stamps. To this class belong the dentists, the small 

 turners of hard rubber, and the tire repair man. One's first 

 thought would be that these lines would be so small as to 

 be hardly worth mentioning, but taking the rubber stamp business 

 for example, there are 14,000 that have an investment in vul- 

 canizers of at least $100 each, or $1,400,000; 30,000 dentists with 

 an investment of $50 each, or $15,000; 1,000 tire repair men, with 

 an investment of $500 each, or $500,000. As nearly as can be 

 estimated the above lines represent about 12,000 men employed 

 constantly in rubber work. 



The distribution of the general lines catalogued above is done 

 chiefly through branches and agencies established by rubber 

 manufacturers and to an even larger extent through wholesale 

 hardware, plumbing and mill supply houses, footwear jobbers 

 and electrical supply houses. This gives employment to what 

 may be expressed by the equivalent of 10,000 men. 



There also centers about the rubber trade a number of indus- 

 tries that act as feeders to it. There are, for example, 100 

 machinery manufacturers which to a greater or lesser degree 

 supply the trade. There are 40 to 50 producers of fabrics which 

 make either the whole or a part of their cloth for rubber use 

 and about 100 producers of compounding ingredients, such as 

 sulphur, whiting, litharge, and the like. It will be seen, therefore, 

 that in summarizing the business as a whole or the number 

 of employes, all of these should be considered. The figures, of 

 course, are only approximate, but it would be safe" to assume that 

 tlie rubber trade in North .-Xnierica employs 100,000 men, and 

 that the capital actually employed is close to $150,000,000. 



Then, too, there are two interesting developments in crude 

 rubber. One is the American investment of something like 

 $20,000,000 in rubber plantations in Mexico and Central America. 

 The other is the equally interesting development of rubber from 

 the guayule plant (Parthcnium argcntalum) in the uplands of 

 Mexico, where there is .'Xmerican money invested to the amount 

 of about $30,000,000. 



Rubber compounding practice is about the same the world 

 over to-day. The Americans, however, have gone further in 

 reclaiming and successfully using rubber waste than have the 

 rest of the world. It is only a short time ago that quantities 

 of rubber waste were used as fuel or thrown away. Then came 

 the so-called mechanical process, where the waste was finally 

 ground, the fiber blown out by an air blast, and the product 

 formed into a pasty sheet through the so-called process of de- 

 vulcanization. Later developments were various acid processes 

 for destroying the fiber. Then came the alkali processes, the most 

 notable of which was the Marks process, in which alkaline solu- 

 tions of varying strengths are employed for destroying the 

 fiber and also for removing free sulphur. By means of these 

 varying processes every pound of rubber waste in the Americas 

 to-day has a market value. Xot only that, but the waste is 

 turned into a plastic rubber compound nearly as good in every 

 respect as the same compound was before vulcanization. 



Another line of work that was in its beginnings wholly Ameri- 

 can was the treatment of such perishable gums as gutta-jelutong, 

 or Pontianak. This, as a rule, is treated simply to keep it from 

 oxidizing and to bring out its plastic and adhesive qualities. Some 

 manufacturers, however, have gone further and by dercsinisation 

 have been able to secure a percentage of good rubber from it. A 



