March i, 1905.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



195 



ELECTRICAL EXHIBITION AT BERLIN. 



AT the exhibition of apparatus and materials held in connec- 

 tion with the recent " silver " jubilee (twenty-fifth anni- 

 versary) of the Elektrotechnischer Verein, in Berlin, the uummi- 

 Zeitttm: noticed the failure to be represented of the leading 

 German rubber manufacturers who are engaged in producing 

 insulating materials. The one notable e.xception was the long 

 established firm. Dr. Heinr. Traun & SOhne, formerly Har- 

 burger Gummi-Kamm Co., whose exhibit comprised some 

 important novelties, which attracted no little attention and 

 interest. There was, for example, corrugated and ribbed soft 

 rubber tubing, the subject of the German patent (D. R. P.) 

 150.498. 



The manufacture of such tubing the interior or exterior sur- 

 face of which is supplied with elastic ribs, makes it possible 

 easily to insulate flexible or rigid metallic tubing with a ma- 

 terial that will adhere well. The use of such ribbed tubing 

 oflers the following advantages for the stringing of wires in 

 metal tubes or other conduits : (i) The friction occasioned by 

 stringing the wires is lessened ; (2) the effects of atmospheric 

 pressure, often a hindrance in the stringing of wires, are ob- 

 viated ; (3) uneven exterior or interior surfaces of metal tubes 

 which are to be covered or lined, are no longer objectionable, 

 because they are evened up by the elastic ribbed rubber tub- 

 ing. 



For electrical and chemical manufacturers, and for all those 

 requiring tubing with absolute interior insulation. Dr. Traun's 

 firm exhibited a self closing, conical device, making a tight 

 terminal connection, supplied with threaded flanges, serving 

 the purpose of insulating the circuit and protecting it from in- 

 terior pressure. 



Flexible metal tubing inwardly and outwardly lined and 

 covered with corrugated or ribbed rubber tubing, makes a 

 suction tube which will not get out of order while in use, and 

 cannot collapse as a result of atmospheric pressure. Corruga- 

 ted or ribbed rubber tubing, in connection with rigid or flexible 

 metal piping, is especially adapted for high tension circuits on 

 ships, in mines, chemical works, revolving flash-lights, etc. 

 Flexible metal tubing, interiorly insulated— so called " Hydra 

 tubing" — can be used to great advantage for pneumatic tools, 

 and, in fact, in all cases where fluids or gases are to be con- 

 veyed under pressure without their coming in contact with 

 metallic surfaces, and where absolute tightness is necessary. 



As a substitute for pure hard rubber, which, in accordance 

 with the " Jena " precepts, cannot always be used for currents 

 of high potential, the firm exhibited an insulating material 

 bearing the name " Isolast." This peculiar substance can be 

 worked as readily as pure hard rubber, while, on being heated 

 to 100 Centigrade and then set on fire, it will not carry the 

 flame, as it becomes self extinguishing. This material will 

 stand heat very well, and may be obtained in a condition of 

 hardness similar to leather. 



An improved and very perfectly insulating kind of hard rub- 

 ber was likewise exhibited, adapted especially for the insulation 

 of alternating high tension currents for large induction appa- 

 ratus, such as those used in the production of A' rays. 



In its review of electrotechnical progress in Germany, our 

 Dresden contemporary, after mentioning the first experiments 

 in telegraphy made by Dr. Werner von Siemens, says that 

 Gutta-percha was first used for manufacturing purposes in Ger- 

 many in the year 1S45, by the firm of Rost & Co., at Harburg 

 a/d Elbe, whose works are still in existence. A few years after- 

 wards the manufacture of vulcanized India-rubber was added 

 to the Gutta-percha industry. We owe the introduction of this 



branch of manufacture into German) — where it has since grown 

 to enormous proportions — to Dr. Heinr. Adolf Meyer, who 

 died in Kiel in 1889. In the year 1851 he purchased, in com- 

 pany with his partner, Mr. Conrad Poppenhusen, the Goodyear 

 patent for the manufacture of hard rubber, and established a 

 manufacturing plant in New York. In Germany they used the 

 plant of H. E. Meyer, the lather of Dr. Adolf Nfeyer. this plant 

 being at the present time owned by the firm of Dr. Heinr. 

 Traun & S"hne. The first plant in Germany for the manufac- 

 ture of vulcanized soft rubber goods was established at Har- 

 burg in 1856 by Cohn and Menier, now known as the Vereinigte 

 Gummiwaaren-Fabriken, Harburg- We in. 



In spite of the enormous importance of Gutta-percha and 

 vulcanized India-rubber in the electrical industries, it is a curi- 

 ous fact that during the twenty-five years of its existence, the 

 Elektrotechnischer Verein has published only one lecture on 

 the subject of insulating materials. That lecture was delivered 

 in 1898 by Dr. Bcihlendorf!, and dealt with Ambroin, used for 

 currents of high potential. 



" Throughout the exposition," says the Gummi-Zeittmg," we 

 found that hard rubber was used as an insulating material by 

 all exhibitors of electrical apparatus. We have therefore come 

 to the conclusion that in the construction of electric devices, 

 hard rubber occupies the highest rank as an insulating mate- 

 rial, because electrical engineers appreciate that it possesses 

 more desirable qualities than any other substance. - - - The 

 ideal insulating material, in the eyes of the modern electrical 

 engineer, would be a non-combustible substance, molded and 

 bent as easily as India-rubber or Gutta percha, and which, be- 

 sides, would not be hygroscopic (not influenced by conditions 

 of moisture), and would act, in regard to contraction and ex- 

 pansion — within the limits of normal temperatures— like a 

 strong, resistant, low priced metal of low specific gravity. Such 

 an ideal insulating material, however, has not thus far been 

 discovered." 



A LANGUAGE STUDY ON RUBBER. 



[FRANCIS E. LEUrP, IN "THE EVENING POSt'", NEW YORK.] 



PERSONS who are interested in the development of word 

 meanings will find few in our language which have had 

 a more curious history than India-rubber. It gets its last name 

 from the use to which it was first put — that of erasing pencil 

 marks by rubbing. " India " it gets just as our Cherokees did 

 their name Indian. The tree was first described by an explorer 

 in Mexico three centuries ago, while the first account of the 

 substance occurs in connection with Columbus's visit to Haiti 

 on his second voyage. As Columbus and the explorers who 

 followed him were searching for a short passage to India they 

 naturally opened the way for the perpetuation of this mistake. 

 The fact that the use of this gum to rub dictated its original 

 name, has led to some extraordinary uses of the term rubber, 

 especially in the breezy vernacular of the day. A person who 

 projects his head forward to listen is said to " rubber." Speaker 

 Cannon talked disparagingly of " rubber currency." This was 

 his interpretation of the word "elastic." Among his congres- 

 sional associates the same commodity has been many times 

 used to typify certain of their characteristics as statesmen. 

 " Gumshoe Bill" is the affectionate title by which the junior 

 senator from Missouri, the Hon. William J. Stone, is called by 

 his loyal constituents. " The celebrated rubber-tired states- 

 man " is the familiar term in the Western newspapers to signify 

 one who gets over the ground without much bumping and jolt- 

 ing. These are quite remote descendants of the infinitive "to 

 rub." 



