304 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[JUNI 



1905. 



NEW GUAYULE RUBBER PROCESS. 



THE Compania I'Jxplotadora de Hul6 (India-Rubber Ex- 

 ploiting Co.) has been formed in Mexico City for extract- 

 ing rubber from the Guayiile plant {Parthenium Argentatum), 

 by the process of E. Delafond.a member of the French Sociele 

 des Chimistes et Ingenieurs Civils. M. Delafond is understood 

 to have obtained a liberal concession from the state of Coa- 

 huila (Mexico), conditioned upon the early erection of factor- 

 ies having a certain capacity. M. Delafond informs The In- 

 dia Rubber World that the company expect within a very 

 short time to have in operation four factories, working 80 tons 

 of the plant daily, and they have contracts for the supply of 

 the plants for 20 years. The first factory probably will be at 

 Cuatro Cienegas. He states that the plants are self reproduc- 

 ing and grow in almost arid soil above an altitude of 1250 meters 

 [=4101 feet]. He believes however, that the plants could be 

 improved to a large extent by cultivation. The percentage of 

 rubber is high, and the product is much appreciated in Ger- 

 many. He states that the rubber is easily vulcanized and does 

 not afterward deteriorate. 



In the Delafond extracting process the entire plant is first 

 pulverized. When powdered, the material is freed from dust 

 and sand by mechanical means. It is then placed in an appa- 

 ratus in which it is heated to a temperature at which the resin- 

 ous parts are melted, and at the same time subjected to pres- 

 sure, with the result that the molten resinous parts are absorbed 

 by the particles of wood, which play the part of absorbents, 

 and thus make it possible to leave the rubber almost clean and 

 free from resinous matter. When taken out of the compressor, 

 the whole mass is transferred to an apparatus by which the ve- 

 sicular parts of the rubber become agglomerated, while the 

 wood, the resinous matter, and other impurities are completely 

 separated from the rubber. This is an entirely dry process, as 

 the steam used for heating does not come in contact with the 

 material treated. The residue is used as fuel. The rubber is 

 afterwards more thoroughly purified by water, either at the 

 works, or in some place where water is found, in case there 

 should be a dearth of it at the extracting plant. 

 M. Delafond informs The India Rubber World : 

 " I have received Congo Hants, as well as plants from Mada- 

 gascar and from India, and I have determined to a certainty 

 that my mechanical process makes it possible to extract all 

 the rubber contained in these plants at an incredibly low cost. 

 All such plants, herbs, //■«««, and shrubs as contain rubber and 

 which are not worked by means of incisions, can be very well 

 worked by means of my devices. I may even go a step farther 

 and state that I believe the treatment of the rubber trees by my 

 process to be preferable, excepting those from which the rubber 

 is now gathered by means of incisions. The output would 

 thereby be increased tenfold." 



He has taken out patents in all rubber producing countries, 

 but his contract with the Cia. Explotadora de Hule covers 

 Mexico only, and he is willing to enter into negotiations for the 

 formation of companies in other countries. 

 THE MARX PROCESS. 



Max Marx, of Heidelberg, in his British patent specification 

 (No. 28,051 — 1904), states that the process of recovering rubber 

 from Guayule by treating the macerated plant with naphtha or 

 like solvents has the combined disadvantage of not bringing 

 all of the rubber into solution, and of including with the rubber 

 the injurious resin, besides which the process is extensive on 

 account of the large quantities of costly solvents required. By 

 his process the ground wood is heated with three times its 

 weight of a comparatively dilute solution of alkali — say a 6 per 



cent, caustic soda lye — and kept at boiling point for about 6 

 hours. On the cooling of the concoction the rubber floats to 

 the surface, and may be removed by skimming and freed from 

 the alkaline lye by the aid of boiling water or other suitable 

 means. The principle of treating plants containing Gutta- 

 percha with alkali to render them more suitable for the subse- 

 quent extraction of the product with solvents is already known, 

 but apart from the fact that an entirely new raw material forms 

 the subject of the present process, the important novelty therein 

 consists in the fact that the rubber is directly extracted from 

 the plant by means of the alkali, and forms a usable material 



without further treatment. 



» * » 



A coRRESPONDENEof The India Rubber Worij) in Europe 

 mentions the departure for Mexico of Herr (jutrae, one of the 

 engineers of the V'ereinigte Gummiwaaren-Fabriken, Harburg- 

 Wien, employed at their Linden works, to take part in erect- 

 ing and starting factories for the Compania Explotadora de 

 Caucho Mexicano. 



FINANCIAL STRESS AT MANAOS. 



THE message of the governor of the Brazilian state of Am- 

 azonas. Dr. Constantino Nery, presented to the congress 

 at Mangos on April 15, pointed to the need of a new foreign 

 loan, owing to the changed financial conditions of the state as 

 outlined in the message. It appears that the revenue of Am- 

 azonas is decreasing, although the governor is not prepared to 

 determine how far the decline may extend. The treasury was 

 very prosperous for the fiscal years 1903 and 1904, as these fig- 

 ures (denoting milreis) will indicate: 



1903. 1904. 



Estimated receipts 14,465 :ooo$ooo i4,43g:ooo$ooo 



Actual receipt-s i8,2go:o66$556 i9,9g5:64i$99S 



Estimated balance. 397:38g$o6o 364:bOi$70o 



Actual balance 3,S25;o66$566 5,566:6345998 



The higher results obtained than were estimated were due 

 to the heavy increase in the selling price of rubber, the state 

 revenues being derived mainly from an ad valorem export tax 

 on all the rubber produced in the state. The following figures 

 are given as the average quotation for rubber — in milreis per 

 kilogram — during the two years : 



Fine. Coarse. Caucho. 



In 1903 6I381 45452 3$82I 



In 1904 71512 5S199 4$283 



After the organization of the Acre territory into federal dis- 

 tricts, administered from the national capital, the rubber pro- 

 duced there was no longer subject to taxation at Manaos. 

 The amount of such rubber which escaped this tax during the 

 latter part of the fiscal year 1904 is estimated at 2261 tons. 

 The eflfect of this new fiscal arrangement is better illustrated 

 by the revenue returns for the first quarter of 1905, amounting 

 to only 5 564:o27$486, as compared with 8,i25:o54$790 in the 

 same months of 1904, or a decrease of 2,561 :o27$304. 



The governor proposes the revocation of the law imposing 

 special tax of 180 reis per kilogram of rubber produced in the 

 state for the benefit of the Banco Amazonense, which was 

 created a year or so ago. Not that the tax is to be abol- 

 ished, but it is to be collected henceforth by the state, to be ap- 

 plied to the service of the proposed new loan, together with the 

 income from leasing the Manaos city railway and electric light 

 services, for which competitive bids were recently asked. The 

 last recent important financial operation of the state was ex- 

 ploiting in New York and London a loan for the purpose of 

 taking over the Mandos railway and electric light and water 

 services, on the ground that they could be administered more 

 economically by the city than otherwise. 



