112 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1905. 



DR. WEBER'S NEW BOOK ON INDIA-RUBBER. 



THE CHEMISTRY OF INDIA HUBBER. INOLUDING THE OUTLINES 

 of a Theory of Vulcanization. By Carl Otto Wtber, ph.d. With four plates and 

 several illustrations in the text. London: Charles Grifhn & Co.. Limited. 

 1902. [Cloth. 8vo. Pp. xii + 314] 



T'^HE appearance of a new work on India-rubber, and 

 especially one on a comprehensive plan, from a compe- 

 tent pen, is so rare as almost to mark an epoch in the 

 industry, and therefore deserves to be noticed at length 

 in the columns of a journal devoted to the news of the trade. 

 The author of the work under review has devoted many years 

 to the subjects named in its title, in his capacity of chemist to 

 important rubber factories, during which time he has been a 

 prolific contributor to technical periodicals. It is of interest 

 now to have in one volume a resume of his work bearing upon 

 the nature of the process of vulcanization, and in the analysis 

 of rubber and rubber goods. 



Dr. Weber to some extent disarms criticism in a paragraph 

 in his preface in which he distinctly says that manufacturing 

 processes as such have not been dealt with, as to have done so 

 would have resulted in the destruction of the unity and aim of the 

 work. In other words, he has been content with writing a book 

 that is theoretical and technical, dealing wholly with the chem- 

 istry of India-rubber, including the outlines of a theory of vul- 

 canization. It is not the fault of the author that rubber manu- 

 facturers and their superintendents in most cases know little 

 of chemistry, have a horror of theory, and only seek for an ex- 

 planation of interesting phenomena when it appears profitable 

 so to do. The author has evidently done an immense amount 

 of work for the work's sake. In his enthusiasm as a scientist 

 to solve the many intricate problems that the chemistry of In- 

 dia rubber suggests, the thought of cheapening compounds, or 

 saving dollars for himself or anybody else, has not entered his 

 mind. It must be said that he has produced a work that for a 

 long time to come will be the standard, the world over, on the 

 subjects of which it treats. It will be valuable and much ap- 

 preciated in all technical schools ; it will be helpful to chemists, 

 particularly those whose profession touches the rubber trade; 

 but it will be of very little use to the ordinary manufacturer or 

 superintendent. The nine chapters in the book cover the 

 chemistry of India-rubber, the examination of India-rubber 

 substitutes, inorganic compounding materials, vulcanizers and 

 sulphur carriers, coloring matters, constructive components of 

 India-rubber articles, and the analysis of rubber articles. 



To one who reads this work carefully, the impression comes 

 with some force that the author is more familiar with mackin- 

 tosh clothing, druggists' sundries, and hard rubber, than with 

 some of the equally important lines, such as rubber footwear, 

 mechanical rubber goods, and insulated wire, though this is 

 evident only where he is led to generalize on manufacturing 

 processes or results. For example, he says, in speaking of tar 

 [page 268J : " As far as the author's experience goes, it tends to 

 show that, at any rate in soft rubber goods, its use is of the 

 rarest occurrence." Now rubber boots and shoes are certainly 

 soft rubber goods, and a factory making 5000 pairs of rubber 

 boots and shoes per day, would use about 400 pounds of tar. 

 In the United Slates certainly 200,000 pairs of rubber boots and 

 shoes are made daily, which would mean an annual use of 

 4,800,000 pounds of tar. Adding to this 200.000 pounds yearly 

 for use in carriage cloth, surface clothing, melodeon cloth, and 

 proofing, there is an annual consumption of 5.000,000 pounds, 

 all used in soft rubber goods. 



Then Dr. Weber claims [page 205] that undervulcanized 

 articles are much more prone to decomposition than overvul- 

 canized ones. It is an acknowledged fact that a rubber shoe 

 which blooms is not vulcanized enough, and yet such a shoe 

 will show a lasting (Quality and wearthatis phenomenal. Again, 

 our author says that chrome yellows cannot be used for hot 

 cured goods, but behave very well in thecold cure process. One 

 of the large rubber shoe factories in the United States makes a 

 rubber boot on which is a bright yellow brand. This brand is 

 made of rubber compounded with chrome yellow, a little fxide 

 of zinc, a small percentage of sulphur, and is cured in an open 

 heat for six or seven hours, at about 270" F. 



The foregoing instances would lead one to imagine thai the 

 Doctor was not familiar with American processes in boo' and 

 shoe manufacture, which, indeed, he does not claim. Another 

 thing that will strike the American manufacturer is thr omis- 

 sion of any mention of palm oil, and only one mention ol pon- 

 tianak, which oil and gum have both made themselves indis- 

 pensable in certain lines of mechanical compounding. O" page 

 303. speaking of non-blooming goods, under (,6). the condition 

 is given : " Vulcanizing under such conditions that, at tue end 

 of the operation, all the free sulphur has disappeared." In 

 commenting on this, further down the page, the author sa\s: 

 " Method (6) can only be used with goods vulcanized bv the 

 open cure, in which the sulphur vapors may Ireely pass off the 

 vulcanizing goods." It is. however, well known in mechanical 

 rubber mills that black mold work absolutely non blooming 

 can be and is made from stocks compounded for the open 

 cure. 



Not to attack another of Dr. Weber's theories, but simply to 

 ask an explanation, we quote [page 118]: " It is at the present 

 time often assumed that the percentage of resinous matter in 

 India-rubber may be taken as an indication of the care be- 

 stowed upon its collection, coagulation, and preparation for the 

 market in general. I have, however, satisfied myself thai this 

 view is not correct." Turning to page 122, we find in the very 

 exhaustive tables there shown, the amountof resin in fine Paid, 

 upriver, hard cure rubber, to be 1.3 per cent., while in negro- 

 heads, which is the same rubber, carelessly collected and co 

 agulated, it is 6.7 per cent.; or the same as Cartagena rubber 

 or Sierra Leone twist rubber. Whence the 5.4 per cent, extra 

 resin ? 



It is of course only fair to say that few theories concerning 

 the chemistry of India-rubber have yet been established, and 

 that almost any practise that gives such results as to lay di wn 

 laws for certain lines of work, and sometimes for certain facto- 

 ries, is absolutely reversed in other lines ol work and in other 

 factories. In drawing attention to the points above, it is not 

 the writer's intention in any way to minimize the work which 

 Dr. Weber has brought out. Indeed, we feel that the D 'Ctor 

 has not written hastily, or carelessly, and we doubt not that if 

 answer comes from across the water each point will be most 

 thoroughly elucidated. The writer, however, would like to in- 

 quire if, in the historical introduction of the story of vulcaniza- 

 tion [page 41], where Dr. Weber says : " It was unquestionably 

 Nelson Goodyear, who, in 1839 first definitely established the 

 fact that the treatment of India rubber with sulphur at high 

 temperatures, etc.," he did not mean Charles Goodyear, rather 

 than his brother Nelson, who came into prominence twelve 

 years later, and then only as the patentee of hard rubber. 



