THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[October 1, 1912. 



INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR TESTING 

 MATERIALS. 



FROM September 2nd to 7th, the sessions of the Sixth Con- 

 gress of the International Association for Testing Mate- 

 rials, were held at the Engineering Societies building, New 

 York. They were attended by nearly 800 chemists, engineers of 

 tests, privy councilors, railway directors, collegiate teachers, and 

 directors of official testing stations. 



In order to facilitate the work of the Congress, it was con- 

 ducted in the following sections : 



(a) Metals and Metal Products. 



(b) Concrete and Building Materials. 



(c) Organic Materials. 



Among the papers presented were five of particular interest to 

 the rubber trade; two of them being of a general nature and 

 three of a special character, as follows : 



"Fundamental Principles for the Organization of the Public 

 Testing of Materials," by Dr. A. Martens, director of Royal 

 Testing Station, at Berlin, Gross-Lichterfelde. 



"Some Apparatus for Tension Tests of Rubber," by P. L. 

 Wormeley, physicist at the United States Bureau of Standards, 

 Washington, D. C. 



"Report on the Actual State of Rubber Analysis," by F. W. 

 Hinrichsen, chemist at the Royal Testing Station at Berlin, Gross- 

 Lichtcrfeldc. 



"The Present Status of the Mechanical Testing of India Rubber 

 at the Royal Testing Station at Berlin, Gross-Lichterfelde," by 

 Karl Mcmmlcr, engineer at the station. 



"The Austrian Testing Station at Vienna," by Ernst Reitler, 

 director of the bureau. 



RUBBER TESTING IN GERMANY AND AMERICA. 



AN <.i|iportunity has recently been atTorded rubber experts in 

 this country, to become fully acquainted with the latest de- 

 velopments in rubber testing. Several papers were read at the 



recent New York Congress of the International Association for 

 Testing Materials, among which special interest attached to those 

 of Professor Karl Memmler, of the Royal Testing Station, Berlin, 

 Gross-Lichterfelde, and of Mr. P. L. Wormeley, of the United 

 States Bureau of Standards, \\'ashington, D. C. 



Professor Memmler has long been engaged in the solution of 

 the various problems affecting rubber testing, having in con- 

 junction with Professor Schob, submitted a report to the Copen- 

 hagen Congress held 1909. Later, in collaboration with Pro- 

 fessor Hinrichsen, he produced a work on "Rubber Testing," 

 which brought the question up to the point it had reached in 1910. 

 While the subject aroused further interest, through the exhibi- 

 tion of apparatus at the laboratory's stand in the London Rubber 

 Exhibition, the expected stimulus was not given to the mechanical 

 testing of rubber. It was therefore, deemed advisable to lay the 

 essence of the results newly obtained, before the present year's 

 New York Congress of the association. These results were largely 



in connection with the ring test, 

 and differed materially according 

 as stationary or traveling rings 

 were cmploj'ed. The methods of 

 manufacture likewise affected the 

 results, while the influence of the 

 dimensions was noticeable in the 

 results of tensile strength tests. 



Although the field of experi- 

 ment has been considerably 

 widened since the . Copenhagen 

 Congress, it has not yet been 

 found possible to bring "forward 

 definite and perfectly elaborated 

 methods for the mechanical test- 

 ing of soft rubber ; owing to the 

 peculiar physical and mechanical 

 properties of this material, and its 

 manifold technical uses. A com- 

 mittee of the German Associa- 

 tion for Testing Materials is en- 

 gaged on the points at issue. 



The India Rubber World in 

 the issues of October, 1911 (page 

 23) ; December, 1911 (page 107) ; 

 January, 1912 (page 160),- an|l 

 May, 1912 (page 385-6), has re- 

 ported upon the various features 

 of the question, which has been 

 advanced a stage by the results 

 upon which Herr Memmler has 

 reported, of the work of himself 

 and his colleagues. 



M.-\CHiNE FOR Testing Ten- 

 sile Strength of Rubber. 



TESTING APPARATUS. 

 \\'ith a view to facilitating and 

 expediting the work of rubber 

 testing, a number of machines have been developed by the United 

 States Bureau of Standards. In Mr. Wormeley's paper, to which 

 reference has been made, he has describel two kinds of apparatus 

 for stretching rubber, and two for testing tensile strength. Ef- 

 fective illustrations are annexed to the paper, which also, like 

 Professor Memmler's, deals with the influence of the form of 

 test specimens on the results of tension tests. 



News has been received of the death from yellow fever on 

 July 28 of F. E. Mellinger. of the Ermila plantation, Mexico. 

 Mr. Weis, of Huamqueller, Mexico, died of the same disease on 

 August 18. 



Apparatus for Stretching Rubber. 



The accepted authority on South American rubber — "The 

 Rubber Country of the Amazon," by Henrj- C. Pearson. 



