142 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, I9l2. 



Tapping Rubber Trees by Electricity. 



SIXCE Columbus' Day— and for nobody knows how many 

 centuries before — rubber trees have been tapped in the same 

 old way. An Indian with a machete or some other instru- 

 ment has cut, hacked or gouged the tree, and placed a little 

 clay cup— or in later years a tin substitute for the clay cup- 

 under the cut for the latex to trickle into. Then he has gone 

 laboriously around from one tree to another, emptying the latex 

 into a gourd, emptying that in turn into a larger receptacle, and 

 then dipped his paddle into the latex and held it over the palm- 

 nut smoke until it coagulated. It has all been done by tedious, 

 individual effort that finally secured the rubber, but very slowly 

 and at great expense. It is not to be wondered at— considering 

 these primitive methods — that rubber, ever since its usefulness 

 became known to civilized man, has sold for $1, $2 and even 

 $3 a pound. 



But it looks as if all this might at last be changed, for here 

 comes a scientist, Georg M. von Hassel, a German by nationality, 

 but a Peruvian by many years' of residence, a civil engineer by 

 profession, but an explorer by preference, and employed by the 



sede the ancient methods of the natives, if it works out in prac- 

 tice as it has given promise of doing in the various tests to which 

 this process has been subjected. Mr. von Hassel's method is 



Electrical Tapping Device Attached to a Rubber Tree. 



Peruvian Government for many years to explore the resources 

 of its rubber territory, who has devised a method of extracting 

 the rubber from the tree, which, if not instantaneous, is at least 

 so rapid and efficacious in its operation that it is likely to super- 



Showing the Wire Carrying the Electrical Current from 

 Tree to Tree: 



nothing less than touching the button, and letting electricity do 

 the rest. 



Here briefly is the apparatus that he has devised. He places 

 upon the trunk of the rubber tree a piece of sheet-iron about 

 5 feet long, S inches wide, with the two sides folded back against 

 the tree to a thickness of about 2 inches, constituting a hollow 

 channel of sheet-iron. This hollow channel is divided into a 

 series of fifteen to thirty sections ; the number of sections de- 

 pends upon the number of days the apparatus shall be worked. 

 Each section has a mechanism for the extraction of the latex 

 from the rubber tree and a receptacle for receiving the flour, 

 which also contains a preparation for the coagulation of the 

 latex. When working Hancornia and Casiilloa trees, plates pro- 

 vided with longitudinal canals are used instead of the receptacles 

 for gathering the latex, and the product thus obtained is known 

 as 'Sernamby." This product is gained in the form of threads 

 without the aid of acids or other chemical substances. 



The method of operating is as follows : This channel of sheet 

 iron, with the above-described mechanism and receptacles, is 

 fastened against the rubber trees. If it is a small tree there 

 will be two of these devices ; if it is a large tree there may be 

 ns many as nine circling the tree and about a hand-span apart. 

 This apparatus is connected by an insulated wire with a central 

 station which is equipped with electric power. A machine de- 

 vised by the inventor makes it possible to send the electrical 

 current so that it will set the first section in motion. The latex 

 then oozes out and flows into the receptacle immediately beneath. 

 In the receptacle there is an acid preparation that coagulates the 

 latex, converting it into rubber. The next day — or preferably 

 48 hours later — the current is turned on again affecting the 

 second section, which in turn pricks the tree, bringing forth the 

 latex which drips into the second cup and is there similarly 

 coagulated. After another interval of two days, the third sec- 

 tion is set in motion, and so on for the fifteen to thirty sections 

 which are operated from the central station, tapping the tree 

 and filling the receptacles with rubber. 



No one need approach the tree until the expiration of sixty 

 days, when a handful of rubber will be found in each of the 

 receptacles, and on a large tree where there are nine of these 



