360 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April 1, 1913. 



bration of his fiftieth birthday. This Institute under tlic manage- 

 ment of the Conrad Poppcnhusen Association provides free in- 

 struction in arts and crafts, industrial and commercial subjects. 



In 1872 Mr. Poppenhusen gave $30,000 for the erection of the 

 First Reformed Church of College Point in memory of two 

 daughters who died in infancy. 



When the Queens Borough Library estabhshed a branch at 

 College Point, the books of the circulating library at the Poppen- 

 husen Institute were transferred to the city, and they are now a 

 part of the equipment of the Public Library in the building 

 erected under the Carnegie fund of New York City, and known 

 as the Poppenhusen branch of the Queens Borough Public 

 Library. 



Conrad Poppenhusen was married when about twenty-two 

 years of age to Miss Bertha Kaerker, who died in 1858. Three 

 sons. Adolph, Herman and Alfred were associated with their 

 father in his industrial works. 



He was married a second time to Miss Caroline Huetterott, 

 who died in 1903, twenty years after the death of Mr. Poppen- 

 husen. One son of this marriage, Mr. F. A. Poppenhusen, of 

 Hamburg, Germany, is the only surviving member of the second 

 generation. 



A grandson, Mr. H. C. Poppenhusen, is now secretary and 

 treasurer of the Conrad Poppenhusen Association, and three 

 grandsons are prominent in business circles of Chicago. Two 

 granddaughters have their homes abroad, and one grand- 

 daughter lives in New York. 



Tlie illustrations given above show the monument erected in 

 honor of Mr. Poppenhusen by the people of College Point; the 

 Public Library known as the Poppenhusen Branch ; and the 

 Church, Chapel and Parsonage of the Reformed Church which 

 were among his benefactions to the community. 



RAILROADS RUBBER COMMITTEE. 



{Communication from the Secretary.) 



IN response to numerous inquiries which this committee has 

 received regarding its activity, the following communication 

 is submitted : 



The committee consists of nine members, of whom three rep- 

 resent manufacturers, three consumers, and three public labora- 

 tories. The object of the committee has been to formulate 

 standard specifications for high-grade rubber insulation (30% 

 Hevea rubber). In connection with this work it was found 

 necessary to devise a standard procedure for the chemical analy- 

 sis of such products. The following determinations are being 

 studied : 



Total acetone extract — saponifiable, unsaponifiable, hydrocar- 

 bons, and free sulphur. 



Chloroform extract — alcoholic potash extract, mineral fillers, 

 (free from sulphur) total sulphur, and rubber. 



In the course of its studies the committee has considered or 

 tested most of the methods which have been published and sev- 

 eral which were privately communicated. The most important 

 types of extraction apparatus have been tried in order to de- 

 termine the variation in results obtained from the several 

 forms. 



The main idea has been to determine the sources of error so 

 that these could be definitely enumerated or eliminated. It is 

 hoped that this will result in closer harmony among results ob- 

 tained by different chemists, whether they represent buyer or 

 seller. 



Considerable progress has been made along these lines, and 

 the committee is doing its utmost to presents its results at the 

 earliest possible date. This will not be done until it has reasona- 

 ble assurance that the proposed methods of analysis are ade- 

 quate. Wm. a. Del M.\r. 



New York, February 26, 1913. 



AMERICAN RUBBER FOR THE ARGENTINE NAVY. 



A N officer of the Argentine Navy, met by a reporter for The 

 ** lNni.\ Rubber World, at the F. H. Lovell Co.'s naval 

 machinery works at Arlington, New Jersey, spoke of the in- 

 creasing use of manufactures of rubber in all navies. This 

 officer is here for inspection service on the two large battle- 

 ships that are being built in domestic yards for the Argentine 

 Republic— at the cost of $23,000,000 for both ships. The speci- 

 fications under which the contract was awarded did not call 

 for any rubber products. But it is now semi-officially declared 

 that all the rubber products for both ships will be of American 

 manufacture. Provisional estimates put the rubber goods re- 

 quirements for both dreadnoughts at $78,000. This does not in- 

 clude estimates for some sort of rubber flooring in cabins, hall- 

 ways and certain parts of several decks. Such flooring will be 

 used. But just what kind has not been officially determined. 



So far as is possible steam-actuated auxiliary engines and 

 other kinds of steam power apparatus will not be used on these 

 ships, as compressed air power will be used instead. This en- 

 sures the liberal use of rubber packing. Steam-actuated auxiliary 

 engines and long runs of steam pipes, in which defective unions 

 together with inferior metal, spun-yarn and leather packing 

 were used by the contending fleets in the great battle of the 

 Japanese-Russian War, brought about almost as many deaths 

 and severe wounds through steam pipes fractured by projectiles, 

 as the medical corps reported as due to cannon fire. This 

 explains the elimination of steam-actuated auxiliary machinery, 

 so far as is practicable, by all navies since the medical reports 

 of the navies of Japan and Russia in the late war became acces- 

 sible to naval engineers and constructors. It is a remarkable 

 fact, that during the Civil War all our naval commanders re- 

 ported strongly against the inferior oakum, spun-yarn and 

 leather packing then in use, and as to defective unions and 

 long runs of steam pipes, the use of which as Admiral Golds- 

 borough reported, "caused greater loss of life, and more wounds 

 to officers and men throughout the war than occurred from 

 engagements between ships." 



The historic "Monitor" narrowly escaped going to the bottom 

 in a violent gale on her first voyage, because an old-school naval 

 officer insisted upon removing the rubber ring set within a 

 bronze frame at the base of the turret, and which John Ericsson 

 had designed to prevent water from getting into the turret and 

 thence into the engine room. The fossilized officer took out 

 the rubber and bronze rings and substituted strands of oakum 

 soaked in grease, and he caused the removal of the rubber belt- 

 ing from the air and water pumps. The result was, that oflf 

 Hatteras, the great waves washed out the oakum, and left a 

 space of sixty-four feet in circumference and two inches high 

 as an open water-way down which the water rushed, and soaked 

 the leather belting so that it slipped, and thus the choking coal 

 gas drove out the engine-room crew, and left the vessel at the 

 mercy of the gale until it subsided. After that, Ericsson brought 

 about a return to rubber packing and belting on the "Monitor." 

 But once more, when the vessel was being outfitted to go on 

 a sea voyage, an old-school naval officer had the rubber packing 

 and belting removed and rope-yarn packing and leather belting 

 restored. In a gale off Cape Hatteras. the turret packing was 

 washed out, the engine room was flooded, and all who were 

 unable to reach the naval towboat that stood by were lost, and 

 the "Monitor" went to the bottom. So far as the writer hereof 

 knows, this incident that places the blame for the loss of the 

 "Monitor" on defective packing and belting has not been in 

 print. The Indi.\ Rubber World's representative noted it down 

 a few days ago from the lips of the last surviving officer of the 

 "Monitor." when she was lost. He lost an arm by being caught 

 in the loop of a hawser that bound the "Monitor" to the tow- 

 boat that rescued all who escaped from the vessel which revo- 

 lutionized naval warfare. 



