March 1, 1911. J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



1-J5 



Mexican Rubber Notes. 



NEW PROCESS FOR COAGULATING ■CASTILLOA." 



To THE Editor of The India Rubber World : At the recom- 

 mendation of a leading rubber planter here, I take the lib- 

 erty of giving you some information about my new process 

 for the coagulation of the latex of Castilloa, since it is 

 known to me that all novelties along this line are of interest 

 to you. 



In June, 1910, I obtained in Mexico a patent for the chemical 

 working of crude rubber, and built, in company with Mr. Karl 

 Schweickhard, general manager of the local house of Harburger 

 & Stack, a New York firm, the very first factory for the develop- 

 ment of this process; we have been working seven months with 

 good results. Already, in spite of the tremendous increase in 

 the price of crude rubber in the last year, which for a while 

 made buying up of the latex impossible for us — we have shipped 

 about 3,000 kilo- 

 grams to the 

 German market, 

 for which we re- 

 ceived an aver- 

 age price of 13 

 marks [= about 

 $1.40, gold] per 

 kilogram, and for 

 the gum resin, 

 which is a by 

 product of the 

 process, we were 

 paid 7 marks 

 [= about 75i/< 

 cents] per kilo- 

 gram. You will 

 therefore see 

 that the product 

 of this process 

 realizes a notably 

 better price than 

 the Mexican 

 scrap. 



The operation 

 of my proccs.s is 

 as follows:: The 

 latex which is 

 bouglit up from agents in the plantations, is thoroughly cleaned 

 in the wire sieve, the preserving powder prepared by me is 

 stirred in, and then it is poured into cans, which are soldered up, 

 and these are then ready for transport to the factory. Often- 

 times these arrive in the factory only after 20 days' time or 

 more, yet in good fluid condition, since the powder prevents the 

 coagulation of the iatex. Once in the factory, the latex is poured 

 into great wooden containers and mixed with a substance which 

 decomposes the resin and organic substances, in order to bring 

 about more easily the separation of tlie same in the working 

 in the engines. We possess here five rotary engines, which work 

 the latex, and we have fifteen others in process of installation. 



,\fter the latex has for a certain time undergone in the wooden 

 containers the influence of the chemical products, the rotary en- 

 gines are filled with a gallon of latex, two liters of the compound 

 necessary for the working added to it, the motor set in motion. 

 and the engines operate with about 500 revolutions. After 20 

 minutes — often somewhat more — the rubber is ready. The 

 pieces of rubber are then washed and pressed in the washing 

 presses, then dried, and inside of 24 hours are ready to be 

 shipped. The product left in the engines is passed through a 



F.VCTORV WHERE DERX PROCESS WAS FIRST USED. 



cloth lilter and is in a few days dry, when it is pressed, and is 

 the so-called gum resin. 



With such an outfit as we have, we can manufacture up to 

 600 pounds of rubber a day; that is, when we shall have the 

 above-mentioned 15 rotary engines in operation; say, inside of a 

 month. The expense of this process amounts to 5 cents, gold, 

 per gallon of latex ; the yield on an average is 32 per cent, of 

 rubber, without the gum resin, which amounts to about 6 per cent. 

 I should very much like, through The India Rubber World^ 

 to draw the attention of plantation ow-ners to this really practical 

 process, and would willingly dispose of the royalty of this patent 

 to any interested person outside of the state of Tabasco. This 

 process is easily applicable to the latex of Hevea, only the for- 

 mula is somewhat different, and with regard to the sale of this 

 I have an agreement with an English firm. vvilliam f. dern. 



San Juan, Bau- 

 tista, Mexico, 

 Jan. 2, 1911. 

 [Editor's Note. 

 — On physical ex- 

 a mi nation, the 

 s;implc of Castil- 

 Icia rubber ap- 

 peared to be un- 

 usually good. It 

 was exceedingly 

 tough and 

 showed a b s o - 

 lutely no signs 

 of stickiness. The 

 sample of gum 

 resin was in 

 sheet form, and 

 resembled balata 

 to a degree, al- 

 though it was a 

 little more elas- 

 tic. It was wholly 

 without tacki- 

 ness, and would 

 be of value in rub- 

 ber compounding. 



still another MEXICAN RUBBER. 



The Durango Commercial Co. has been incorporated in Michi- 

 gan, with headquarters at Detroit, in that state, to exploit the 

 Mexican plant known locally as Palo Colorado and shown by 

 recent experiments to contain rubber to an extent which the 

 projectors of this company think will justify a liberal investment 

 of capital. The attention of the Michigan people was attracted 

 to the matter by an American civil engineer, long resident in 

 Mexico, who became interested in the plant in the state of 

 Durango. His reports led some of his friends in Michigan, a 

 year or more ago, to make an investigation, for which purpose 

 they started out from the city of Durango, on the Mexican 

 International railway, with the result that a concession has been 

 obtained of a large tract of land on the west side of the Sierra 

 Madre range. The location has not been more definitely stated 

 for publication. A prime mover in this development has been 

 John R. Allen, professor of mechanical engineering in the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, who has taken some of the 

 palo Colorado rubber to London, where it was reported upon 

 favorably. The otificers of the DurSngo Commercial Co. are 

 Joseph II. Hunter, presi<lcnt ; Henry W. Campbell, vice presi- 



