August 1,'1911. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



419 



INSIDE HISTORY OF ONE SYNTHETIC RUBBER 

 SCHEME. 



AN investor in one of the long-drawn-init synthetic rubber 

 schemes that drew into it a distinguished chemist and 

 that got at the pockets of some very astute business men, is at 

 length willing to talk freely. The whole business was handled 

 with exceeding secrecy, and up to the present no one has talked. 

 The beginning was when the inventor called upon a promi- 

 nent New Jersey business man and exhibited a substance of a 

 whitish appearance viith a very disagreeable odor which re- 

 bounded when dropped to the ground. He claimed it to be 

 synthetic rubber, the real thing, and added that it could be 

 manufactured in large quantities and at a very low cost. The 

 business man did not act quickly enough to suit the inventor, 

 so, through certain promoters, a prominent automobile manu- 

 facturer in Ohio was interested in the proposition. Definite 

 agreements having been reached, a temporary organization was 

 formed and one of the best-known chemists, then professor of 

 chemistry at a great institution, was engaged to ascertain if the 

 ])ro(luct was genuine and if it could be manufactured commer- 

 cially. In the interim various lots, which the inventor claimed 

 to have manufactured, were made into rubber bands, hot water 

 bottles, hard rubber goods, etc., and from tests were apparently 

 as good as Para. The late Durand Woodman made a test and 

 reported as follows : 



"I have examined the sample of rubber which you 

 handed me and which is alleged to bo synthetic. 1 have 

 made numerous tests and comparisons and find that while 

 there are some marked diflferences between the sample and 

 ordinary grades of good Para rubber, these differences 

 correspond with other well-known grades of rubber. 

 These points are noted in the following summary of tests : 



No. 10,524. No. 10,545. 



Synthetic. Para. 



Soluble in acetone 6.60 per cent. 2.70 per cent. 



" " alcoholic potash 1.15 " traces. 



" nitrobenzol ...24.35 " 0.00 per cent. 



Moisture 0.45 " 0.20 to 0.50 



Ash ( mineral matter) 0.35 " 0.30 " 0.45 



"It is here shown that the amount lost under the action 

 of acetone is more than for good grades of Para, but it 

 is not more than for the best Madagascar and other grades 

 of best .'\frican rubbers. The loss by the nitrobenzol test 

 is large and corresponds to a grade of rubber, or to the ad- 

 mixture of organic substance not rubber of a resinous, 

 waxy or pitchy nature. I have found this to occur in the 

 so-called bastard rubber from Mexico and other localities. 



"I do not find any reason for considering the rubber as 

 a synthetic product. The alleged process should certainly 

 be made to stand the test of having all the materials used 

 censored by some one competent and known to the parties 

 interested. The absence among the ingredients, of any rub- 

 ber material from the rubber tree should be fully proved 

 to the satisfaction of the most exacting." 



The inventor, in explaining his invention, stated that while 

 a resident of Georgetown. B. G., he had studied the rubber tree 

 indigenous to those parts, and had carefully analyzed the latex 

 and had endeavored to reproduce, not rubber, but the latex, 

 combining in the latex those elements supplied by nature. For 

 years he had labored without success until just as he was about 

 to give up in despair, success came to him by accident. 



The chemist was quite skeptical at first and did not take an 

 active part in the experiments, merely overseeing in a general way, 

 the inventor doing the work, but finally when, in the last stage, 

 small particles of a putty-like substance began to float on the 

 top of the mitxure, and when this substance was dried and ap- 



peared in truth to be synthetic rubber, he became greatly inter- 

 ested in the work. 



At this point the inventor showed his business training and re- 

 fused to give the complete formula to the chemist. However, 

 a larger stock holding and a slight change in the management 

 soothed his feelings, and he finally gave the formula verbally. 



In accordance with the plan of organization a written and de- 

 tailed fornnila, made out by the inventor, had been deposited with 

 a New York City trust company, which could only be lifted upon 

 payment to the inventor of a large sum of money and delivery 

 to him of certain stock of the company. To earn this the in- 

 ventor had to manufacture two thousand pounds at one run 

 at a cost not exceeding twenty-five cents per pound. 



The chemist now undertook the experimental work in earnest, 

 and finally announced to the writer, who had succeeded the 

 business man as fiscal agent representing the organizers, that 

 the process was genuine, and exhibited samples which he desig- 

 nated as synthetic rubber and which he stated he had manufac- 

 tured by the inventor's formula without the aid or admixture 

 of any real rubber. He stated that the material could be made 

 in quantities at a cost of about fifteen cents per pound, and added 

 that the ingredients could be secured to any amount in the open 

 market. .At a meeting of the stockholders, shortly after, the 

 chemist made a similar verbal report. On the strength of this 

 report, manufacturing and selling corporations were organized 

 and $20,000 set aside for expenses. The inventor moved west, 

 where, with the facilities offered in the form of expert engi- 

 neers, chemists, etc., it was thought that under the direction of 

 the manufacturer, who had been elected president, the manufac- 

 turing problem would soon be worked out. But, alas, for human 

 plans ! Months and months passed away and about all the in- 

 ventor did was to make excuses and design machinery which 

 refused to work. Just when the president would grow discour- 

 aged, the inventor would restore hope by making by hand a 

 batch of ten pounds or so of nice clean rubber and then get Imsy 

 on another machine. 



In the meantime, the writer conceived the idea that perhaps 

 the inventor had fooled the chemist, so persuaded the latter to 

 make some more rubber. He stated he used the formula as he 

 recollected it and as he collected it from his notes (for the 

 formula he used when lie made the rubber he had written out 

 and put in escrow for safekeeping and it could only be taken 

 out in the presence of the president), but the result was not 

 rubber but a brittle nondescript. Again he tried, but with the 

 same result, and he reluctantly concluded that he had been fooled, 

 that the inventor had put real rubber in the mixture during the 

 early stages and then recovered it by coagulation at the end ; or 

 that his own formula was defective, or that he had forgotten- 

 some of the details of manipulation. So with many sighs of 

 regret, the eminent chemist gave it up. 



The $20.(XX) disappeared for lawyers' fees, traveling ex- 

 penses, in Ijuilding special model machines, weekly salary to the 

 inventor, etc., and he, having extracted all he could, journeyedl 

 back to New York, there to rail at the unjustice and heartless- 

 ness of corporations, and perhaps to lure other good American 

 dollars into his pocket by the glittering promise of synthetic 

 rubber. 



This is not quite the end, for, to the writer's surprise, the 

 inventor recently called upon him and told a long tale of woe 

 which, boiled down, was to the effect that the formula was all- 

 right; that he could make rubber and wanted to, only the west- 

 ern people had spies about and he didn't dare go ahead and 

 complete his contract for fear they would steal his secret. So 

 it was arranged that a certain well-known rubber corporation 

 should take up the work, and if the formula was found genuine 

 and valuable, they would buy the other interests out, etc. 



The inventor agreed to give the corporation's chemist a dem- 

 onstration. He was to manufacture the stuff in two batches up 

 to a certain point. Each batch could be tested for rubber and 



