July 1. 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



529 



New Uses for India Rubber. 



The Editor of The India Rubber World prepared this article some months ago. In z-icw of the fact, however, that there 

 was to be a competition on this subject at the Rubber Exhibition in London, it was not published. By the time this reaches 

 England the E.vhibition will be over, and these suggestions will not be in the way of an anti- climax. 



INDIA rubber is the Jacob, the supphuiter, of the industrial 

 world. Rubber hose dispossessed hose of leather, the rub- 

 ber-covered golf ball drove out the "gutty," the motor 

 tire banished the horse. Xo industry or profession but has 

 shown rubber supplanting some time-honored object. Take, 

 for example, the case of King David as chronicled in the 

 first book of Kings. "David was old and stricken in years 

 and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat." 

 Then his servants got a young maid who lay in his bosom to 

 warm him. This system presumably prevailed among elderly 

 kings until 18S0 or thereabouts, when india rubber in the form 

 of the hot water bottle supplanted the feminine heat supplier, 

 and has done so, to a degree, ever since. 



Industrially it has insinuated itself everywhere, displacing 

 wood, metals, fabrics and only rarely making a new and orig- 

 inal use for its wonderfully adaptable self. It was its costli- 

 ness only that kept it from further encroachment. 



With rubber at a shilling or twenty-five cents a pound (and 

 that is where it is said to be going), the great expansion in 

 its manufacture will be in the line of further and greater 

 encroachment. 



Let's afield with fancy and picture its progress : 



The growth that will come in automobile and motor truck 

 tires has already been forecasted, but the impetus to be given 

 to other established lines does not seem to be appreciated. 

 All will grow greatly. The only obstacles are the increasing 

 cost of labor — which is the most serious — and high prices for 

 fabrics, solvents and ingredients. 



IXDIA RUBBER LEATHER. 



In footwear of leather, rubber has already made itself a 

 factor. 



Aside from the cements used in channeling and filling, the 

 rubber heel and sole have displaced quite a percentage of 

 those made of leather. With low-priced, high-grade rubber, 

 leather in soles for footwear, material for trunks, straps and a 

 score of other uses, including machine belting and harnesses, 

 is sure to give way to its more adaptable rival. As for shoe 

 uppers, leather is used theoretically because of its porosity 

 that allows heated air to escape and absorbs perspiration — 

 this in spite of the fact that the leather is filled with oil and 

 blacked and varnished. It is quite possible that a mixture 

 of fibre and rubber will appear that will be cool, odorless and 

 blackable. 



As for patent leather, it is sure to be supplanted by a 

 smooth, glossy-surfaced rubber product on a cloth backing 

 that will not crack and will be far cheaper than the high- 

 priced leather products. This will open a field in footwear, 

 shopping bags, ladies' belts, etc., etc. 



Indeed, wherever leather is used today rubber will soon 

 prove a formidable rival. 



INDIA RUBBER LUMBER. 



Mats, matting and tiling of india rubber are already ex- 

 tensive factors in home, office and factory furnishing. But 

 why not flooring of hard or semi-hard rubber? As has been 

 proved in tests of tiling wear, it will outlast stone or wood. 

 It can be made in any color. Certainly at the present price 

 of hardwood flooring, with rubber at 25 cents a pound, it 

 could compete. Nor would it need varnishing, waxing or 

 ■oiling — simply polishing. It could easily be molded with a 

 semi-hard lower side for nailing and be matched and fur- 



nished in strips of any length or width. It would be prac- 

 tically fireproof, and not inflammable as is varnish-covered 

 wood, and would neither swell nor shrink, as it would be 

 moisture proof and vermin proof. For a white-ant country 

 it would be invaluable. In cabinet work, hard rubber veneers 

 to imitate ebony, mahogany, bog oak or any of the darker 

 woods are easily made and the richest effects secured. For 

 furniture, solid mahogany sideboards, tables and chairs may 

 be superseded by those made of hard rubber. 



In other words, hard rubber lumber is in sight — the lumber 

 sawed, planed and turned as lumber is today and the sawdust 

 not a waste product but molded into new lumber, and the 

 furniture or panels or flooring after use returned to the mill 

 that made them, and these, too, made into just as good hard 

 rubber lumber as when first manufactured. 



Better than rubber roofing will be the fibre and rubber 

 shingles of the future. If the underwriters are fussy the 

 fibre may be asbestos or the compounding ingredient 

 infusorial earth. 



Boat builders (wooden boats) have trouble with their lum- 

 ber. When hard rubber lumber is available they will rejoice. 

 It will be hard on those who copper sheath, or sell Anti- 

 Toredo paints; for the busy water borer will not touch 

 rubber. 



Speaking of hard rubber lumber, who can say that a fac- 

 tory for turning it out will not one day be established in 

 Singapore, to make boxes in which to ship rubber? The 

 boxes of course to be sawed up into short vulcanite sheets 

 for insulation work, once their duty as rubber carriers is 

 finished. At least it would not be difficult to make wooden 

 boxes with a thin coating of hard rubber vulcanized to the 

 wood, forming a clean anti-sliver coating. Such boxes could 

 easily be ventilated and should find use when empty. 



Great European ports send to South America for Green- 

 heart logs to build their docks, and a costly product it is. 

 Iron columns covered with a thin film of hard rubber should 

 be cheaper and far more durable. So, too, the protection 

 of iron and steel in scores of places where they perish from 

 oxidation would prove a simple, effective solution of this evil. 



SEMIHARD PIPE. 

 As liquid conductors there is a possibility that semi-hard 

 rubber piping may compete with copper and lead pipes. So, 

 too, lead-armored cables may give way to those coated with 

 semi-hard rubber. The product would be just as flexible, 

 much lighter, and cheaper. 



INDIA RUBBER WOODENWARE. 



In the line of sports will come hard rubber golf clubs, 

 cricket and baseball bats, fishing rods, polo mallets and balls, 

 and so on. The city policemen will no longer use a club of 

 locust wood; it will be of hard rubber. And this will extend 

 all through the line of woodenware where anything especially 

 tough, flawless and fine is required. 



RUBBER LINOLEUM AND OIL CLOTH. 



Speaking again of floor coverings, oil cloth and linoleum 

 as such cannot exist once rubber is really cheap and plentiful. 

 Every rubber manufacturer knows that a pound of Para 

 rubber will go as far in compounding as ten pounds of boiled 

 or oxidized oil. The oil costs, say, seven cents a pound, 

 and rubber at less than four times that price will certainly 



