358 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1910. 



GARE'S WASTE RUBBER PROCESS. 



XHE process brought out in England by Gare for utilizing 

 ■*■ rubber waste is now protected by patents both at home and 

 abroad. In Great Britain and in Germany the grant of the 

 patents was strongly though ineffectually opposed. More recently 

 a patent has been granted in the United States, to obtain which 

 a visit was made to the country by Mr. C. J. Grist, of London. 



Mr. Thomas Gare, the inventor of the new process, is well 

 known in England as a clever and indefatigable worker in the 

 direction of the utilization of wastes. Some years ago he 

 turned his attention to waste rubber and came to the conclusion 

 that "reclaiming" is not necessary. Mr. Gare is not a chemist, 

 nor had he at that time experience in rubber, but he started 

 experimenting which culminated in this process. 



The Gare process, in short, consist in taking waste rubber, 

 grinding it by means of special grinders, which he has invented, 

 into the condition of a very fine and homogeneous powder. 

 Afterwards this powder is placel in a cold mold ; then pressure is 

 applied for the purpose of expelling all air. Finally the mold 

 and the powdered rubber waste contained are heated up to a 

 temperature of about 400 F. 



The difference between the above methods and those known 



Chari.es J. Grist. 



to rubber manufacturers (except the high temperature) will not 

 be apparent at first sight; but there- is one very great difference 

 — i. e., the applying of pressure to the mold before the applica- 

 tion of heat. Up to the introduction oi Mr. Gare's process all 

 rubber manufacturer:; had looked upon the reheating of waste 

 rubber as a vulcanizing process and considered that nothing but 

 a vulcanizing action — 1. c. some chemical action between the 

 sulphur and the rubber— could take plai e. 



The vulcanizing process is very little understood even by the 

 foremost chemists. Mr. Gare healed waste rubber far above the 

 vulcanizing temperature — 1. e., 400 to 450 F. — and yet 

 the goods made by his process show no signs of over-vulcaniza- 

 tion, and are as good and in some cases even better than they 

 were when first compounded and vulcanized. 



The proof of this is that there is now a company of £150,000 

 capital in England which has more orders for mechanical rub- 

 ber goods, such as tires, valves and the like, than it can turn 

 out. Besides there exist two smaller companies, licensed by 

 this company, operating successfully. A powerful German syndi- 

 cate has obtained the control of the Gare patents for continental 

 Europe. 



Some eighteen months ago Mr. C. J. Grist, who has had 

 nearly a quarter of a century's experience in rubber and vege- 

 table oils, and who is a Fellow of the Chemical Society of 

 Great Britain, was asked by a strong financial group in England 

 to investigate the process and he reported that he considered 

 the inventor had by his systematic and untrammeled line of 

 experiments hit upon a method by which waste rubber could be 

 remade into goods without being revulcanized, or in fact, any 

 chemical action taking place between the sulphur and rubber 

 contained in the waste, although the material was raised to a 

 temperature far above the vulcanizing period. 



He stated as his opinion that this was caused by the fact that 

 Mr. Gare pressed out all air from the material and the mold 

 before heat was applied. Mr. Grist analyzed the powdered 

 waste and the finished goods and found no chemical difference 

 between them, although the temperature had been raised to over 

 400 F., thereby establishing the fact, in his opinion, 

 that chemical action between sulphur and rubber could not take 

 place except where free oxygen was present. 



The effect of the heat during the process is to accomplish 

 the perfect mechanical fusion of the particles of powdered vul- 

 canized waste rubber. This he maintains is new to the manu- 

 facturer, and also to the chemist. That it opens up a fresh 

 field of industry is obvious, and its importance at the present 

 time, when rubber is at such a high price, cannot be gainsaid. 



Mr. Grist's opinion has during the last few months been 

 backed by that of the well-known German chemical rubber ex- 

 pert, Dr. Fritz Frank, of Berlin, after a most thorough investi- 

 gation. Mr. Grist having not only chemical but also practical 

 and commercial knowledge of rubber, is peculiarly well suited 

 to conduct negotiations for the working in the United States 

 of the process here described. 



GUTTA-JELUTONG IN BORNEO. 



IN De Indische Mercuur appears this note regarding jelutong, 

 which in the Dutch is spelled djeloetoeng: "The journey to 

 the southern and eastern Districts of Borneo, made in accord- 

 ance with a previous announcement in the Java Bode ("Java 

 Messenger"), by the chief of the agricultural chemical laboratory 

 of the department of agriculture, Dr. W. R. Tromp de Haas, and 

 the inspector of the forestry department, A. Th. L. Salverda, 

 has made it appear advisable to take such measures immediately 

 as will prevent the native population from continuing their pres- 

 ent destructive methods of working the djeloetoeng trees. The 

 terms on which the Dutch resident is to grant to the Neder- 

 landsch-Indische Boschproducten Maatschappij (Dutch East In- 

 dies Forest Products Co.) of Amsterdam the concession to 

 gather this product, have now been finally determined. The 

 operations of this company will presumably also benefit the 

 native population. 



"In addition to the supervising force to be employed by the 

 company, the government probably will also appoint inspectors 

 whose duty it will be to guard against the use of injudicious 

 methods of gathering gutta-percha on the part of the Dyaks. 

 The first-named official has also visited Sarawak, where the 

 aforesaid company is already engaged in working the djeloetoeng 

 trees, which are not found in groves in that territory and South 

 Borneo, but interspersed among other growths." 



A writer in an earlier number of De Indische Mercuur, in an 

 article on the Malaysian Rubber Co. — which company has been 

 reported on in The India Rubber World — doubted whether the 

 use of any coagulant for gutta-jelutong could be monopolized 

 in Dutch Borneo. The editor of Mercuur comments: "If a con- 

 stant supply [of jelutong] is to be insured, the only available 

 means will be planting. However, if such cultivation is to be a 

 paying enterprise, the market price of the product will have to 

 advance quite considerably." 



