July i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



359 



Vulcanized Carriage Cloth. 



RUBBER covered cloth for upholstering seats and covering 

 the tops of automobiles and other carriages, as it comes 

 from the calender, is of a dull dead black or brown color, 

 similar to the finish found usually on rubber boots and rubber 

 blankets. While this sort of finish is suitable for some classes 

 of work, most users require cloth with a small raised design 

 or impression, to add to the appearance of the made up article. 

 In compliance with these requirements, four styles of impressions 

 are rolled in, from which to choose. 



1. The pinhead pebble. The name describes it quite well. The 

 cloth looks as though it were just covered with pinheads scattered 

 every way about 1-32 inch apart. 



2. Long grain. This grain is quite popular with the automobile 

 body manufacturers, and it looks as though marked all over with 

 the point of a pin, apparently no regular design being carried out. 



3. English. The English grain is gaining rapidly in popularity. 

 The raised lines are about 1-16 inch wide by 3-4 inch long, and 

 all run one way ; that is, no two lines cross. It might remind one 

 living near salt water of the rills left in the sand by the action 

 of the waves when the tide falls. 



4. Flat grain. This is the hardest of all to describe. The lines 

 are about 1-16 inch wide and very short and crooked, being 

 scattered over the cloth close together and running every way. 



In order to give the cloth this finished appearance it is run 



through a mill having two steel rolls about 18 inches in diameter 

 and about 5 feet long. The top roll is engraved the reverse of 

 the design that is to be desired on the cloth. Generally this is 

 rolled in with a knurling tool, but sometimes a secret process is 

 used, the main pcinl of which is that the work is done by an 

 etching acid that eats that part of the steel roll that is not cov- 

 ered with wax. 



The bottom roll is of the same diameter as the top one, but 

 the surface is a layer of compressed paper. To make the bottom 

 roll have impressions that will just match the top roll is impera- 

 tive; therefore the top roll is heated and the two rolls squeezed 

 together, rolling the impressions into the lower or paper covered 

 roll. This paper impression is called the matrix. 



The cloth in 100 yard lengths taken from the calender is put 

 on an arbor in the front of the machine and then fed through, 

 automatically winding up on an arbor at the back of the rolls. 

 Although the compressed paper covered roll is nearly as hard 

 as the steel one, still when the cloth comes out the impression 

 is on the rubber side only, leaving the cloth back perfectly smooth. 



As for the vulcanizing process: The rolls of impressioned 

 cloth are loaded upon a truck made especially to carry six rolls — 

 three on each side, supporting them by the ends of the arbor 

 through each roll — and taken to the vulcanizing room. 



The two machines shown in this room are for varnishing and 



Dry Heater for Carriage Cloth. 



Varnishing and Festooning Machine. 



