August i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



397 



pounds]. The Hannoverscher Courier states, regarding the re- 

 port of specialists : 



"The effect is that the exportation of rubber tires will diminish, 

 and that factories will to a still greater extent establish branches 

 in France, and there produce rubber tires to fill the demand of 

 the French public which cannot be satisfied by the French pro- 

 duction itself." 



It is doubtful that French industry will profit by such methods, 

 as these new establishments will be quite a competition to 

 French production, as was the previous importation. On the 

 other hand, no one will object to it, as French automobile tire 

 factories have their branches in Germany. [There are, for in- 

 stance, the Michelin and Hutchinson firms. Editor I. R. W.] 



We can only hope that the French government will revise 

 the new tariff, on account of its rigorousness, and change it as 

 soon as possible, so that the hostilities between French and Ger- 

 man rubber tire manufacturers will be stopped. Such a manifes- 

 tation of sharp competition does not contribute to an increase 

 of the respect of the public for either the German or the French 

 automobile tire manufacturers. 



SUSPENSION OF A GOLF BALL COMPANY. 



At a special meeting of shareholders of Hutchinson, Main & 

 Co., Limited, manufacturers of golf balls, Springvale Works. 

 Cowlairs, Glasgow, Scotland, on July 1, it was resolved to wind 

 up the business, and Messrs. John M. McLeod and Robert D. 

 Fraser, chartered accountants, of Glasgow, were named as 

 liquidators. The concern mentioned, formerly a copartnership, 

 was registered as a limited company in Edinburgh, early in 1906,. 

 with £100,000 [=$486,550] capital. The Hutchinson company 

 were the defendants in the notable litigation instigated by the 

 Haskell Golf Ball Co. (Akron, Ohio), for the defense of their 

 British patent, which case was brought up to the British house 

 of lords, the decision of which was unfavorable to the American 

 company. [See The India Rubber World, January 1, 190S — 

 pages 110-112.] 



A NEW PRODUCT FOR USE IN THE ARTS. 



BY DR. F. G. WEICHMANN.* 



THE base of this new material is vegetable-albumin, under 

 which generic term vegetable ivory, the vegetable caseins, 

 glutens, hemi-celluloses, reserve-celluloses, horny-albumins, etc., 

 are included. 



The vegetable-albumin, from whatever source derived, is 

 treated with one or more substances, which convert it into a 

 new substance, a plastic eminently well adapted for use in the 

 arts and industries. To this new plastic the name "Protal" has 

 been given. 



Any and all materials commonly used in the rubber industry 

 may be incorporated with protal. About a hundred different 

 protal compounds have been produced and, of course, the prop- 

 erties of these compounds vary with the ingredients employed. 



Protal can be molded, pressed, or otherwise formed into any 

 desired shape. It is odorless, resilient, and can be cut, sawed, 

 filed, polished, tapped, and counter sunk, like hard rubber. It 

 can be colored by dyes, and all pigments can be incorporated 

 with it. It is non-explosive and is very resistant to the influ- 

 ence of heat and electricity. '• 



Among the great number of protal compounds which have 

 been made, there are some which contain rubber, rubber sub- 

 stitutes, shellac, rosins, asbestos, etc. Some of these products 

 remain plastic and moldable for a long time and possess the 

 remarkable quality of hardening on immersion in water. 



Compounds of protal with rubber, rubber fluxes, and some 

 of the so called rubber substitutes, exhibit a wide range in their 

 properties. They can be made hard, semi hard or soft, which 



of these qualities they are to exhibit being determined by the 

 choice of loading materials and by the conditions of heat and 

 pressure governing their production. 



Among the most important compounds of protal, is protal- 

 bakelite. "Bakelite" is that most interesting and valuable prod- 

 uct, the discovery of which was announced last year by Dr. 

 L. H. Baekeland, of Yonkers, New York, and which is, as is 

 well known, a condensation product of phenol and formaldehyde. 



Protal-bakelite possesses many valuable qualities. It exhibits 

 great resistance to nearly all chemical solvents. It is an ex- 

 cellent electric insulator, is capable of taking a high degree of 

 polish, can be produced in almost every color, and is well 

 adapted to the many purposes and uses for which hard rubber 

 and hard rubber compounds are, at present, almost exclusively 

 employed. 



It possesses the great advantage over hard rubber of not 

 being subject to oxidation, of not softening on the application 

 of heat, and of not being attacked by oils and bodies of a sim- 

 ilar nature. 



Any and all materials, organic as well as inorganic, may be 

 incorporated with protal-bakelite, thus giving rise to a great 

 number of compounds which possess very different qualities, 

 and properties and which are adapted to a great variety of 

 uses. 



Protal-bakelite compounds have, as before said, great dielectric 

 strength, ranging from about ten thousand volts to about twenty- 

 six thousand volts per millimeter. 



It would be practically impossible to specify all of the uses 

 to which this new plastic may be put. It need only be borne 

 in mind that this is a plastic which can be fashioned into any 

 shape, which can be molded and pressed, which is capable of 

 taking a high polish, which is not affected by water — cold or 

 boiling — which is resistant to practically all chemical solvents, 

 which can be tooled and machined with ease and which is 

 produced in both flexible and rigid form. 



In cost, this material compares very favorably with rubber, 

 and every day witnesses its introduction into new fields of in- 

 dustry. The manufacture of protal and of protal-bakelite is in 

 the hands of a New York concern, the Protal Co., with works 

 at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Yonkers, New York. 



* * * 



Editorial Note. — Vegetable ivory, mentioned in the preceding 

 article, is the same as the ivory nut, the seed of the ivory palm, 

 native of South America; known also as corozo. The albumen 

 is close grained and very hard, resembling the finest ivory in 

 texture and color, and capable of being wrought into orna- 

 mental work. The quantity of ivory nuts entering into com- 

 merce is very great. The average importations into the United 

 States for some time past have been over 9,200 tons a year, 

 and the consumption in other countries still larger. Hitherto 

 when vegetable ivory has been worked into buttons and the 

 like the scrap cuttings have been regarded as valueless. It is 

 now used, however, as the base of such products as "Protal." 



♦ ♦ ♦ 



The firm Bakelite Gesellschaft, m. 6. H., has been incorporated 

 in Germany, at Berlin. The object of the enterprise is to pro- 

 duce, sell and use the Bakelite, invented by Dr. Baekeland, of 

 New York. The company is also to use the patent which was 

 granted to Dr. Baekeland, and to produce and to sell all the 

 materials which compete with Baekelite, especially the condensed 

 products and plastic masses, and also to acquire and use the 

 patents to be granted for the production and uses of such 

 products. The capital stock is 300,000 marks [=$71,400]. The 

 business managers are Consul Sali Segall, of Charlottenburg, and 

 Max Wieger, ph.ii., of Erkner. 



•Abstract of a paper read before the American Institute of Chemical 

 Engineers, at the second semi annual meeting, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 

 June 22-24, 1910. 



The botanic gardens of Ceylon are mentioned as having dis- 

 patched, early in May, thirty-six Wardian cases of Herea Bra- 

 siliensis, consigned to the Liberian Rubber Corporation, Limited. 



