February 1, 1912.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



209 



air, sweeping view and wholesome outdoor life. The 

 manufacturer, banker or business man of the distant 

 town found that he could be a farmer for an hour before 

 breakfast, and be at his desk at the accustomed hour of 

 nine. 



As a result, these abandoned spots all over the East 

 have taken on new life ; the old houses have been re- 

 paired, enlarged and made into comfortable and pictur- 

 esque dwellings, and the barns have been pushed into 

 perpendicular, or, more frequently, entirely rebuilt, and 

 for a good part of the year at least, these spots, so re- 

 cently inhabited only by the rabbit and the partridge, 

 are now the habitation of happy and healthy humanity. 



And this has been done on a vast scale all over the 

 region of the once abandoned farms, and done solely 

 through the elimination or, at least, the minimizing of 

 distance by the rubber tire. The effect has been e.xactly 

 as if a private railroad had been run from the nearest 

 town to the front door of everv farmhouse. 



The automobile and accessory shows, held in January 

 in Madison Square Garden and the Grand Central Palace, 

 New York, were signally successful whether viewed 

 from the standpoint of the exhibitor or the spectator. 

 The exhibits were comprehensive and well displayed, the 

 attendance large, and the general interest most gratify- 

 ing. The auto-car, both for pleasure and for commer- 

 cial use, has now become such a recognized feature in 

 modern life that its use is bound to increase with every 

 year for a long time to come — Avhich means more tires 

 (doubtless the output in 1912 will reach close to 4.000,000 

 tires) and more work for rubber manufacturers and 

 rubber planters and gatherers.. 



THE DAY OF PLASTIC MASSES. 



IF the Napoleonic saying, that "the art of governing is 

 * rooted in the ability to surprise" is true, then modern 

 chemistry makes a strong bid to rule our destinies. 



Habitually we endow the alchemist with uncanny 

 power, yet it must be admitted that his successor, the 

 chemist of today, has performed greater magic. He has 

 stripped such terms as indigo, vanilla, musk, and even 

 silk of the mystery of their creation, and by his hand the 

 common, everyday substances around us, yield commodi- 

 ties hitherto exotic and rare. Who, in the days of our 

 boyhood, would have pinned his career to such an article 

 as coal-tar? And yet, of only one coal-tar product, syn- 

 thetic indigo, Germanv manufactured $14,500,000 worth 

 in 1910. 



Then, too, one must admire the genius that called forth 

 from the air those nitrogen-compoiuids, all important for 

 agriculture, and upon the existence of which cheap food 

 depends. If, as experts hold, the Chilian nitre beds will 

 give out within 30 years, where would such countries as 

 the United States, which annually consumes nitre to the 

 value of $15,000,000, and Germany, which consumes 

 $34,000,000 worth, get their nitrate. That question has 

 been answered — "From the air !" Now we know that the 

 whole German demand could be met from the volume of 

 air which overlies two acres of land. 



There is now 180,000 h. p. electrolytically employed in 



Norway alone for this purpose. From their works in 

 Notodden and Rjukanfos Falls the Badische Company 

 and their partners will supply nearly half the demands of 

 Germanv. They have built a new town, Saaheim, to 

 harbor 10,000 to 12,000 people, and their turbines are 

 driven by water, falling from a height of 1,050 feet 

 through ten big flumes, built side by side, like giant organ 

 pipes, on the front of the precipice. The history of these 

 achievements is closely interwoven with the position held 

 by India rubber in modern industrial development. 



' In the group of artificial plastic masses, celluloid, the 

 pioneer, still holds its own with unabated strength, after 

 an existence of about 35 years, though for some uses 

 rivaled in commercial importance by acetylcellulose, now 

 prominent as the raw material for photographic films 

 used in the moving picture trade. As the daily output 

 of the plain films from both materials e.xceeds 300,000 

 yards, or 90,000,000 per annum, this article alone, at 10 

 cents per yard, represents $9,000,000. In other applica- 

 tions acetylcellulose supplants ivory, amber, and horn, 

 and is used in the industry of prepared papers, for wax 

 cloth and waterproofing, for coating cotton threads, as an 

 insulation for thin copper w^res, where it surpasses silk, 

 for artificial silk, etc. We understand that Germany man- 

 ufactures the bulk of this plastic, while our country has 

 the largest output in films, with Germany a close second. 

 Acetylcellulose calls for cotton, cominon salt and acetate 

 of lime as principal raw materials. Therefore improved 

 methods should lower the cost, which is still about two 

 and one-half times that of celluloid. 



The artificial silk industry, with an annual output of 

 5,000 to 6,000 tons, equals 20 per cent, of the natural silk. 

 A number of different plastics g,dminister to its demands. 



Viscose, likewise worked into' filaments for textiles, oc- 

 cupies a position apart, and is also used for horn imita- 

 tions and notions. 



Galalitli, the product of casein and formaldehyde, be- 

 longs again to another class. 



The youngest member in the family of plastics is bake- 

 lite, having stepped into a position of assured importance 

 within the comparatively short period of three years. 

 These substances and a number of others, are daily met 

 in a variety of uses, sometimes supplanting one another, 

 and frequently taking the place of hard rubber. They 

 are not substitutes ; they stand individual and alone, and 

 often perform a certain function specifically and better 

 than anything else conld. They affect portions of the rub- 

 ber trade in varying degrees, beneficially, where a more 

 far-reaching technical effect is attained by them. 



Thus the new high voltage insulators have made it pos- 

 sible to transmit the current over 100 or 200 miles, thereby 

 creating a demand in distributing appliances of low volt- 

 age, which otherwise never would have come into exist- 

 ence. Beneficial also is the appearance in tiie market of 

 new articles and notions, to which the modern plastics 

 through their special adaptability have given rise ; for the 

 rubber manufacturer, having the customers, and being 

 already in possession of the market, forms the most nat- 

 ural channel for the supply of these goods — if he takes 

 them up. On the other hand, these new- masses, backed 

 as they are, by an unprecedented chemical activity, and 

 ever growing cheaper, may invade his ow^n field, and in a 

 measure supplant rubber. ■ 



Clearly the rubber manufacturer cannot afford to 

 stand wholly aloof : he nnist concern himself more or less 

 about the nature and uses of these new bodies. The 

 mackintosh manufacturers accepted the shower-proof 

 process, although it did 'not employ rubber, and made it 

 profitable. Perhaps the day may come when all of the 

 valuable plastics may be manufactured in rubber mil's. 



