September i, 1904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



413 



DANINS MACHINE FOR SMOKING RUBBER. 



THE increasing interest in bringing the production of 

 India rubber under intelligent supervision, in forests as 

 well as on plantations, is evinced by the issue of numerous 

 patents for mechanical appliances for use in connection with 

 extracting latex or its conversion into rubber. Herewith is 

 reproduced the drawing accompanying the specifications of 

 United States patent No. 765,167, issued July 19, 1904, to Joao 

 Roso Cardoso Danin, of Pard, Brazil, for "an apparatus for 

 treating raw rubber," or, more properly, (or smoking the latex 

 of such varieties as are susceptible of coagulation by the use 

 of smoke. 



The operation of this device is based upon the discharge of 

 heated products of combustion upon a mass of la/ex on the in- 

 side of a rotating cylinder, but the inventor does not claim 

 broadly to cover this principle in his patent, it having been 

 embodied in the invention of Manoel Vianna Coutinho, of 

 Brazil, illustrated in The India Rubber World, March 15, 

 1894 (page 170), and protected by United States patent No. 



5^1,781. The Coutinho patent is now owned by Senhor Danin, 

 who has sought to add certain improvements to the device. 



In the drawing 13 relates to a revolvable cylinder or drum, 

 suitably supported, and rotated by means of a shaft ©.carrying 

 friction rollers 7 8 anc < having a crank 9. The ends of the 

 drying drum are provided with circular openings, of three- 

 fifths of the diameter of tne drum, through one of which ex- 

 tends a conduit 14. by means of which smoke is introduced, 

 the latex having first been introduced through one of the open 

 ends of the cylinder. Under the outer downwardly turned end 

 of the conduit is a funnel 15. under which is placed the fuel 

 for producing the smoke. The other end of the conduit is 

 provided with a flaring nozzle 17. through which the smoke is 

 discharged into the cylinder. The figures 10- 11 relate to anti 

 friction rollers, on shafts, on either side of the drum, to aid in 

 keeping the same in position, there being no axial support for 

 the drum. 



In using the apparatus, the latex is poured into the cylinder, 

 which is then rotated. The nearly fluid latex spreads over 

 the inside of the circumference of the cylinder and is car- 

 ried by the revolution of the latter past the discharge end of 



the smoke conduit, the treatment being continued until, in the 

 judgment of the operator, the resulting layer of rubber has 

 been sufficiently coagulated. Fresh latex is then admitted, 

 and the operation repeated, the number of successive layers 

 thus produced being limited only by the capacity of the cylin- 

 der. When the deposit of rubber within the cylinder has be- 

 come so thick as to be too close to the smoke funnel 17, as at 

 first adjusted, the latter may be lowered, successively, by 

 means of the support 16. working in the socket 18- One 

 point upon which the patent specification is silent is the man- 

 ner in which the coagulated rubber is removed from the cylin- 

 der. 



RUBBER TRADING PROFITS IN AFRICA. 



THE annual meeting of the Nieuwe Afrikaansche Handels- 

 Vennootschap, of Rotterdam, was held on July 16, when 

 the dividend on the trading for 1903 was fixed at 4 per cent. 

 This is the oldest company trading on the Congo, having es- 

 tablished a branch at Boma as early as 1.S60, and rubber figures 

 to an important extent in its operations. At the above meet- 

 ing the directors reported a flourishing condition of the enter- 

 prises in which the company is interested in the Congo Free 

 State, while the affairs of the French colonial companies with 

 which the company is associated are improving. They were 

 confident, therefore, regarding the future. The company holds 

 340 shares in the Syndicat du Kasai, one of the Belgian Congo 

 companies, out of a total of 2010 [See The India Rubber 

 World. July 1, 1903 — page 344]. and these figure in the com- 

 pany's balance sheet at 7000 francs each, or a total of 2,380,000 



francs [=$459-34o|. 



# * » 



The annual meeting of the Cie. Anversoise des Plantations 

 du Lubefu was held early in the month in Brussels, when the 

 accounts for 1903 were approved. The credit side of the profit 

 and loss account is 68,110 francs [$'3. '45 23], which is appor- 

 tioned between general expenses and sinking fund. These 

 figures mark a heavy decline as compared with the profits re- 

 ported a few years ago, when good dividends were delared. 

 In 1901 the company merged its commercial system in the 

 Syndicat du Kasai, reserving the plantations of rubber [See 

 The India Rubber World, October 1, 1902— page 9]. and the 

 question now comes up of dealing with the company's Kasai 

 shares to pay its debts. Two Kasai company shares were sold 

 during the year at 9700 francs each. It is proposed to deliver 

 such remaining shares as it may be necessary to sell, at 9000 

 francs each, to a syndicate which the company's shareholders 

 may join. The Labefu company had proposed to sell its con- 

 cessions, but was informed officially that the Congo Free State 

 was opposed to a transfer to a new company. The company re- 

 tains its rubber plantations, dating from 1900. It is not hoped 

 that these will be productive before the fifth or sixth year, at 



best. 



» • * 



The Brussels journal La Chronique Colonialt says: "The 

 India Rubber World of New York reproduces our informa- 

 tion concerning the participation of the Socieie A B I R in the 

 rubber plantations of the Malayan slates, and by way of com- 

 mentary proposes the question : ' Does this foreshadow the 

 beginning of the end of large yields and large profits in King 

 Leopold's rubber regions? ' We think that in this fact we 

 must see nothing else but the desire of the stockholders of the 

 A B I R to share, by temporarily giving up a part of their 

 profits, in interesting experiments which promise to be profit- 

 able." 



