April 1. 1920.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



NEW YORK 

 80TAN1CAI. 



403 



Reg. United States Pat. Off. 



Published on th 



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THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



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HENRY C. PEARSON, F.R.G.S., Editor 



Vol. 62. 



APRIL L 1920 



No. 1 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING. 



PENNY WISDOM. 



THE American rubber industry, with its vastly in- 

 creasing interests, may well view with grave con- 

 cern the proposal in Congress to economize through a 

 28 per cent reduction in the appropriation for the upkeep 

 of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce and 

 the Bureau of Standards. Very valuable has been 

 the service of the former bureau in aiding in the de- 

 velopment of this country's manufacturing industries and 

 in extending their markets at home and abroad, not only 

 by gathering, with the aid of trained experts, a great 

 amount of helpful information, but also in actively di- 

 recting through commercial attaches in other lands the 

 speedy and profitable distribution of American products. 

 So, too, have the functions of the other bureau been of 

 great aid in establishing standards for scientific investi- 

 gations, engineering, manufacturing, interstate and in- 

 ternational trade, and educational institutions. 



Reduced resources for those agencies would mean cur- 

 tailment of the scope and volume of their work, impaired 

 usefulness of the bureaus, and the consequent handicap 

 that American manufacturers must suffer in trying to 

 cope with powerful rivals overseas for a fair share of the 

 world's post-war trade. 



American business men know far better than politi- 

 cians how quickly war-worn countries are being regener- 

 ated and how many obstacles this country must sur- 

 mount if the United States is to hold its own in foreign 

 commerce under conditions profoundly changed by the 

 Great Conflict. They know only too well that if our 

 industries are to flourish we must develop foreign trade 

 as well as meet the needs of our home market. In other 

 words, domestic stability and national growth are vitally 

 dependent upon steady, increasing international com- 

 merce. 



Congress cannot shirk its plain duty to fairly aid 

 American enterprise; and it is incumbent not only upon 

 rubber manufacturers, but upon those in all other lines 

 to protest against such false economy and to demand of 

 the Government not only for themselves but for the 

 American people the aid and consideration that other 

 governments only too gladly offer as a reward for their 

 industry and to enhance their prosperity. 



CLEAN RUBBER AT THE SOURCE. 



CLEANING rubber at the source of production was a 

 project that once attracted considerable attention 

 and was also successfully and profitably accomplished, al- 

 though in a small way. When only wild rubber was 

 available some process was needed, for washed and dried 

 rubber in the manufactory showed an average loss of 

 40 per cent for African, 30 per cent for Centrals, and 

 20 per cent for Paras. The "loss" was chiefly dirt and 

 water and presumably could just as well be removed be- 

 fore shipment as after. 



It, therefore, was natural that small cleansing plants 

 should be erected on the African coast; in Central and 

 South America. They were never very successful nor 

 generally patronized. The main reason was, that there 

 was always the feeling that rubber should be gathered 

 in a cleanly manner and not need further cleansing, and 

 furthermore, a multiplicity of grades gave greater profit 

 to those alert in substitution. 



With the advent of plantation rubber the problem 

 solved itself. Almost at once clean dry rubber ready for 

 "breaking down" was on the market in great quantities. 

 Scrap and earth rubber were cleaned at the plantation 

 factories. 



To show what an advance this is, one has only to im- 

 agine plantation rubber as showing 20 per cent shrink- 

 age. If this were the case American rubber manufac- 

 turers would pay freight upon 30,000 tons or more of 

 water and dirt plus the costs of extraction. 



Other suggestions for doing some of the initial work 

 at the source are massing and compounding. The for- 

 mer is not viewed with favor as the plantation identity 

 is lost and massed rubber is likely to perish in transit. 

 As for compounding that has been done experimentally, 

 both by adding sulphur and fillers to latex and in the 

 usual manner. In neither case was it found practical. 



