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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[M/ 



Rubber Creations for Moving Pictures. 



THAT several hundred moving picture companies with large 

 plants and millions invested should use much rubber of 

 the every-day sort is axiomatic. But that the cinema in- 

 dustry should demand an absolutely new line of products comes 

 as a surprise. Yet such is the case, and so great has the demand 

 become that a rubber factorx- has Iieen built which specializes in 

 this novel line. 



HUGE RUBBER SHARKS AND SEA MONSTERS. 



When a breathless audience sees a deep-sea diver kill a hungry 

 shark they do not guess that the hsh was created in a rubber 

 factory-. The shark is actually an air-inflated affair, built of 

 rubber stretched over a light metal frame, with a double under- 

 side, suitably painted, having a hinged jaw, and operated by 

 wires a few feet under the water. 



When an enormous octopus encloses a man in his terrible 

 tentacles to carry him to certain death, the creature, like the 

 shark, is also made of sheet rubber. From the shore a man 

 with a compressor pumps air through hundreds of feet of 

 rubber hose, inflating the octopus and insuring the slow-en- 

 circling movement of the tentacles. Ample sunlight, remarkably 

 clear water, a rocky coast and a deep-sea camera are the other 

 essentials. 



Whales and antediluvian monsters are also built up over 

 light frames, the calendered stock being compounded for the 

 dry heat cure. Seams are doubly reinforced and stays are put 

 in wherever there is any likelihood of e.xtra strain. Only a low 

 air pressure is practicable in the larger creations as the air 

 force is so great that a very little extra pressure will burst the 

 huge air bag. 



RUBBER SWORDFISH FOR COMEDY WORK. 



A world-famous comedian ordered a big swordfish, with its 

 serrated snout set upright instead of sidewise. This was accom- 

 plished. Soon the comedian was being pursued through a water- 

 filled tank by the rubber fish, receiving vicious thrusts from its 



sword. Of the same type of creation are the big surf fishes, 

 every fish when inflated being capable of carrying three mermen 

 or mermaids. 



RUBBER SPEARS, BATTLE AXES AND BLUDGEONS. 



A great battle scene in the Middle Ages required a big supply 



of war material. The battle axes were made with light sheet 



metal centers, rubber-covered and with deep rubber edges. The 



maces for breaking armor had rubber-covered cork ball tops, 

 rubber spikes being vulcanized to the balls. The realistic swords 

 were rubber, painted steel color. The daggers were thin metal 

 blades with two-inch soft rubber points. 



Driving an Argument Home. 



l"'or an ancient Mexican scene the Aztec Army was armed 

 with huge clubs, each club head representing a skull or dried 

 head of an enemy. This was done in rubber, the sketches for 

 the molds being supplied by research artists in a famous studio. 

 The same sort of creation, although pneumatic, is used in the 

 luise hammers which "drive an argument home." 



The spear heads are a line of manufacture in a class by them- 

 selves. They are made of a fairly high grade compound that is 

 dense enough to appear rigid and yet as soft as velvet to the 

 touch. They are cured in two-part molds with an iron socket, 

 into which the spear shaft is set. If the spears are likely to see 

 much service the iron is first cleansed from all trace of grease 

 and dipped in copper solution. When the cure is effected the 

 sulphur in the rubber unites chemically with the copper and the 

 rnlilier is stuck so tightly that it cannot be loosened except by 

 I lilting with a cold chisel. 



Halberd heads are cut out of sheet stock, following a paste 

 !"Kud pattern, and cured between metal plates in a steam press. 

 The- cutting edge and the points are skived down after curing 

 ;uici the whole given a final coat of steel colored paint to more 

 ( Insely simulate metal. 



RUBBER AND A BURSTING BOILER. 



A very exciting scene is provided when movie villains tie their 

 victim to an upright steam boiler, then rouse the furnace to its 

 utmost fury, and leave the poor fellow to be blown to atoms. 

 But it only seems to happen. The boiler is of rubber, its rivets 

 tiny rubber half-balls cemented to its side ; the steam gage is an 

 exaggerated air gage and before the boiler explodes a straw 

 dummy has been substituted for the writhing victim. The effect 

 is heightened by the air pressure gradually distending the boiler 



