April i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



219 



Factory to connect with storehouses, loading platforms, yards 

 and sheds. It is best suitable for loads not exceeding 2 tons, 

 as it can be operated by hand-power. For long travels or runs, 

 electric motors can be employed, both on the hoist and transfer- 

 crane. 



United States patent No. 744,464 has been granted to Mr. 

 Johnston, under date of November 17, 1903. 



CONTINUOUS VULCANIZATION PROCESSES. 



Continuous vulcaniation has been the dream of the rubber 

 manufacturers for many years. Of course only certain lines of 

 manufacture were thought of in connection with it, such as 

 are produced by machinery in greater or less lengths, that is, 

 tubing, hose, insulated wire, and sheet rubber for various pur- 

 poses. For example, when the gossamer rubber business was at 

 its height, Henry Burr evolved an appliance for electrically curing 

 the coated fabric as it came off the spreader, his plan being to 

 obviate the necessity of solarization. For some reason the proc- 

 ess never went beyond its experimental stages. 



Then, too, it must not be forgotten that in the days of the vapor 

 cure, fabrics in the piece, rubber coated, were continuously vul- 

 canized by running the piece rapidly through a lieated chamber 

 containing chloride of sulphur vapors. This up to the present 

 time is about the whole of the record of continuous vulcaniza- 

 tion. 



In the line of mechanical rubber goods, the manufacture of 

 hose in greater than so-foot lengths and its vulcanization at the 

 same time has often been mooted. The first part of this problem 

 was successfully solved by Henry Cobb at his plant in Wilming- 

 ton, Delaware, where he produced a garden hose with a lining 

 and covering of rubber, with plies of knitted fabric between. This 

 was run through a lead press, coated with a continuous tubula.- 

 lead envelope which acted as a mold, the whole being coiled upon 

 drums and thus vulcanized. After the cure, the lead was stripped 

 off and remelted. His son, departing from this proceedure, in- 

 vented a type of mold in which the hose could be coiled and 

 cured, and he also was able to produce garden hose in 500-foot 

 lengths. In both of these instances, however, the vulcanization 

 was a wholly separate process, and required an extra handling of 

 the hose after manufacture. 



Quite recently, however, a young inventor, connected with one 

 of the great rubber companies, after much experimentation, has 

 produced a machine wliich standing close to the looms that weave 



New Vulc.\nizing Appar.vtus. 



[ Plan View of Set of 3 Vulcanizers Showing Endless Conveyors 

 Means for Causing Iheir Continuous Travel Therethrough.] 



the fabric insertions receives the hose uncured and winds it on a 

 drum a few feet distant, thoroughly vulcanized. 



Perhaps the most strikingly ingenious part of this machine is 

 the arrangement of supporting the hose as it passes through the 

 vulcanizing chambers. This is done by a number of tightly 

 stretched wires fed from one side, and over drums at the 

 other, but so guided and held that when inside of the vulcaniz- 

 ing chamber they lie in corrugations in the hose forming a con- 

 tinuous traveling mold. The hose is thus cured straight instead 

 of in a curve and is wrapped, if that term may be used, and 

 unwrapped automatically. 



The accompanying illustrations show in detail the parts of this 

 machine, one of the few new and perhaps revolutionary inven- 

 tions in rubber of the last decade. So far the machine has been 

 used wholly for the manufacture of garden hose. It is quite 

 possible, however, that it may be used for other kinds of hose, 

 and, if it can be adapted for insulated wire and cables, it would 

 certainly greatly simplify that portion of the rubber industry as 

 well. The machine has been patented in all rubber manufactur- 

 ing countries. 



NEW PROCESS OF VULCANIZING SHOES. 



At the present time any invention relating to the manufacture 

 of rubber goods that bears the slightest impress of novelty or 

 practicability is of interest. Mr. Mason's patent claims, there- 

 fore, are bound to be closely analyzed. Harking back' to the 

 Marvel patents, at the beginning, it will be well to remember 

 that they covered a sectional mold adapted for a certain type 

 of press which formed and vulcanized a rubber shoe without a 

 stockenette lining. The Doughty patents owned by the Atlantic 

 Rubber Shoe Co. covered a type of mold and vulcanizing press 

 that produced a shoe with a stockinette and other fabric lining. 



The Mason patents that are here illustrated cover a mold one 

 plate of which is in contact with the sole of the shoe, forms it 

 into shape and, being heated, vulcanizes it, while the rest of the 

 mold is an inclosed chamber in which the remainder of the shoe 

 is enclosed and into which heated air is forced, the vulcaniza- 



<=^ 



New Vulcanizing Apparatus. 



[F.levation of the Apparatus Shown in the Preceding Illustration.] 



;\Iason's Shoe Vulcanizing 



tion of the upper being accomplished by "dry heat." while the 

 sole is cured by what is known as "press heat." 



The difficulty that at once suggests itself to the rubber manu- 

 facturer is that of working these two heats together, the normal 

 press heat being about 30 minutes in duration, while the normal 

 dry heat lasts from 3 to 7 hours. Of course, by compressing 

 the air, the duration of the dry heat could be shortened, but 

 that involves the use of Governor Bourn's patent. It would be 

 possible, indeed, to cure the sole in 30 minutes : then cool the 

 lower platen until the upper was cured ; or the air might be ex- 

 hausted from the mold chamber and the heat affected by direct 

 radiation from the metal sides in much less time than the normal 

 dry heat. However the plan works out, it is certainly in- 

 genious and should produce a shoe with a sole clearer cut and 

 denser than under the old process. As for the upper, it will 

 probably appear to the casual observer unchanged. 



