68 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1915. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



KEPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL RUBBER CONGRESS AND 

 Exhibition, Batavia, October 19-23, 1914. Published in English by 

 Kiliaal Albrecht & Co., Batavia, Java. (Cloth, 8vo., 297 pages. 

 Illustrated.) 



WHILE, naturally, this report concerns itself largely with 

 rubber planting and will in consequence be interesting 

 chieriy to planters, still it contains some chapters on 

 other phases of the rubber industry which will be found of value 

 to those whose connection with rubber lies quite outside the 

 planting interests. 



The 1914 Batavia Rubber Congress and Exhibition was the 

 second of its kind to be held in Java, the former having been 

 held in the same city in December, 1907. The tirst congress 

 was held at a time when the rubber planting industry was prac- 

 tically in its infancy, when many important people still doubted 

 its success, and when rubber planters worked more or less in 

 the dark, searching to discover the best methods for cultivating 

 rubber trees and preparing their product for market. The 1914 

 Batavia Rubber Congress and Exhibition was a demonstration of 

 the tremendous strides that have been made by the rubber plant- 

 ing industry during the last few years. 



It was originally planned to open the exhibition on September 

 8, but the war made it necessary to postpone the opening cere- 

 monies until October 19, when the official inauguration occurred 

 in the- presence of His Excellency, the Governor-Genera! of 

 Netherlands India. 



Owing to the war many foreign members, among them the 

 editor of The Indi.'^ RrBBER World, were unable to reach Ba- 

 tavia to deliver the addresses they had prepared for the occasion. 



On the first day of the congress, following the inaugural cere- 

 monies, debates were held regarding the selection of Hevca for 

 plantation purposes ; the diseases and pests of plantation Hevea 

 and the significance of branching in young trees. Mr. G. F. A. 

 Steenkamp explained the exhibits of the General Planters' Asso- 

 ciation of the East Coast of Sumatra. 



Catch crops, mixed cultures, planting distance and thinning- 

 out were discussed on the second day. These discussions were 

 followed by demonstrations of scientific methods for testing rub- 

 ber by J. G. Fol, chemical engineer attached to the Netherlands 

 Government Rubber Experimental Station in Java. The third 

 day of the congress was given over to the consideration of ar- 

 tificial manure, tapping and tapping methods, and the preparation 

 of rubber. The fourth day witnessed the closing of the congress 

 with the usual accompaniment of speeches and distribution of 

 prizes. But before the closing addresses, Mr. Fol was again 

 heard in a paper on scientific testing as opposed to empirical 

 methods of determining the value of rubber. 



All these discussions, conferences, lectures and addresses, to- 

 gether with the composition and decisions of the jury, are given 

 in full in this report : also the papers which, owing to the war. 

 could not be delivered at the congress by their respective authors. 



The Indi.\ Rubber World of January, 1915, gave a complete 

 list of prizes at the Batavia Rubber Exhibition as well as Henry 

 C. Pearson's paper on "What Rubber Manufacturers Want in 

 Crude Rubber." Other papers, not delivered at the congress 

 but published in full in the report are : "Science and Tropical 

 Agriculture." by Dr. F. A. F. Went, of Utrecht, Holland ; 

 "Progress Made in the Investigation of Hereditary Transmis- 

 sion and Its Importance in the Cultivation of Tropical Plantation 

 Plants," by Dr. Erwin Baur, of Berlin (reported in German): 

 "The Present Status in the Production of Artificial Rubber," by 

 Dr. Willy Hinrichsen, of Berlin (reported in German) ; "Short 

 Resume of an Experiment in Period Tapping," by H. Wulf Wal- 

 ters, of Ceylon ; and "Farming with Dynamite," by Harold Hamel 

 Smith, editor of "Tropical Life.'' 



RlliBEU .MACHINERY. BY HENRY C. PEARSON. PUBLISHED 

 by The India Rubber World, .New York. (Cloth 8 vo., 419 pages, 428 

 illustrations. Price $6.00.] 



The remarkable development of the rubber manufacturing 

 industry has proved a great incentive to inventive ingenuity 

 and mechanical skill. There has been a constant succession of 

 new machines to meet the new problems of this rapidly growing 

 branch of manufacture. Some of these have been tried and dis- 

 carded as inefficient, while others have found a permanent place 

 in rubber factories, albeit, in most instances changed and added 

 to from time to time. To the invention of new machines and 

 the development of old appliances, there has been no end. Yet, 

 during the fifty years in which this process has been going 

 on, no attempt has ever been made to tell adequately the story 

 of this great mechanical development until Henry C. Pear- 

 son, editor of The India Rubber World, took up the task some 

 two years ago. The results of these months of labor are given 

 in this volume just from the press. 



The book covers, in a general way, the whole subject of ma- 

 chinery used .i(\ the preparation of crude, compounded and re- 

 claimed rubbe?. The" first four chapters have to do with ma- 

 chines used in the basic operations of crude rubber washing. 

 drying~and compoimding. And adequate mention is made of the 

 important part cotton fabrics play in rubber manufacture and the 

 mechanisms used in preparing cloth for coating. 



The chapter on calenders shows the great advancement from 

 Chaffee's crude machine to the perfected modern giant with 

 motor-drive. The kinetics of washers, mills and calenders are 

 fully covered in the chapter on clutches and drives, including the 

 humanitarian safety stops. 



Vulcanizers are given adequate space and generous illus- 

 tration. General types are shown that have to do with cur- 

 ing by heat, steam, water, air, and electric, sulphur and ultra- 

 violet rays ; and also the cold cure apparatus for immersing the 

 uncured rubber in a bath of chloride of sulphur or treating it 

 to chloride of sulphur fumes. There are vulcanizing presses, 

 screw and hydraulic, of the single and multiple ram type, with 

 one, two and even seven platens. The enormous power and great 

 capacity of the modern press vulcanizers described and illus- 

 trated reflect the insistent demand of the tire industry. 



Tubing was formerly made wholly by hand. The author tells 

 how the long, laborious process has been superseded by powerful 

 machines that force the plastic rubber through intricate dies 

 emerging in the form of tubes, solid tires, cushion tires and a 

 great variety of mechanical rubber goods. 



There are two exhaustive chapters on spreading, doubling and 

 surface-finishing machines used in coating the surface of a sheet 

 of fabric with rubber. The development from the original Han- 

 cock spreader to the present-day machine of accurate operation is 

 shown by English and French, as well as American types. The vul- 

 canizing of proofed fabrics by the electric, vapor and cold-curing 

 processes — the methods and machines employed in impregnation 

 and proofing and the final solvent recovery are fully de- 

 scribed. Then follows the chapter on cement and solution making 

 that shows the American, English and German advancement in 

 this important part of the industry. 



The first of the two chapters on extraction covers the appara- 

 tus used in separating rubber and gutta from shrubs, vines, roots 

 and leaves. It includes guayule extraction and the German and 

 French luethods of extracting gutta percha from leaves, and is 

 followed by deresinating apparatus. 



How the vast quantities of rubber scrap are reclaimed and re- 

 stored in useful form to the rubber manufacturer is concisely de- 

 scribed in the two chapters on Reclaiming. 



