412 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1916. 



CHEMICAL TREATMENT OF RUBBER. 



LABORATORY APPARATUS. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



Devulcanizinu Rubber. No. 1,178,483. Samuel K. Allen, as- 

 signor to the Empire Rubber Co.— The process of devulcanizing 

 rubber by subjecting it to a bath having a boiling point above 

 392 degrees F., and containing oil derived by distillation from 

 pine wood. 



Producing Caoutchouc Substa.nces. No. 1.178,721. Fritz 

 Hofmann; Konrad Delbruck and Kurt Meisenburg, assignors to 

 Farbenfabriken \'orm Friedr. Bayer & Co., Elberfeld. Germany. 

 — The process of producing a composite caoutchouc substance 

 which comprises mixing a hydrocarbon of the butadiene series 

 with about an equal amount of caoutchouc and polymerizing the 

 hydrocarbon in such mi.xture to give a composite caoutchouc 

 sulistance. 



UNITED KINGDOM. 



.Artificial Leather. No. 100,038 (.1916). N. G. Scheuer. 

 Copenhagen.— Artificial leather is made by impregnating linen 

 duck with linseed oil or a varnish to which a little siccatif and 

 Vienna red have been added, drying and sticking the sheets to- 

 gether with a mixture of 4 kilos heated wood tar pitch, 2 kilos 

 india rubber dissolved in benzene or the like, 4 kilos Vienna red 

 mixed to thick consistency with French turpentine, and 2 kilos of 

 powdered cork. Tlic compound sheet is finally passed through 

 pressure rollers. 



CANADA. 



Vulcanizing Process. No. 167,203. Paul I. Murrill. assignor 

 to the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Co., Limited. Same as 

 United States patent No. 1,166,777. The India Rubber World, 

 February, 1916. 



Vulcanization Accelerator. No. 167,204. Paul I. Murrill, 

 assignor to the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Co., Limited. 

 Bone oil is added as an accelerator of the vulcanizing agent. 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. 



Reclaiming Rubber from Tire Fabrics. No. 478,280. C. De 

 Villers. The process consists in treating the rubber-coated waste 

 fabric with boiling hot tetrachloride of ethane in two stages. 

 The free sulphur is removed by a brief treatment, the solution 

 of the rubber is accomplished by a second extraction with fresh 

 solvent. 



Spongy Rubber. No. 478.369. P. Schidrowitz and H. A. 

 Goldsborough. Coagulating rubber latex under conditions pro- 

 ducing a porous or spongy coagulum and fixing the pores by 

 vulcanization. (The India Rubber World, July, 1915.) 



the GERMAN EMPIRE. 



Waterproof Fabrics. No. 285,138 (1912). The material to be 

 waterproofed is treated with hydrocarbons yielding synthetic 

 gums by known process of polymerization. The result is a more 

 uniform impregnation with gum than is possible with the use 

 of gum solutions. 



LiaUID SPECIFIC GRAVITY BALANCE. 



A SPECIAL torsion balance has been perfected, designed 

 ^* especially for readily determining the specific gravities of 

 liquids. The results are obtained direct from the reading of tlie 

 lieam without the use of loose weights or calculations. The scale 



"BALATA" from northern NIGERIA. 



The Imperial Institute has examined a sample of "balata" 

 rubber from northern Nigeria. It contained considerable mois- 

 ture and vegetable impurities; was white to red in color; 

 tenacious ; only slightly elastic and very sticky. The sample lost 

 26 per cent impurities by washing, .\nalysis of the residue 

 showed 49.2 per cent caoutchouc, 47.4 per cent resin, 2.4 per 

 cent protein and 0.7 per cent ash. 



The caoutchouc when isolated was almost black and showed 

 inferior physical properties. The "balata" rubber of northern 

 Nigeria is probably derived from Ficus vogelii, the preceding 

 data being in accord with the analyses, made by the Imperial 

 Institute, of samples of the product olitained from this tree in 

 Gambia and the Gold Coast 



is adapted for specific gravities from 0.7000 to 1.4000, and is ac- 

 curate to the fourth decimal place. 



The operatiun of the scale is extremely simple. The bottle is 

 filled witli tlic liquid, wiped thoroughly clean on the outside and 

 placed upon the scale. Balance is secured by means of the slide 

 weights, and the result read from the beam. [Christian Becker, 

 New York Citv.] 



burette attachment. 

 A simple attachment to a stop-cock burette enables the oper- 

 ator to control perfectly the flow of reagent during titration. 

 The discharge may be regulated from a series of 

 *~^ drops to a fraction of a drop, as may be required at 

 the end of reaction, when too much may spoil the 

 I work of hours. 



Li The device does not interfere with the ordinary 



use of the burette. It consists of an arm attachable 

 to the stop-cock and an adjustable stop arranged 

 around the burette. [E. P. Curtis. New York City.] 



ANOTHER SYNTHETIC RUBBER SCHEME, 



A writ of attachment against the property of 

 Knut C. Widdeen, of Brooklyn, New York, has 

 been issued to recover $31,200 advanced to him by 

 the backers of his alleged synthetic rubber scheme. 

 It is alleged that Widdeen claimed he had a proc- 

 cess for making synthetic rubber at a cost of 

 15 cents a pound, and that a demonstration was 

 gi\en in Brooklyn, where a big vat was shown containing 

 some sticky substance which Widdeen described as rubber 

 made by his process. The proposition was to form a com- 

 pany to be called the Northern Rubber Corporation, with 

 a capital of $100,000, later to be increased, Widdeen claim- 

 ing that it would be easy to make 10,000,000 pounds of 

 rubber per year, and offering the plaintiffs 51 per cent of the 

 capital stock for $31,200. The plaintiffs, Kuno B. Heberlein and 

 Franz Rosenberg, put up the money, and finding the business 

 lagging, hunted for Widdeen only to discover that he had gone 

 south and had left no word as to the date of his return. 



