May 1, 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



441 



The Indispensability of Rubber In Warfare. 



THE c.ill to arms has come. Army and navy are preparing 

 for action. Men are of little avail without munitions and 

 equipment, among which rubber in one form or another 

 has become indispensable. Never until the present international 

 conflict has this substance played such an important part. Its 

 manifold applications in modern warfare were described in detail 

 by many papers in volumes 51 and 52 of The India Rubber 

 World, but the vital importance of the rubber industry in equip- 

 ping the army, navy, air service and Red Cross, second only to 

 arming and feeding the nation's fighting forces, warrants a sum- 

 mary of its many ramifications at this critical time in American 

 affairs. 



TRANSPORT. 



First, we may consider the requirements of an army, prepared 

 for conflict upon land. To-day is the day of the automobile, the 

 motor-cycle and the motor truck ; the first two for quick travel 

 of individuals or small parties from point to point, and the 

 last to replace mules to draw munition and commissary wagons 

 and artillery. All these require tires of rubber, a fact in itself 

 by which is proven the almost absolute indispensability of 

 rubber in the progress of armies. In this one f.se, the manu- 

 facture of tires, rubber is to-day almost as important as food 

 and ammunition, for on rubber tires every other necessity is 

 borne to the front. 



ARMY EQUIPMENT. 



Rubberized fabrics are in urgent demand. Waterproof covers 

 for wagons, guns and gun carriages are needed in great quan- 

 tities, while ground sheets, tent coverings, ponchos, and even 

 accoutrements are made of coated fabrics. The manufacturer 

 of sheeted cloth will find there are many uses in the army for 

 his product, while new demands must constantly present them- 

 selves for this class of materials. The soldier must be provided 

 with haversack, and fastenings for the same, and here rubber 

 and fabric are taking the place of leather. This latter material, 

 advancing in cost as it is diminishing in supply, is fast being 

 replaced by rubber for the soling of boots and shoes, and the 

 claim is made that the new fiber and rubber soles have ad- 

 vantages not only of longer wear, but of more flexibility, and a 

 waterproof quality not possessed by leather. Trench warfare 

 has made rubber boots necessary to prevent the serious illness 

 that soldiers contract in these muddy ditches. 



THE AIR FLEET. 



To-day fighting is done not only on the land, but in the air, on 

 the water, and even beneath it, and aircraft, warships and sub- 

 marines all require rubber in so many and varied forms that it 

 would be but slight exaggeration to say that none of these could 

 exist without the precious gum. 



No substance has been found which can replace rubber in the 

 manufacture of balloon fabrics. While the double fabric which 

 forms the bags for dirigibles and "blimps" has not yet been made 

 absolutely impervious to the passage of gases, no other material 

 which has otherwise been considered practicable, has approached 

 it in this particular. The wheels are rubber tired. The aviators 

 wear rubber clothing, that they ftiay conserve their bodily heat 

 when in the colder and more rarefied atmosphere of high alti- 

 tudes, and many of these suits are capable of acting as life pre- 

 servers, if the aviator falls in the water. 



Much rubber is also employed in the making of respirating 

 apparatus, enabling the airman to breathe while at these great 

 heights. That new invention, the stabilizer, requires rubber for 

 insulation, packing and tubing, while every airplane uses tubing 

 or solid rubber for cushioning the operator's body from shock, 

 and for protecting exposed parts liable to damage in alighting. 



THE NAVY. 

 The battleship has so many rubber requirements that only a 

 general mention can be made. It is a habitation for many hun- 

 dred men, and as such needs all the appointments of a modern 

 hotel or dwelling, with its plumbing, its electric wiring, etc.; all 

 the accessories of a machine shop, with its gaskets, its washers, 

 its tubing ; all the requisites of a fortress, its shock absorbers, 

 its rubber carpeting; all the fittings of a hospital, of which more 

 hereafter, and besides these all the essentials of a metal body 

 floating in water, which must be watertight in all its joints, while 

 its bulkheads must be packed as strongly as steam boilers to 

 withstand pressure in emergencies, and, of course, large amounts 

 of hose are necessary. 



THE UNDERSEA FLEET. 



Many, indeed, are the rubber requirements of ships that sail 

 the seas, and even more numerous those of the fleet which sails 

 below the ocean's surface. There, surrounded on all sides by 

 water, with pressure increasing with every foot of submersion, 

 the most exacting necessity is the packing of all joints, the use 

 of gaskets on all hatches, around the inlets and outlets of the 

 torpedo tubes, and the joints of the torpedoes themselves. There 

 are many buffers for the doors, and packings to make them water- 

 proof. There must be packing around the periscope tubes, and 

 around the lenses in them, and cushions to protect the observer's 

 face from jars and bruises when using these necessary tubes. 

 These submarines are usually propelled by electricity when sub- 

 merged, and much rubber is used for insulation, to prevent leak- 

 age and short circuiting. Hundreds of hard-rubber battery jars 

 must each have its tightly fitted rubber-sealed cover, and its en- 

 closed rubber separators, while much sponge rubber is used in 

 the elimination of gas and acid fumes from these batteries. The 

 crews of some submarines are provided with life-saving suits of 

 rubber to be used in the event of disability of the vessel to rise 

 to the surface. 



THE RED CROSS. 



War consists primarily in the destruction of life, but a merci- 

 ful adjunct to all branches of service is the hospital, be it in the 

 field or on shipboard. The readers of this page are acquainted 

 with the many surgical sundries and appliances used in every 

 hospital, which are made wholly or partly of hard or soft rubber. 

 There is no need of their enumeration here. With our forces 

 in action all such supplies will be needed in great quantities. 



MUNITIONS MANUFACTURE. 

 Rubber also plays an important part in the manufacture of 

 modern high explosives. The chemicals used in their production 

 require careful handling, the health, and often the lives of 

 the operatives depend upon the rubber gloves, aprons and boots 

 they wear. And if the materials are full of danger, how much 

 more so the explosives, when manufactured, and here the require- 

 ments regarding metal-less footwear are compulsory. 



ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION. 

 In all these branches of service there are vicissitudes when 

 resuscitation may be necessary. The airman may lose his breath 

 because of rarefied atmosphere or swift descent ; the soldier may 

 be subjected to gas attacks, the sailor to drowning, the submarine 

 sailor to noxious fumes, and all of them to sudden severe nervous 

 shock, which may be fatal unless artificial respiration is quickly 

 available. The many kinds of apparatus for such purposes are all 

 more or less dependent on rubber for tubing, gas bags and in- 

 halers. And here might also be mentioned the gas helmets and 

 oxygen breathing apparatus furnished soldiers likely to be as- 

 saulted by gas attacks of the enemy. 



