August 1, 1917.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



635 



starters, the electric wiring calls for rubber insulation, and rub- 

 ber is employed in the handles of starting cranks, controller 

 levers, radiator caps, gasoline tank caps and steering wheels. 

 Some of the ambulances used by the British have permanent 

 features in the shape of rubber buffers and stops, and rubber 

 flooring has made it easier to keep these cars clean and like- 

 vise to provide a surer footing when handling the wounded. 

 THE AIR SERVICE AND RUBBER. 



Nor should the vehicle wheels of the warplane be forgotten, 

 because it is upon these that the initial start and the safety 

 of landing fundamentally depend. Resiliency is absolutely neces- 

 sary, and rubber only 

 will furnish the springy 

 tire needful to facilitate 

 rising from the ground 

 and to help absorb in a 

 very large measure the 

 shock incident to land- 

 ing. It is not possible 

 here to go into the nice- 

 ties of this matter other 

 than to say that nothing 

 but the best of rubber 

 vviir serve this purpose: 

 and the perfected flying 

 machine tire has called 

 for a good deal of ex- 

 perimenting in order to 

 meet lb'- ri'iibar de- 

 mands of the service. 



It has been authori- 

 tatively declared that 

 five airplanes are needed 

 yearly to maintain a sin- 

 gle flyer aloft, and this 



A United States 



I'Ko, 



•luola is additional to the replacement of aircraft demolished by 

 gunfire. No wonder, then, that the French army organization, 

 as it e.xists to-day, calls for 30.000 flying machines annually. This 

 takes no account of the British, the Belgian, the Russian and 

 the Italian service, and does not consider at all the aircraft needs 

 of the enemy. We have virtually promised to send abroad 

 20.000 aviators, and to maintain a force of this size we shall 

 have to build every 12 months quite 100,000 machines. The 

 rubber industry will have its hands full, not only in furnishing 

 ;he tires, but other rubber parts which virtually duplicate many 

 of those of the automobile. Further, there arc special features, 

 peculiar to the warplane, incident to the mounting of machine 

 guns, the growing equipment of wireless installations, and the 

 need of additional shock absorbers, in the form of cushions where 

 the radial supports converge, when bombs are carried. 

 Finally, the best of the fighting flying machines have their 

 wings covered with a rubberized fabric in order to prevent the 

 absorption of moisture and the burdening of the aircraft with 

 useless dead weight; and rubber tubing is used more or less 

 extensiveh' to prevent chafing where control wires and stays 

 touch neighboring surfaces. 



The seaplane, because of its frequent contact with the water, 

 needs rubber extensively ; in fact, it calls for quite as much of 

 this material as the airplane, despite the fact that it generally 

 dispenses with wheels for starting and landing. It is absolutely 

 necessary that all electrical features be doubly protected against 

 moisture, and all controls, both hand and foot, seats, gages, etc., 

 must be either waterproof or watertight, as the case may be. 

 The airmen must have rublier suits covering them from head 

 to foot, and should carry air-inflated rubber life belts, together 

 with respirators of the same material, which will make it possible 

 for them to endure a submergence of 30 minutes in case of 

 accident when entangled in their wrecked machines at sea. 

 Rubber covers are now called for to protect light machine-guns 



whether on shore or afloat, and as many of the big seaplanes 

 have one or more of these weapons it is plain that rubberized 

 cloth figures very largely in this service. 



As long as we are more or less up in the air, let us consider 

 that other branch of aviation which concerns captive balloons 

 and dirigibles. Of the latter, the most successful development 

 among our Allies is in the form of what the British call 

 "blimps." The blimp is a gas-bag modeled to some extent along 

 the lines of a giant fish or whale. The first of these produced for 

 the navy, officially known as D N-1, is 175 feet long, and has a maxi- 

 mum diameter of 35 feet. The outer envelope contains 2,500 yards 



of double-texture rub- 

 berized fabric, and the 

 internal balloonets, of 

 which there are two, call 

 for sp m e hundreds of 

 yards more. It is said 

 that the government will 

 have 300 of these 

 blimps for home service. 

 Already the second of 

 tlie sixteen contracted 

 for has been given a trial 

 flight, and the naval au- 

 thorities are said to be 

 enthusiastic. Large or- 

 ders will undoubtedly be 

 placed at an early date. 

 This dirigible is provided 

 with pontoons beneath 

 the chassis which makes 

 it possible for the blimp 

 to settle upon the water. 

 These pontoons are long 

 cylinders of rubberized 

 fabric stuft'ed "with kapok, a silky fiber of great buoyancy. 

 Next there is the kite balloon for naval service, which is a 

 passive elongated gas bag that can be towed from a steaming 

 craft for the purpose of aerial scouting as well as detecting 

 the approach of submarines or discovering U-boats in hiding 

 below the waves. The land counterpart of the kite balloon is 

 generally the so-called more or less globular or pear-shaped 

 gas bag familiar to most of us. We shall probably have to 

 have scores of kite balloons and the ordinary captive observa- 

 tional balloons. Plainly, our manufacturers of proofed ma- 

 terial will have to provide us with hundreds of thousands, yes, 

 millions, of yards of rubberized fabric. Thousands of these 

 aircraft are now in service abroad. Rubberized gloves, rubber- 

 banded helmets to protect the aviators in case of falls, goggles, 

 and rubberized suits are extensively worn by the flyers in all 

 departments of aviation. 



RITBBER RE(MTIREMENT.S OF THE ARMY. 

 And now let us consider the rubber needs of the army fight- 

 ing man, yrr sr. During the past fiscal year, that of 1916-1917, 

 the War Department called for bids on 47,312 ponchos and 

 24,380 slickers. These, it will be remembered, were to cover 

 the requirements only of the army's regular peace time estab- 

 lishment. The specifications for the cloth demanded a rubber 

 content of not less than 30 per cent of the best Up-river fine 

 Para rubber or best Ceylon rubber and not more than 6)4 per 

 cent of the best reclaimed rubber. Counting the proposed in- 

 itial force of 650,000 in the National Army, 30(1000 in the 

 standing army, and State Militia or National Guard to the 

 number of 300,000 — as it would be if recruited to the maximum 

 — this gives us some idea of the number of ponchos and slick- 

 ers needed in the first six months of conflict. Every man and 

 officer has either a slicker or a poncho. This, in substance, 

 constitutes the regulation rubberized clothing prescribed here- 

 tofore by the United States military authorities. 



Alt \M Mm] I ii: h'l I i.. u I rii kri'.i'.i 

 Cover and Driver's Shelter. 



