December 1, 1914] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



133 



Straw Color Benzol is a grade of benzol comparable to 90 

 per cent., except that it is not refined enough to be watei white. 

 It is used where the fact that it is pale yellow in color and 

 rather stronger in odor than the water-white makes no dif- 

 ference. The coal tar solvents are higher in price than 

 petroleum naphthas, but they have better solvent powers, and in 

 many cases superior evaporative qualities. For these reasons 

 they are employed for many special purposes where the petro- 

 leum products are not suitable. 



Pure Toluol is a water-white distillate lioiling within 2 degs 

 of 110 degs. C. This would have similar properties to all the 

 preceding benzols, but its high comparative cost precludes its 

 use. 



Commercial Toluol is water white, boiling 90 per cent al 

 120 degs. C, and of similar solvent power, but still slower evap 

 oration. It is used only in tire doughs and such compounds 

 where slow drying is required. 



Straw-Colored Toluol is similar to commercial toluol i xcepl 

 that the process of refining has not removed sufficient impurities 

 to make i twatcr-whitc in color. It is used when color and odor 

 make little or no difference. 



Xylol is never used in the pure state by rubber manufacturers 



Solvent Naphtha is really Commercial Xylol — a refined watei 

 white solvent, sometimes called "160-deg. Benzol" and "Rubber- 

 maker's Naphtha." This is used for cements where slow dry- 

 ing is required. It is strong in solvent power; lias a good odor 

 and a fairly high flash point — 78 degs. F. It is a similar grade 

 to the coal tar naphtha used so much in England for spreading. 

 It also enters very largely into the varnishes used in coating 

 rubber goods, shoes, boots, etc. 



Heavy Naphtha has been used in insulating work and also 

 in the preparation of packing and stuffing compound when used 

 along with asbestos, fillers and other bitumens. 



Creosote Oils have been used as preservatives for ducking 

 when they have a small percentage of carbolic acid present. 

 They have been suggested for reclaiming purposes, but it is 

 believed their wide variation in manufacture, due to change in 

 source, would require an expensive treatment to insure uni- 

 formity. 



Carbolic Acid is used somewhat as a preservative for duck 

 and also in reclaiming. This process is now used with consider- 

 able success and is covered by patent No. 722.944, March 17, 

 1903, issued to Joseph Chautard and Henri Kessler. and United 

 States Patent No. 774,727, November 8, 1904, issued to Ludwig 

 T. Petersen. Cresylic Acid, often called "Crude Carbolic Acid." 

 is utilized in a similar way. 



Refined Tar is simply a coal tar that has been distilled suffi- 

 ciently to remove lighter hydrocarbons and excess of oils. It is 

 added to reclaimed stock and shoddy to impart a kind of oily 

 consistency and tarry odor. 



Naphthaline is made in a wide variety of refined crystals. The 

 chief demand by rubber manufacturers is for white flake. This 

 is used as a preservative and also for reclaiming. The process 

 is, however, covered by a patent. 



Pitches, the solid residues of coal tar distillation, are used 

 somewhat in compounding. It is extraordinary that these ma- 

 terials have not found more vogue in the trade, as they are 

 hard, black, binding bitumens that can be easily made hard or 

 soft as required. They are very cheap and easily obtainable. 

 They melt well and will take up a large amount of loading 



material. 



Xote. — Gravity in coal tar distillates is unimportant as oil are in the 

 range of .880 to 1.04 and they do not vary in accordance with boiling point 

 as in case of petroleum. 



The Globe Tire & Rubber Co., Inc.. has been organized at 

 Philadelphia to take over the tire business of the Meeley 

 Rubber Co., at 660 North Broad street. F. W. Darlington is 

 president of the new concern. J. V. Harrigan and R. J. 

 Skilton retaining their respective offices of vice-president and 

 secretary-treasurer. 



A NEW RUBBER AND ASBESTOS COMPOUND. 

 By John F. Green. 



IV j\ \NY attempts have been made looking to a compound 

 **•*• of rubber and asbestos and the writer in pursuing his 

 us, arch of asbestos, both in the chrysotile and amphibolc 

 varieties, discovered that in external appearance and in chem- 

 ical composition they are very much alike, and that the heat- 

 ing property of both these varieties of asbestos is ap- 

 mately the same. But because of the condition of the 

 mphibole is the best resistant to acid. The analysis 

 of asbestos gives as component parts silica magnesia, ferrous 

 oxide, alumina and water, and the difficulty in the past to 

 find greater uses for asbestos lay in the fact that for electrical 

 and other uses the magnesia and ferrous oxide were found 

 to be detrimental. The removal of the magnesia and ferrous 

 , however, gives what has been named "fibrous quartz,"' 

 and this material lias been spun into a thread, inducted into- 

 porcelain, made into paper ami othei uses; and the writer 

 was asked to induct it into rubber — which has been done hv 

 all grades of rubber, and as high as 95 per cent, asbestos 

 has been used experimentally. 



It was discovered that vulcanization could be had at a 

 lower temperature than that formerly used, that asbestos gave 

 a greater heat resistance to the compound, and as we were 

 inducting a silica with the compound we were getting a very 

 hard material and one that would stand a great amount of 

 hard usage. This fibrous quartz is non-carbonizing, imper- 

 vious to acid, and is practically indestructible. Compounds 

 made of low grade- of rubber have been surprising in their 

 results. Xo better adulteration can be found than fibrous 

 quartz. Its utility, in addition to the other qualities named, 

 gives this material a unique position in the commercial world. 



The compound can be made of different per cents, of both 

 ingredients to suit the requirements, but the compound thus 

 far found best for common use is 75 per cent, fibrous quartz 

 and 25 per cent, rubber. 



In using asbestos a- heretofore the 40 per cent, of magnesia 

 going into tin- compound was a detrimental factor, electrically 

 and in other ways, and results were not satisfactory. Besides, 

 there were found more or less grit and sand in fine particles. 

 All these objections are removed by the process employed to 

 get the material known as fibrous quartz. 



In all rubber manufactures, especially hard or semi-hard 

 material, the product can be greatly improved by compound- 

 ing w-ith fibrous quartz, besides reducing the cost of produc- 

 tion, and it will enable the product to find more channels 

 commercially. The writer at present is engaged in experiments 

 for a superior rubber for heavy truck tires, and for a com- 

 pound that will resist acid for washing machines or wringing 

 machines. He is also looking to a time when by these meth- 

 ods vulcanization will be greatly simplified, in fact, attained 

 by friction as in some of the experiments the compound un- 

 der consideration was so tough that increased power was put on 

 the machine and a scintillation of frictional vulcanization was. 

 , ibsen ed. 



REDUCED COST OF CEYLON RUBBER. 



The annual report of the British Colonial office on Ceylon- 

 shows exports of rubber as follows: 1910, 1.698 tons: 1911. 3.060 

 tons; 1912, 6,628 tons, and 1913. 11.325 tons. Nine years ago the 

 exports amounted to only 34 tons. Tn 1913. the United Kingdom 

 took 55.38 per cent, of the total and the United States 23.89 per 

 cent. The average value in 1912 represented $1.77 per pound" 

 and in 1913, 80 cents. The relatively low cost of rubber produc- 

 tion in Ceylon is referred to as permitting a satisfactory profit 

 at prices now ruling. Recent railway extension will serve one 

 of the richest rubber districts in Ceylon. 



