186 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January 1. 1915. 



What Rubber Manufacturers Want in Crude Rubber. 



By The Editor. 

 [Suggestions to Rubber Growers, for Guidance When the Embargo is Lifted.] 



IX the first place, thej want rubber, plenty of it. all the 

 time. They want it at a fair price, the same price that 

 their neighbors pay. They desire clean rubber, but can 

 use dirty rubber at a price that will pay them to clean it. 

 There are certain lubber manufacturers who arc always in 

 the market for new types of wild rubber as well as for grades 

 that only appear in small lots anil at infrequent intervals. 

 Tins is not because these- grades are better than those that 

 are standard, but. being untried, are viewed with doubt and 

 not a ready market: hence, those who can use them get 

 such rubber at low prices. Certain grades of rubber that are 

 standard also become scarce for a time, or are in such de- 

 mand that the price becomes relatively high. Manufacturers 

 then .substitute other grades, or they mix two or more in- 

 different grades and get by the amalgamation a product equal 

 to a higher grade. Such substitution and amalgamation, 

 however, is the result of conditions and is not sought for. 

 In the long run the great variety of grades, with their wide 

 variations in cleanliness, wetness, texture, physical shape, 

 resin contents, etc., is a distinct disadvantage and a bar to 

 efficiency. 



One needs only to glance back over the rubber market of 

 the past ten years to note that there have been from 50 to 

 60 grades of Brazilian, 20 to 30 of Central and 50 to 60 

 African brands constantly available; and in addition a half 

 hundred bastard rubbers that were used in times of high 

 prices. 



If there were only one grade of rubber, standardized as 

 to quality and price, it would be better than the present 

 heterogeneous jumble of grades. That, however, is not likely 

 to come to pass. 



The change in grades that will occur will be the gradual 

 disappearance from the market of the resinous, dirty, cheap 

 rubbers. The high grades of wild rubber, together with 

 plantation rubber, will possess the market. There will come 

 also a new nomenclature, and the somewhat picturesque 

 names that now exist, that are arbitrary and non-descriptive, 

 will be superseded by names that are not only descripive 

 but that are a warrant of quality. Until some general super- 

 excellent rubber is produced in such quantities that it domi- 

 nates the market, it would be of great assistance to manu- 

 facturers if large producers of plantation rubber would adopt 

 brands and protect them as trade marks. And even then 

 there is bound to be imitation, with the intent to deceive. For 

 example, if Highlands and Lowlands were grades eagerly 

 sought by the manufacturers, some imitator is sure to brand 

 his rubber "Hi Lands" and "Lo Lands." 



That the rubber manufacturers desire clean rubber cannot 

 tie for a moment doubted. The fact that they have in tin- 

 past been forced to install great washing plants to remove 

 bark, sand and a variety of deleterious substances, and that 

 they still use such machinery, does not argue that they would 

 not be glad to receive all kinds of rubber so clean that fac- 

 tory washing would be superfluous. The cost of washing has 

 in the past added at least ,' j cent a pound to the price of the 

 rubber used by them. Taking all wild rubber, including bas- 

 tard gums, at 200.000.000 pounds, the cost to them would be 

 $1,000,000 annually. Then there is the shrinkage from mois- 

 ture and dirt, much of the cost of which often falls upon the 

 manufacturer. Beyond this is the freight charge on the water 

 and dirt, which, at the high rates that have heretofore ob- 

 tained from the African and Amazonian sources of supply, is 



a great annual loss to the rubber trade. The trade would, 

 therefore, welcome the abatement of these unnecessary 

 charges, an abatement that plantation rubber has already begun 

 tc put in fence 



The shrinkage of wild rubber has been and still is a bur- 

 den, a reminder of industrial slovenliness and unthrift. It 

 has profited, temporarily only, the rubber gatherer and rub- 

 ber seller. In the long run it has proved costly — to the rub- 

 ber manufacturer most of all. The first cost to the manufac- 

 turer is in the purchase for rubber that which is not rubber. 

 The second cost, the most serious, is the presence of bits of 

 deleterious material which the washing does not wholly re- 

 move and which in the finished goods often produce Haws that 

 render them unmarketable. Thus a sliver of wood bedded in 

 a sheet of rubber may pass through washers, mixers, calen- 

 ders, vulcanizers and be just under the surface in a finished 

 rubber coat. Then, when in use. it breaks through the sur- 

 face, opening an ugly scar, and the coat is returned, a total 

 loss to the maker. So, too, with grains of sand that finally 

 show in a pitted, porous surface. 



They, therefore, want a better rubber than has yet been 

 produced. Today the best rubber in the world is Upriver fine. 

 It is, at its best, a splendid rubber. Little by little plantation 

 Hevea is approaching it in excellence. If there is anything in 

 selection, in the application of science to rubber problems, 

 plantation rubber should not only equal Upriver fine in every 

 respect but should eventually so far surpass it as to establish 

 a new standard of excellence. 



Rubber producers, particularly from cultivated trees, are 

 ever striving to put on the market gum that is as light colored 

 as may be. Indeed successful efforts have been made to 

 secure a product that is almost white. As the great majority 

 of finished rubber goods are black — the result of sulphur 

 mixing and vulcanization by heat — color or lack of it is of 

 very little interest to rubber manufacturers. A jet black, 

 clean, nervy rubber will command just as good a price as a 

 straw colored or a white rubber. 



Of the hundreds of rubber manufacturers in the world only 

 a'small percentage are financially interested in rubber planta- 

 tions. Their attitude is that the production of finished rubber 

 goods is enough to engross their energies and capital. They 

 are perfectly satisfied to leave the production of the crude 

 material to those who specialize in it. 



In the process of manufacture, rubber is first washed, then 

 dried and then massed — the last to render it homogeneous 

 and ready to take up the sulphur, metallic oxides and the like 

 that go to make up the compound. Plantation rubber will 

 eventually render washing and drying unnecessary, for clean, 

 dry rubber will be produced. It is possible, too, that so 

 homogeneous a product will be evolved that massing will 

 also be unnecessary. The last word upon ideal coagulation 

 has nut by any means been said. How latex is coagulated 

 — whether by acetic acid or smoke — does not interest the user 

 of the rubber. His interest lies in the cleanliness, nerve and 

 uniformity of the product. 



That plantation rubber will evolve a variety of new grades 

 for a time is probable. It is also likely that varying methods 

 of compounding and vulcanizing on the part of manufacturers 

 — all of whom have their own processes — will serve to bring 

 out many qualities in special grades that may be of more or 

 less general importance. But that certain grades of planta- 

 tion rubbers will always continue to be selected, some for 



