196 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January I. 1915. 



What the Rubber Chemists Are Doing. 



OMPREHENSIVE SYNTHETIC PATENT. alltur< , has experimented with a small retort and has distilled 



H DREYFUS lias received British patent No. 17,191 (1914) some cocoanut shells and produced a few pounds of acid, and 

 m for a method of producing synthetic rubber, which Mr. Kelway Bamber, of Peradeniya, has also interested himself 

 ' erything that can be or has in the subject. Acetic acid is said to be manufactured in Co- 

 been done in that line. The abridgment covers four pages of loml n a -mull scale. 



the "Official Journal." while the ordinary claims require only It may be sai.l without fear of contradiction that no com- 



a short paragraph. plete woi d distillation plant could be installed for the produc- 



He divides his methods into eight separate parts, as follows: tion of such a small amount of acid as is required by all the 



1 :— ' ! products are produced plantations, as the smallest American works would have ten 



by condensation of two molecules of halogen compounds, with times this capacity. 



elimination of halog It is quite possible that the proper solution of this problem 



2: — Halogen compounds arc transformed by cyanides into would be the installation of a pair of retorts as used in the 



butadiene derivatives. United States, which would handle about 6.000 pounds of cord 



3: — Aldehydes or ketones may act on the halogen derivatives wood daily and produce about 3,000 pounds of pyroligneous 



of unsaturated hydrocarbons. acid, containing, say, about 6 per cent, acetic acid. This should 



4 .—Acetylene is transformed into acetaldehyde by water. have all the power of acetic acid as a coagulant, and, in addition. 



5:— Sodium may act on the balogenides. the tarry matters present should have the same preservative ef- 



6 :— Polyhydrox compounds are transformed into furfuranes. feet as in the smoking of Para. In fact this "liquid smoke" 



7: — The above are reduced and water eliminated. should produce "smoked sheet." 



8:— Glycerine esters, etc., with at least one double bond— The acid would, of course, be dilute as compared with the 



preferably two— are transformed into di-hydroxy derivatives by glacial acetic acid now used, but as it would be produced near 



adding two hydroxyls to double bonds. the point of consumption the transportation problem would not 



The above are converted into caoutchouc-like products by be very serious. 



condensing agents, and about everything mentioned in Bernstein One thing in connection with acetic ?cid used for coagulation 



is claimed as a condensing agent. The product is to be vul- must be bortic in mind, which is that it has been found that 



canized by the usual methods. some acid contains a small quantity of copper dissolved from 



A UNITED STATES PATENT USING PONTIANAK. the copper condensers, and that this copper makes it unsuited 



United States patent Xo. 1,110,765, issued to J. W. Frank, is for coagulation, as it produces a slimy coagulation and the 



for a composition for painting plaster with ponti rubber and P rodl,ct ls useless for an y Purpose. 



resin and Indian copal dissolved in alcohol or acetone, after Thls means that the final condensation must be made in glass, 



removing the saponifiable matter with alkali. Attention may P° tter - V ware or lead - This would P revent the possibility of 



be called to the fact that a few years ago Carleton Ellis ob- co PP er in the ac!d - Acctlc ac,d Produced from alcohol has also 



tained a pretty comprehensive patent on the use of pontianak been suggested, but this is merely vinegar and is necessarily 



resin in cement coatings, the claims being based on the prop- <) l " te weak ' as ordinary vinegar contains only about 4 per cent, 



erty of pontianak resin to resist the action of alkalies and be acetic acid. 



unsaponifiable. Attention was called to this property several PROPERTIES OF SOLID DI-ELECTRICS. 



years ago in this journal in articles describing deresinating Paper presented before the Washington Academy of Sciences, 



processes. giving results of experiments on the surface resistivity and the 



ACETIC ACID FOR COAGULATING PLANTATION LATEX. volume resistivity of di-electrics. 



Owing to the disarrangement of business the Eastern planta- The volume resistivity is the resistance in ohms between two 



tions are now suffering from a scarcity of acetic acid for coagu- faces of a centimeter cube. 



lating latex, and there seems to be considerable discussion as Th « surface resistivity is the resistance between two opposite 



to- how supplies are to be obtained. ed & es of a centimeter square of the surface film which is de- 



The Germans have been writing on this subject and state that Posited on the material. _ _ 



the world's supply of this acid is known to be produced in Tl >e following table gives the volume resistivity of a few of 



Germany and Austria the substances tested: 



It may be mentioned that one-half the supply of acetate of Special paraffine over 5.000 x 10.15 



lime from which this acid is made is furnished by the American Ceresin over 5,000 x 10.15 



distillers, and that we shipped 5*0.000.000 pounds of acetate . H, ard ru . bber 5nrw ni; 



of lime to Europe in 1912, containing about 60 per cent acid. Sulphur 100x10.15 



The United States has a number of large chemical companies G. E., No. l'SR 40x10.15 



which make acetic acid of all grades. Halowax, Xo. 5 055B 20 x 10.15 



It has been calculated that the 50.000.000 pounds of plantation fhellaf' 1 x 10 15 



rubber will require 150.000 pounds of acetic acid for coagulating Sealing wax .......................... 8 x lo'lS 



the latex. This would require 250.000 pounds of acetate, worth Moulded mica 1 x 10.15 



in New York $5,000; and the acid in the East would be worth Unglazed porcelain 300x10.12 



... , . »,t mn German glass 50 x 10.12 



probably about $15,(X)0. p ]att & 20x1012 



The possibility has been suggested of setting up wood dis- Opal glass !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! 1x1012 



dilation works, to be conducted along European lines, with the Black condensite 40 x 10.9 



production of the various by-products, such as alcohol, in addi- White celluloid 20x10.9 



iU ., White gallalith 10x10.9 



tion to the acid. Vermont marble 1 x 10.9 



The Eastern technical journals state that Mr. (.amphell. ot j y 300x10.6 



Colom Ion. who is attached to the Department of Agri- Slate 100x10.6 



