March 1, 1915. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



323 



of the Society of Chemical Industry," 1913, p. 544) has discussed 

 the action of sulphur and sulphur chloride in vulcanization. 

 It has recently been shown that the United States is the greatest 

 producer of sulphur in the world. (Thi India Rubber World, 

 August, p. 536. i 



ACCELERATORS OF .1 I I WIZATION. 

 For a long time it has been known that certain fillers or me- 

 tallic compounds accelerated vulcanization and improved the 

 rubber. Lead oxide or litharge is probably the best known 

 Antimony sulphide and magnesia arc also known to hasten the 

 vulcanizing and have been largely used, and lime is known to 

 iin ilic same function to some extent. This action of one 

 substance in hastening the reaction between two others when 

 the hastener remains in the same form after the reaction as 

 before, is called catalytic action, It is common to ascribe many 

 reactions which arc not understood to catalytic action but it is 

 well known in many arts that there is such a phenomenon. 



We recently (The India Rubber World, September, 1914, p. 

 6501 treated the subject of the influence of nitrogen compounds 

 on vulcanization rather fully, gathering together various scat- 

 tered references on this subject. That this Mibject has only latelj 

 attracted the attention of writers on rubber chemistry is seen 

 from the fact that at the Eighth [nternational ( ongress of Ap- 

 plied Chemisry, held in New York in the fall of 1912. it was not 

 mentioned, while, as before noted, the influence of resins on 

 vulcanization was discussed by L: E. Weber, C. Beadle and 

 Stevens; and G, II. Savage, E. Marckwald, F. H. Hinrichsen, 

 J. G. Fol, C. P. Fox and Whitby also contributed to the rubber 

 section, moreover such well-known savants as Carl Duisberg, 

 Sir William Ramsey and W. H. Perkins were present. 



At this congress no one brought up the subject of the in- 

 fluence of the pectous portions, the proteins or the insoluble con- 

 stituents on vulcanization, but it appears that Messrs. Beadle 

 and Stevens had, a short time previously, contributed an article- 

 on the influence of the nitrogenous and resinous constituents on 

 vulcanization ("Kolloid Zeitschrift," July, 1912. p. 61). Since 

 that time articles on this subject from these authors have been 

 rather widely published, though there seems to have been but 

 two sets of experiments ("Kolloid Zeitschrift," 1913, p. 64; "Jour- 

 nal of the Society of Chemical Industry," December, 1913; 

 "Chemical Abstracts," 1913, p. 270; "Kolloid Zeitschrift," Vol. 14, 

 1914, p. 91; "Kunststoffe," Vol. 4, 1914, p. 255; "India Rubber 

 Journal." Vol. 47. p. 403: The India Rubber World, May, 1914, 

 "Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry," 1914, p. 268). 

 W. A. Caspari ("Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. 

 Vol. 23. pp. 1041-3. The India Rubber World, April. 1914, p. 340) 

 reported on the composite nature of rubber finding the pectous 

 portions stronger. The fact that the nitrogenous portions of the 

 rubber exerted an influence on vulcanization led to an inquiry as 

 to the influence of added nitrogenous matters of various kinds, 

 Messrs. Beadle and Stevens in the article above referred to, tried 

 casein, and found it increased speed of vulcanization but did not 

 increase tensile strength, etc. Fred. Arnt (The India Rubber 

 World, July, 1914) pointed out that albumen increased speed of 

 vulcanization, and the "Gtimmi Zeitung" ( N'o. 28, p. 3711. in an 

 anonymous article took the same position. W. Esch received 

 German patent No. 273,482 of November, 1912, for the use of al- 

 bumen in rubber. The method is to make a paste with lime and 

 add it to the rubber ; then add some kind of tanning material or 

 smoke it. The hastening influence does not seem to be here con- 

 sidered the principal consideration. Recently a hastener has ap- 

 peared on the English market, but its composition is not given. 

 (The India Rubber World, December, 1914). Vanadium is also 

 claimed as an accelerator. iThe India Rubber World, August, 

 1914. p. 601.) Marckwald ("India Rubber Journal," November 22, 

 1913) found that magnesia was a hastener. Dannerth (The 

 India Rubber World. November. 1914, p. 75) mentioned other 

 accelerators. 



VI LCANIZING WITH THE ULTRA-VIOLET RAYS. 



G. Bernstein and Heilbronner (The India Rubber World, No- 

 vember, p. 24, and December, 1914, p. 130) recently devoted 

 much attention to the action of ultra-violet light in vulcanization 

 and have proposed that solutions be thus vulcanized and then 

 used for cements. 



Bernstein received British patent No. 17,195 of 1914 for this 

 process. 



V. Thomas received French patent No. 460,780 of July, 1913, 

 I in under the international convention taking the date of July 

 26, 1912. This relates to the vulcanization of films of rubber 

 solution by the ultra-violet ray. 



E. Stern ("Gummi Zeitung," 1913, p. 1340) has referred to 

 this idea, and Dastre presented a paper before the French 

 Academy of Science reviewing Bernstein's work. Victor Henry 

 first gave accounts of vulcanizing by this method several years 

 ago. 



DEI VY, TACKINESS AND DEPOLYMERIZATION. 



The subject of the perishing and decay of rubber has attracted 

 some attention ,,t late. J. C. Fol and X. L. Sohngen ("Chemical 

 Abstract-." 1 ( '14. p. 2958) have determined that air-dried rubber 

 cannot support micro-organisms. Spots of various colors pro- 

 duced bj bacteria sometimes appear without changing the me- 

 chanical consistency of the rubber. They could not find an 

 enzyme which would break down rubber. <;. S. Whitby re- 

 ported on this at the Eighth International Congress of Chemis- 

 try in New York, in 1912 (Vol. 9 reports). He thinks decay 

 due to enzymes. 



A. G. Rossem ("Le Caoutchouc & la Gutta Percha," Febru- 

 ary 15, 1913. p. 6981) attacks Gorter's theory that tackiness is 

 caused by auto-oxidation. He thinks it due to light, not infec- 

 tion. Kirchof (The India Rubber World, February, 1914) has 

 discussed oxidation of rubber, but Heubener disputes his state- 

 ments G. Bernstein ("Chemical Abstracts." 1913, p. 3548) has 

 also given views on oxidation. 



F. Kirchof ("Kolloid Zeitschrift." 1914, p. 35) shows that vul- 

 canized rubber behaves differently from raw rubber when oxi- 

 dized with oxygen gas. Only one double linkage seems present 

 in vulcanized rubber. G. Heubener (The India Rubber World, 

 February, 1914, p. 224) criticizes the above article by Kirchof on 

 oxidation. F. Ahrens ('■Kunststoffe." vol. 3, p. 478) describes 

 oxidation. Spence and Young ("Kolloid Zeitschrift." 1913, p. 

 871) have described methods for oxidation electrically. It is 

 claimed that this method was first proposed in "Gazzett Chimica 

 Italiana," 1907, p. 426. 



\i riON OF CARBONIC ACID OX RUBBER. 



F. Steinitzer experimented with the action of carbonic acid 

 gas on rubber membranes ("Gummi Zeitung," 1912, p. 1625). He 

 found that the absorption of the gas may vary 25 per cent, with 

 different rubbers. Pure rubber becomes tacky on absorption of 

 the gas, and the tensile strength decreases. P. Phillips found 

 that rubber gaskets were excellent with carbonic acid gas con- 

 tainers, as they swelled and became tight. Ditmar and Thiesen 

 ("Kolloid Zeitschrift," 1912, Vol. 11, p. 77) examined changes in 

 fillers. They found that these changed to sulphides and sul- 

 phates in many cases. 



DYEING RUBBER. 



Ditmar (The India Rubber World. February. 1914) has shown 

 that vat dyes may be mixed with raw rubber and vulcanized with- 

 out change of colors. Two patents have recently appeared i 

 ing this process. (The India Rubber World, November, 1914, 

 p. 67.) 



(To be concluded.) 



The United States Rubber Reclaiming Co. will rebuild the 

 section of its plant at Buffalo, New York, which recently suf- 

 fered $75,000 fire damage. 



