March 1. 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



325 



AN EXCESS OF TECHNICALITIES IN SPECIFI- 

 CATIONS. 



Tu the Editor of The India Ri bber World: 



* In your February i^iu-. page 256, I note an item signed 



emist" and entitled "Too Much Analytical Chemistry," which 



is read with considerable interest Having long been of the 



same opinion, and realizing the impossibility of manufacturing 



to -trict laboratory specifications, it is gratifying to learn that a 



prominent chemist lias finally concluded there can be an excess 



e< finicalities in specifications. 



Some time ago a Western city desired to purchase a quantity 

 oi fire hose, to be manufactured under very elaborate specifica- 

 tions, prepared by a coterie of chemists, in which specifications 

 a certain acetone, a certain chloroform and a certain alcohol 

 potash extract were demanded, the lining, or tube, to contain 

 not less than 45 per cent, of the finest Para. A maximum amount 

 of ash was provided for. and sulphur contents were given i 

 limitation as to the percentage permitted. 



In addition to all this, a varietj of mechanical tests was also 

 provided for, some of which were possible, while others were 

 practically impossible; but insult was added to injury by de 

 manding that finished product produced under these instruc- 

 tions be guaranteed for a period of four years, and that if at 

 the end of the four-year period each and every 50-foot length 

 could not withstand a rather severe pressure test, the manufac- 

 turer would replace, free of charge, such hose as might have- 

 failed. 



These specifications were mailed broadcast to the manufac- 

 turers of fire hose, attached to an invitation to bid. with the 

 result of just one bid being received, and that at $1.20 per foot. 

 Wondering why so few responded, the writer was consulted, 

 who. after reading the specifications, candidly informed the offi- 

 cials that no manufacturer could intelligently bid on such 

 specifications. 



This conference resulted in a request to the writer to draw up 

 specifications from his standpoint, which he did, confining them 

 entirely to strict mechanical tests, such as elasticity, permanent 

 set, tensile strength, friction, elongation, expansion, writhing 

 and similar items, closing with a guarantee to cover a reasonable 

 period of time, making allowance to the manufacturer fir serv- 

 ice rendered if defective hose bad been in its* one or more 

 years. 



These revised specifications were sent out to the same con- 

 cerns previouslj solicited, resulting in almost universal bidding, 

 the highest being about 80 cents, with the lowest, best and ac- 

 cepted bid naming less than 65 cents per foot — which bid, by the 

 way. was from one of the largest, strongest and best-equipped 

 of the American companies. Hose delivered upon this contract 

 was stronger and more reliable than could have been possible 

 with the previous laboratory specifications. 



The chemist is a valuable citizen, and highly useful in his 

 place, but that place is not to dictate to the experienced rubber 

 manufacturer not only how he shall make his product but of 

 what he shall make it; and then be asked to guarantee the result 

 and pocket the loss if perchance he could not meet sonic other 

 chemist's individual analysis that did not happen to come quite 

 up to the ideal specifications as to chemical contents demanded. 



W. O. Brown. 



The new catalog of the Hodgman Rubber Co.. relating to 

 rubber sundries and specialties, is exceedingly well done, not 

 only from a typographical standpoint, but from that of the com- 

 ph ie and well arranged information giver. In some 90 pages, 

 rously illustrated in colors, the whole story of the Hodg- 

 man products in the lines mentioned is adequately covered. 

 The brochure is given an added interest by some excellent 

 halftones showing work rooms in the Tuckahoe factory of 

 the company. 



DR. HINRICHSENS CONTRIBUTION TO RUBBER CHEMISTRY. 



The obituarj page of the February number of "I'm India Rub- 

 i;m; World ■■ ntained an announcement of thi id death of 



Dr. F. W. Ilinrichsen, the noted German chemist, on the battle- 

 field before Lodz in December while he .'..■- serving as second 

 lieutenant in a Saxon reserve regiment. Notwithstanding his 

 comparative youth, being only 38 '.ear- of age at the time of his 

 death, he had made a nurhbi i '■ contributions to the lit— 



Dr. F W II 



Nun 11 SEN. 



erature of rubber chemistry. After graduating from Heidelberg 

 in 1899 he taught chemistry in the technical high schools of Aix- 

 la-Chapelle and Charlottenburg. He entered the Royal Material 

 Testing Bureau (Bureau of Standard- I. as general chemist, in 

 1906, devoting particular attention to the solution of rubber prob- 

 lems, lie contributed to the leading technical publications of 

 Germany a great number of articles on the chemistrj of rubber. 

 His communications on "Molecular Sizes in Rubber Latex" 

 (Mitteilungen, 1911). "Rubber Resin" (Zeitschrift fur Ange- 

 wandte Chemie, 1910), "Cold and Hot Vulcanization" (Kolloid- 

 Zeitscbrift, Chemiker-Zeitung) are considered as authorities. I lis 

 book on "Rubber and Its Tests" (Leipzig. 1910) was highly com- 

 mended by the leading rubber publications of the world. 



THE ALEMBIC BRAND OF SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



The February issue of this publication contained a reference 

 to the new "Alembic" rubber which is being manufactured — on 

 a small scale — in Perth Amboy, Xew Jersey, by the Alembic 

 Pr ci Co A correspondent interested in rubber matters gen- 

 erally write- us as Follows regarding this new brand of synthetic 

 rubber : 



"I spent three day- last month at the factory in Perth 

 Amboy and made a complete 'run' or' rubber. Inasmuch as 

 T bought the materials myself and watched the operation 

 \tv\ carefully during the entire process, I know that it con- 

 tained no natural rubber. We vulcanized a sample of the 

 run' that T made, and a practical rubber man pronounced 

 the result 'good.' This sample was vulcanized in the pres- 

 ence oi -' eral experienced rubber men." 



The Automobile Show opens in Boston, March 6, and will 

 continue until the 13th. The Braender Rubber & Tin 

 of Rutherford. Xew Jersey, will be one of the exhibitor- at 

 this show, displaying a full line of tires and tubes, having 

 space Xo. 605. department G. 



