RUBBER MANUFACTURE. IO/ 



It will therefore be quite evident that to obtain a cultivated 

 product possessing the valuable characters of the Brazilian and 

 the cultivated rubber, and at the same time free from the 

 objections mentioned above, it will be necessary to find a method 

 for preparing the cultivated product which will supply these 

 conditions. This is apparently only possible by antisepticis- 

 ing it. 



Creosote is produced by the destructive distillation of wood, 

 so that if the cultivated article were rolled out into thin sheets, 

 well washed, thoroughly pressed, and exposed to the smoke of a 

 wood fire, it should be antisepticised sufficiently for all practical 

 purposes. 



SUGGESTED METHOD FOR PREPARING RUBBER BISCUITS 

 ON SMALL ESTATES. 



Immediately the latex has ceased flowing into the collecting 

 cups, it should be collected and conveyed to the curing-house, 

 in order to prevent its coagulating in the cups. An ordinary- 

 milk pail will be found a useful article for this purpose. 



It now requires straining to free it from any bark, leaves, 

 dirt, &c., with which it may have become contaminated. Fine 

 copper or brass wire gauze or muslin will be found suitable for 

 this operation. But perhaps the most satisfactory article to use 

 is a fine hair seed-sieve. 



An equal quantity of water added to the latex will facilitate 

 the work. But the material employed for straining must not be 

 rubbed with the hand to assist the passage of the fluid, as this is 

 sufficient to coagulate some of the latex and thus choke up the 

 holes. As soon as the latex has been strained, it should be 

 poured into vessels which will permit of as much of the latex as 

 possible being exposed to the atmosphere. The vessels gener- 

 ally employed on rubber plantations in the East are composed of 

 enamelled iron, round-dish shaped, with a diameter of I foot, 

 and about i| inch deep. The employment of these is, how- 

 ever, open to the same objection as that put forward with regard 

 to using tin-plated collecting cups. In course of time the 

 enamel gets chipped off, leaving the iron bare to the oxidising 

 action of the atmosphere, and particles of oxide of iron get into 

 the latex. 



