RUBBER MANUFACTURE. IOQ. 



Moisture .57 per cent. 



Ash .22 



Resinous matter 3.25 ,, 



Caoutchouc - - 95.96 



100.00 per cent. 



Samples of this rubber were submitted by the Director of 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, to Messrs Hecht, Levis, & Kahn, 

 rubber brokers, 36 Fenchurch Street, E.G., who reported that 

 the rubber was of excellent quality, well cured, free from im- 

 purities, and valued it at 45. 6d. to 45. 7d. per Ib. Sheet may 

 be similarly prepared by pouring latex into shallow oblong 

 vessels. Buyers prefer sheets about 2 by I foot long, and about 

 inch thick. Biscuits should be about the same thickness, with 

 a diameter of 8 or 10 inches. 



With the constantly increasing number of trees coming into 

 bearing, it has been found necessary on large rubber estates to 

 adopt new methods of rubber production which admit of more 

 expeditious treatment of the latex. 



A CENTRIFUGAL STRAINER. 



With a view to improve upon the somewhat tedious method 

 of separating mechanical impurities from the freshly collected 

 latex by passing it through sieves, &c., an apparatus known as 

 the Macadam centrifugal machine has been manufactured. The 

 latex is poured into a cloth bag contained in a receptacle which 

 may be made to revolve up to 10,000 revolutions per minute, 

 but 3,000 revolutions per minute is usually found sufficient to 

 complete the operation. 



COAGULATING MACHINES. 



The coagulation of the latex may be considerably expedited by 

 employing the Michie-Golledge machine (Fig. 18) which has been 

 specially manufactured for this purpose. It should be specially 

 noted that the addition of acid to Hevea latex is necessary before 

 coagulation is effected. The following description of this machine 

 has been extracted from Messrs Walkers' catalogue : 



" The Michie-Golledge rubber coagulating machine consists 



