H6 PARA RUBBER. 



WORM RUBBER. 



Worm rubber merely consists of sheet rubber cut up into 

 shreds to facilitate drying and packing. 



LACE RUBBER. 



The method of preparing lace rubber is somewhat similar to 

 that employed in the manufacture of crepe rubber. It is very 

 thin in texture and far more porous than crepe, and consequently 

 dries more rapidly. 



FLAKE RUBBER. 



The freshly coagulated rubber is passed through a rolling 

 machine with horizontally arranged corrugations in the rollers 

 which cause the rubber to be turned out in thin flakes. None 

 of the three last mentioned methods are largely employed. The 

 principal advantages of each is that the rubber is rapidly dried 

 and easily packed. Each form has been well received by buyers. 



BLOCK RUBBER. 



The manufacture of cultivated Para rubber in block form is 

 of more recent date than that of any of those previously 

 described, having only commenced in the year 1906. 



As the crepe rubber is taken from the washing machine it is 

 placed in a vacuum drying apparatus for about two or three 

 hours or until nearly dry, for if left in the vacuum drier after all 

 the moisture has been extracted it is liable to become tacky. 

 When taken from the vacuum drier rubber is in a pliable con- 

 dition, and if submitted to pressure readily forms into a homo- 

 geneous mass. This is effected by placing it in a block press. 

 A description of a recently invented press specially adapted for 

 use in connection with plantation rubber, extracted from the 

 British Trade Journal, 1st Sept. 1907. is as follows : 



" Now that ' block' rubber is again coming into vogue, it will 

 be of interest to notice the latest form of rubber press, as here 

 illustrated (Fig. 22). The success of ' block ' rubber at the 

 recent exhibition of rubber at Ceylon, to which we have already 

 referred in these pages, has given a stimulus to that form, and 

 now that it can be adopted on properly organised plantations, 

 and is not likely to come into bad repute again by reason of 



