82 RUBBER 



biscuits are still made on some plantations, where the 

 supply of milk is too small, for the time being, to 

 warrant the expense of putting up a factory and buying 

 machinery. But the bulk of plantation rubber is 

 now turned out in the form of crepe or sheets such as 

 we are now going to see made. 



You notice that some of the milk which is brought 

 into the factory is poured into those big pans which 

 reminded you of a dairy, and some into oblong trays 

 of enamel ware. In the pans, the milk is coagulated 

 in bulk — that is to say, into big lumps — by the addi- 

 tion of acetic acid. The milk in each tray has to have 

 a separate dose of the acid, so that each trayful will 

 coagulate into a slab. To-day the machines are work- 

 ing on yesterday's milk-supply ; the milk which has 

 been brought in to-day will not be sufficiently coagu- 

 lated for them to work on until to-morrow. 



From some of the pans we see coolies lifting big 

 lumps of a white substance that looks like very heavy 

 dough. These are put into a machine which tears 

 them into small pieces. A second machine, which has 

 rollers covered with a diamond pattern, kneads the 

 pieces together, and turns out a long strip of material 

 which looks like tripe. When this has been passed 

 two or three times through a third machine, which has 

 smooth-faced rollers, a strip of " crepe " rubber is 

 ready to be taken to the drying-room or to the smoking- 

 room. 



The slabs taken out of the trays are passed through 

 a machine which has smooth, copper rollers. The 

 compact, oblong pieces of rubber which are the result 

 of this method of preparation are called "sheets." 

 Some factories send smooth-surfaced sheets to market. 



