AND THE MALAY STATES 



55 



are those who claim that it is unwise to pick the film of rubber out of 

 the tapping wounds in the tree, as there is danger that insects or disease 

 enter there. Such a theory is plausible, but so far I have not heard of 

 ill resulting from such removal of the air dried scrap. 



This coarse rubber, by the way, was not absolutely clean ; that is, 

 it contained bits of bark, and vegetable matter oftentimes. As labor 

 is so cheap, and there is plenty of water, it could be very easily washed. 

 For this purpose the ordinary corrugated roll washer that is used in the 

 rubber factories has been suggested, but it hardly fits the case, as the 

 scraps are so very small. A more practical plan would be to run them 

 through a winnowing machine such as is used to blow the dirt out of 



COAGULATING AND PRESSING PARA RUBBER. 



peas and beans and let the air blast take out as much bark as possible. 

 Then, if necessary, use a washer of the paper engine type to wash and 

 beat the rest out. Of course, for quick drying, the gum should then be 

 sheeted, and either plain or corrugated rolls would accomplish that, and 

 it could hang until dry. There is so little of the scrap, however, that 

 the simple winnowing machine is probably all that would be necessary 

 or profitable. 



The time will come, however, when the coagulating and drying will 

 have to be done on a different plan. The present method takes up too 

 much room and is too slow. It would be perfectly easy to have coag- 

 ulating pans that would deliver strips of rubber ten feet long, a foot 

 wide, and a quarter of an inch thick. These strips could then be run 



