SYNTHETIC RUBBER.* 



By GEOFFREY MARTIN, Ph.D., M.Sc, B.Sc. 

 Lecturer on Chemistry at Birkbeck College, London. 



Author of "Practical Chemistry," " Triumphs and Wonders of Modern Chemistry," "Industrial and Manufacturing 

 Chemistry," "Researches on the Affinities of the Elements," etc., etc. 



The commercial production of artificial or synthetic 

 rubber is undoubtedly the most important problem, 

 from a financial standpoint, ever faced by the chemical 

 industry. Compared with it such triumphs as the 

 successful manufacture of 

 artificial indigo, alizarin or 

 camphor become quite 

 small affairs. 



For example, the total 

 value of synthetic indigo 

 annually produced at the 

 present time does not 

 exceed two million pounds ; 

 and the value of all the 

 coal-tar dyes annually ex- 

 ported by German} - only 

 amounts to ten million 

 pounds. 



The world's production 

 of such an important 

 chemical as sulphuric acid 

 amounts to about ten 

 million pounds yearly, 

 while the enormous soda 

 industry probably has a value of somewhat similar 

 dimensions. 



Yet, at the present time, crude rubber is annually 

 produced of a value reaching the enormous total of 

 thirty-four million 

 pounds, and were 

 we to add up the 

 value of all manu- 

 factured rubber 

 goods we would 

 arrive at figures far 

 exceeding those 

 given for crude 

 rubber, and running 

 into some hundreds 

 of millions of 

 pounds. Huge as 

 these figures are, 



there is no doubt that the demand for rubber far 

 exceeds the supply, and for this reason the price 

 paid for it considerably exceeds its cost of 

 production. The rubber industry is a modern one. 



Figure 29. 



Sir William Tilden's historic samples of Isoprene and 



Synthetic Rubber. 



Figure 30. 

 Dr. Matthews' first tube of Synthetic Rubber. 



From small beginnings it has grown into a vast 

 industry in which more than a hundred millions 

 of capital are invested and in which hundreds of 

 thousands of workmen all over the world find lucra- 

 tive employment. 



How recent is the growth 

 of this industry may be 

 gauged by the fact that in 

 1830 only twenty-five tons 

 of rubber were exported 

 from America, a quantity 

 which had increased to 

 seven hundred and fifty 

 tons by 1850, and one 

 thousand five hundred tons 

 by 1870, against eighty- 

 eight thousand tons now 

 produced from all sources, 

 and representing an annual 

 value of thirty-four million 

 pounds : this great change 

 having occurred well within 

 the lifetime of a single 

 man. Within the last ten 

 years no less than seventy million pounds have been 

 invested in rubber plantations, and over twelve 

 thousand tons of plantation rubber are now 

 produced annually. 



The selling price 

 of rubber has 

 fluctuated enor- 

 mously. In 1908 

 it once sank to two 

 shillings and nine- 

 pence per pound, 

 while in 1910 

 speculators actually 

 ran it up to the 

 fabulous price of 

 twelve shillings and 

 sixpence per pound, 

 and many were 

 the fortunes made and lost over rubber in that year, 

 which recalls to mind the times of Priestly, who in 

 1770 could only purchase it at the rate of £16 per 

 pound. At the present time good Para rubber sells 



* See also an interesting article in "Knowledge" March, 1912, by Mr. Stanley Redgrove. The reader who wishes for a full 



account of the technical literature, and the chief patents relating to synthetic rubber, will find them fully discussed in my recent 



book " Industrial and Manufacturing Chemistry, Organic," published by Crosby, Lockwood & Son, London. 21/- net. 



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