PARA RFBBKR. 148 



condition." The material has been sold at a good price, but on 

 account of the washing and re-washing which certain manufacturers 

 subject all rubber to, it has been questioned as to whether the extra 

 labour involved in its preparation will be paid for by the higher 

 price. According to the " India Rubber World " of December I, 

 1905, very few consumers have looked upon this form of rubber 

 with favour, and most of them prefer to do the washing themselves. 

 Lewis and Peat stated in 1905 that " manufacturers are still preju- 

 diced against any rubber that has been washed or otherwise treated, 

 as a certain amount of the natural fibre and elasticitj r is lost in the 

 process, and the true quality of the rubber is much more difficult to 

 tell in this form; but the prejudice seems to be wearing off." In 

 any case it will always rank as a relatively pure rubber, and will 

 allow of the conversion of scraps and other kinds to one class of 

 uniform standard. 



Worm Rubber. 



Worm rubber is essentially the product obtained by cutting irregu- 

 lar sheets of freshly-coagulated rubber into thin worm-like rods of 

 unequal length. The Michie-Golledge machine is used to coagulate 

 the latex ; the fresh rubber is rolled to express the water, and the 

 irregular cakes are cut up by means of large shears. The fresh 

 rubber being cut into such fine parts dries quickly ; the " worms " can 

 be economically packed in ordinary tea boxes. 



Lewis and Peat, in their report on Plantation Rubber for L905, 

 state that worm rubber is not so attractive as biscuits or sheets, and 

 buyers are rather apt to treat it as a form of very fine scrap, although 

 the quality is every bit as good as sheet or biscuits. 



Samples of worm rubber have, up to the present, received good 

 reports, the concensus of opinion being that the rubber so prepared 

 u as \ cry clean and contained very little moisture : once it has estab- 

 lished a name it might command a price equal to. or higher than, 

 biscuits on account of its purity and dryness. Plate 22. Series A 

 shows the freshly-coagulated spongy mass, which alter passing 

 through the rolling machine shown on Plate 23, Series A, is ready 

 for cutting into " worms." 



Lace Rubber. 



Lace rubber has been prepared by Mr. Francis Holloway, .Mat ale. 

 It consists of very thin perforated sheets of considerable length. 

 In the preparation of lace rubber the latex is coagulated without the 

 use of mineral acids or application of heat, and after being 

 converted into " hue" j s dried in air kept at about 95° F. The 

 porous sheet is very thin, of a pale amber colour, and can be easily 

 pressed into biscuits or sheets of any desired thickness. The " lace" 

 comes on i of the machine in a continuous strip ; ii is cut into pieces 

 6 feet long as it runs on to wire trays. The rubber is very thin 

 and dries rapidly: it is maintained that it can be turned out ready 

 for drying within seven minutes of the latex arriving at the factory. 

 The time taken for coagulating the latex, conversion into lace 



