- 342 



There are no published figures on which an estimate of the 

 value of the manufactured articles consumed in the home trade 

 can be based with any certainty, but it may be safely placed at 

 not less than ten millions sterling, assuming normal rubber prices. 



C. SIMMONDS. Substitutes "for Rubber. -- Nature, March 17, 

 1910, Vol. 83, N. 2107, p. 72. 



" Of the composite rubbers (or " artificial rubbers, " as they are 

 sometimes called), one preparation, which has been made in quan- 

 tity, and is said to be excellent for many purposes, has for its basis 

 Guayule rubber incorporated with certain gums. Another such ar- 

 ticle is compounded of natural rubber and some other substance 

 of vegetable origin; probably a latex or gum, reputed to contain 

 the same chemical elements as rubber and in much the same pro- 

 portion. Such articles are of course, only partially " substitutes " 

 for rubber, and their cost rises with that of the latter ingredient. 

 Moreover, if any very large demand for them arose, there is always 

 the possibility that the supply of gums and latices would become 

 insufficient, and the advantage of lower cost would thus tend to- 

 disappear. 



" Coming now to true synthetic rubber ; a question often asked 

 is whether there exists any probability of such an article being manu- 

 factured and displacing natural rubber, either wholly or to any 

 large extent. Will rubber plantations go the way of madder fields 

 and indigo cultivation? Well, the future is on the knees of the 

 gods. In the face of the precedents just mentioned, to say nothing 

 of others, he would be a bold man who would venture to say that 

 even the best quality of rubber may not some day be made on a 

 commercial scale from cheaper materials such as beet sugar and 

 calcium carbide. But the day is not yet. There are beginnings; 

 there are clear indications of the direction in which to proceed; 

 there is distinct progress to note. But there is still some distance 

 to go, and the end of the journey may not be even in sight. 



India-rubber chemically is essentially a polymerised terpene. 

 An article patented some time ago, and named " turpentine rubber " 

 appears to foreshadow a synthesis of true rubber. Turpentine is 

 a mixture of terpenes, and the article in question was to be ob- 

 tained by passing turpentine through a hot tube, and treating the 

 resulting vapours with hydrochloric acid. The result is a solid con- 

 densation-product; and the idea at the base of the process appears 



