315 



So tar I have treated the subject from two points of view — the 

 first is the scientific if somewhat academic consideration of the 

 latex itself; the second is a practical criticism of the faults inhe- 

 rent in the methods of preparation now in use and suggestions 

 how to improve them. But along these lines there cannot, I 

 think, be much further progress. The samples of rubber exhi- 

 bited at the Show left little or nothing to be desired; they were 

 clean, dry, elegant preparations, but when one considers the labour 

 of preparation, each sheet being separately made by hand, the time 

 taken before the sheets are ready to pack and in general the fin- 

 icking nature of the work one feels that such methods can only 

 be possible on a small scale and in the early stage of an industry. 

 If there were no alternative nothing more could be said but one 

 would have to be content to continue as before, and multiply 

 labour, space and wasted time as the estates came into fuller 

 bearing. But there fortunately is a simple and effective method 

 of preparing rubber which yields a product which is more valu- 

 able to the manufacturer and which is easier to make than the neat 

 small transparent sheets prepared at present. 



The rubber sheets as exported at present are not in a condition 

 fit for the manufacturer's use. The first thing that must always 

 be done with them is to break them between steel rollers, wash, 

 tear to pieces, re-combine, and then dry them. This is effected 

 by means, of a rubber washing machine which in essential con- 

 sists of two steel rollers revolving on one another at different 

 speeds. The rubber passing through is torn to pieces, a jet of water 

 playing on it all the time. The fragments rejoin and finally a 

 crinkled sheet porous and in some degree resembling crepe work 

 is produced. This when dry is ready for further use by the manu- 

 facturer and is known technically as washed rubber. 



It "was, I believe, Dr. Carl Otto Weber who first suggested 

 the application of such a machine in the preparation of rubber 

 direct from the latex in the case of Castilloa which is otherwise 

 more troublesome to prepare than Para rubber. 



The suggestion had been made that a similar machine could be 

 used for Para rubber and from drawings supplied by Mr. PEARb ; 

 an experimental machine was constructed by the Federated En- 

 gineering Company under the supervision of Mr. RUSSELL, and it 

 was this machine which was to be seen at work at the Show. 



At the demonstration samples of washed rubber prepared by 

 the manufacturer in England from crude imported rubber were 

 shewn and rubber in similar form but of better colour was pre- 

 pared by the machine from freshly coagulated latex, proving that 

 the machine was capable of producing rubber in a form fit for 

 direct use by the manufacturers. 



The most striking demonstration of the use of the machine was 

 made on a subsequent occasion in the presence of the Resident- 

 General as follows: — 



A milk can containing two or three gallons of freshly collected 



