65 



Three of these tire places keep the room full all day, but there are 

 others at the upper end of the building which can be used to increase 

 the smoke, if required, either for exceptionally heavy smoking or 

 when the building is quite full of rubber. This house will contain 

 2,000 lbs. rubber sheet or more. The newest made rubber is put 

 nearest the fires so as to get the most smoking and moved further 

 up the slope as it gets drier. The advantage of building the house 

 on a slope is that the smoke starting from the lowest point naturally 

 gradually ascends to the upper end, and the surroundings are 

 naturally drier and there is no accumulation of rain water round the 

 building. 



All smoke contains a certain proportion of water, and this and 

 the free creosote, and naptha are practically absorbed by the wood 

 work and attap so that the rubber is not covered with a wet unplea- 

 sant layer. At one time we built a brick smoking room with a 

 corrugated iron roof. In this house the fire was outside and the 

 smoke was conducted in by a tube, but we soon found that there were 

 deposited on the floor and elsewhere in the rooms a thick brown 

 liquid consisting of naptha and water. This stuff got, too, on the 

 rubber. This mess is quite absent from the wooden drying house, 

 though the woodwork gets dark brown or black from the deposited 

 products of the smoke, the rubber is dry and of a good colour. 



No ventilation other than the cracks is required, as any open 

 windows let out the smoke. The entrance door is usually kept open 

 but as it is at the lowest end, the current of air that enters drives the 

 smoke up to the other end through the rubber. The smoke should 

 be as dry as possible, both for the benefit of the rubber and for 

 coolies in the smoking shed as wet white smoke containing much 

 water is very troublesome to the breathing. Coconut husk can be 

 used instead of wood, but waste coconut dust and sawdust are apt to 

 give off sparks, which being incandescent pieces of wood fly up and 

 settle on the rubber as charcoal. Attempts to improve the smoking 

 by adding creosote did not prove successful. For one thing it is apt 

 to raise the temperature and produce more rapid combustion. 



In one estate recently I saw an arrangement of an oven outside 

 the smoke house connected with a passage with the interior. Here 

 the combustion was most rapid in the inner part of the oven, while 

 the slower combustion was going on at the outer open end, so that 

 the best of the smoke escaped to the open air while the more rapid 

 consumption of the fuel in the mounth of the passage increased the 

 heat of the air passing in. Thus much smoke was lost, and a larger 

 quantity of fuel than necessary was used. 



In the Gardens smoking house no smoke escapes without having 

 passed over some, at least, of the rubber, and much of it remains in 

 the house nea'-ly the whole day, so none of it is wasted. At the same 

 time the slow smouldering does not increase the temperature, nor is 

 there any risk from fire, as the fire is sunk in the ground in the 

 concrete, and produces no flame. However to avoid risks the fire can 

 be extinguished at night fall. 



