August, 1912.J 



101 



SYNTHETIC RUBBER. 



The Times' View. 



The public are probably but dimly 

 aware of the extent to which chemical 

 research, often carried on for years in 

 directions which 9eem far removed from 

 any practical issue, now enters into their 

 daily lives and dominates great depart- 

 ments of industry. Now and again, 

 however, some notable discovery appeals 

 to the imagination of the most careless 

 observer. Most people are more or less 

 aware of the 



DEVELOPMENT OP THE ANILINE DYES, 



though they possibly fail to connect 

 them with the innumerable tabloids 

 of strange drugs to which they have 

 recourse upon all sorts of occasions. The 

 discovery of synthetic indigo is perhaps 

 less generally appreciated, though it is 

 painfully familiar to indigo-planters in 

 India. Now we have the announcement 

 of a method of producing synthetic 

 rubber upon a commercial scale and at a 

 price which will enable it to compete 

 with the natural product. So many 

 people are interested in the shares of 

 rubber companies that this newest 



TRIUMPH OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH 



has commanded very general attention. 

 Capital is proverbially shy and anything 

 that appears likely to affect an establish- 

 ed industry is sure to be scanned with the 

 keenest interest. It need hardly be said 

 that everybody who shares in that 

 interest would do well to keep a cool 

 head and to await developments. Apart, 

 however, from its bearing upon great 

 financial undertakings, the present 

 announcement is extremely interesting. 

 The actual 



PROBLEM OF MAKING RUBBER 

 ARTIFICIALLY 



was solved some time ago. It has been 

 made and tested by use in motor- 

 tires and things of that kind. But 

 the chemist, though he can imitate 

 nature's products, cannot command 



nature's methods. He cannot begin, as 

 the plant does, with the crude elements, 

 and build them up into complicated 

 structures with no other energy than 

 that derived from the sunlight. He has 

 to take manufactured material from 

 nature, and has to expend upon it a 

 great amount of energy also derived 

 from the manufactuied material of 

 nature. With all these advantages he 

 can bring about some wonderful trans- 

 formations ; but, before he can make 

 them pay, he has to discover some 

 natural product to begin upon, which is 

 very abundant and cheap in comparison 

 with his finished product. The difficulty 

 in the case of rubber has been to find 

 some sufficiently cheap natural product 

 to use as raw material, and that is the 

 difficulty which is now believed to have 

 been surmounted. 



English Chemists. 

 The steps are very interesting and in- 

 clude several distinct advances in know- 

 ledge, and that too in very different 

 departments. What adds further to the 

 interest, we might almost say the rom- 

 ance, of the matter, is that rival chemists 

 in different countries have been running 

 neck-and-neck in the race for commercial 

 success. A strong body of English chem- 

 ists has been at work, with the aid of 

 a French bacteriologist, who has contri- 

 buted an improved fermentation process 

 the details of which are secret, for the 

 abundant production of the higher al- 

 cohols from starch. On the other hand 

 German chemists have been pursuing 

 parallel, if not identical, lines of research, 

 and both parties are protecting them- 

 selves by patents which may not impro- 

 bably furnish occupation for the lawyers. 

 It is very probable that more than one 

 rubber is in question, and quite possible 

 that none of them is in every respect 

 identical with natural rubber. The Ger- 

 man chemists, we believe, recognize this 

 variability in composition, and hesitate 

 to put forth on behalf of their product 

 the claim that it is identical with natural 

 rubber, 



Professor Wyndham Dunstan 

 points out to-day in our columns that 

 some at least of .the proposed sources of. 



