504 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



He has been at it some three years, is backed by 

 very heavy capitalists, further than this, a very 

 distinguished American Chemist and physicist 

 who is miles above any suspicion of either 

 collusion or lack of knowledge, has possession 

 of the formula and under the inventor's guidance 

 made the gum himself and says over his own 

 signature that the product is real synthetic 

 rubber, he said this some three years ago, and 

 his verdict resulted in the erection of a factory 

 and the attempt to get out a commercial pro- 

 duct. Without cataloguing the many delays 

 that had followed the erection of the factory- 

 duo to the lack of purity of material, the im- 

 possibility of getting certain machinery, un- 

 fortunate breakdown etc. 



I wanted to say that if this is real 

 synthetic rubber the inventor has gone far 

 beyond anything that synthesis was hereto- 

 fore been able to accomplish : for he has 



REPRODUCED ABSOLUTELY UP RIVER FINE PARA 



not only in textures, colour, compounding capa- 

 city, and vulcanising ability, but he has suc- 

 cessfully imitated the peculiar smoky smell in- 

 dividual in that type of rubber. It is to be 

 hoped that when he gets to making different 

 kinds of rubber on a large scale, and begins 

 to manufacture synthetic Africans he will not 

 insist upon reproducing their smell. In the 

 jar marked C is the synthetic para of the smoky 

 smell. I hope you don't think that Yankees 

 are the only ones who indulge in synthetic 

 " pipe dreams." 



In an English paper of September 4th I read 

 that Synthetic Rubber is now being made at 

 Burton-on-Trent and is called Burton Rub- 

 ber. I have not seen it ; nor do I know 

 the chemist, who may be the most honest 

 and capable man on the face of the earth, but 

 if he can make synthetic rubber commercially, 



WHY' DOES HE SEEK NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY 



instead of making and selling the product? If he 

 found nuggests of gold in his backyard, would 

 he write The Tunes pages of argument to prove 

 they were really gold ? — or would he quiotiy dig 

 them up and put them into circulation? Just 

 what base he works from is difficult to tell, but 

 from his published formula the compounds 

 would seem to be equal parts of Old Burton Ale 

 and offensive smell. 



In the bottle marked B. is what was given 

 me as a sample of partially synthetic rubber 

 made along lines which appeared to be new. As 

 you all know the latex of a young Oastilloa tree 

 contains a great deal more resin than the latex 

 of an old tree. The gum in the young tree 

 containing about 40 per cent, while that in the 

 mature tree about 7 per cent. 



The theory of the producer of this semi-syn- 

 thetic Rubber was that the tree in maturing 

 turned its own resins into rubber. That by 

 proper treatment of this resinous latex, the 

 inventor could do just what nature did. I 

 could not see at the time that he did 

 it and certainly the sample on exhibition 

 does not prove his claim. When I first put it 



in the bottle it was very resilent, but contained 

 40 per cent of resin. 



Of course you are all aware of 



PROFESSOR TILDEx's EXPERIMENTS IN 

 BIRMINGHAM, 



where he succeeded in producing minute particles 

 of India Rubber from Terpenes. These results 

 are of high scientific value but it is a question 

 if they will ever be of the slightest commer- 

 cial value, because it is going to be easier and 

 cheaper to produce rubber latex bearing a 

 large percentage of India Rubber, than to pro- 

 duce vegetable oils containing very minute 

 qualities of India Rubber. 



It i3 impossible to consider a subject like this 

 without coming in touch with a great variety of 

 substitutes for rubber that have oeen and still 

 are in use to a certain degree in rubber manu- 

 facture. The rubber manufacturers know of 

 course, but none of these are in any way real 

 substitutes for the crude gum. They can be used 

 in connection with India Rubber and often times 

 add certain qualities to the compound that are of 

 value, but there are very few places where they 

 can be used alone in place of rubber. The most 

 widely known of these are 



THE OIL SUBSTITUTES 



which are so common that they need no expla- 

 nation as regards their manufacture or use. 

 There are also certain of the natural hydrocar- 

 bons such as mineral rubber, which are of defi 

 nite use in adding certain quantities to many 

 lines of rubber compounding. 



There is just one word of caution that the 

 honest producer of a rubber assistant should 

 have or else he will deceive himself, and for a 

 time deceive others. Suppose he is able to pro- 

 duce a fairly tough substitute that mixes well 

 with rubber and is in no way harmful, indeed 

 under test the vulcanised product containing his 

 assistant is stronger than the same vulcanised 

 product without it. He at once believes that he 

 has a wonderful product and perhaps he has, but 

 he has't proved his case by such a test. In 

 fairness to himself and manufacturer, 

 he should test not against a compound 

 of pure gum and sulphur, but against com- 

 pounds that certain earthy matter or matallic 

 oxides that we all know add toughness to rub- 

 ber compounds ; and if his is better or cheaper, 

 it is of value; otherwise not. 



It has occurred to me that in bringing some 

 of my samples of rubber assistants here and 

 calling your attention to them, it might stimu- 

 late an interchange of ideas, both on the subject 

 of synthetic rubber and rubber substitutes, 

 which will be more valuable than a prolonga- 

 tion of this paper of mine. Frankly it : s a sub- 

 ject I don't know much about, and — even when 

 I am in a room full of Rubber experts — I don't 

 feel a bit isolated by my ignorance. 



Every industry has its trials, and every manu- 

 facturer could easily state his ideas, of perfect 

 bliss in the absence of such trials. I fancy the 

 rubber man's Utopia would be — cold water vul- 

 canisation — no trade discounts, and the ability to 

 produce synthetic rubber from sea water and air. 



