608 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



I am not criticising in any biased way ; if the 

 new tapping does prove really valuable and we 

 can get good merchantable rubber from three to 

 four years old trees, no one will be better 

 pleased than myself — as I am interested in 

 young, as well as old, estates. What I want is 

 that this matter should be discussed— as it does 

 affect, considerably, the planting interests of 

 the colony. And I should liko to hear what 

 Dr. Willis may have to say on the subject. — 

 Yours faithfully, 



HERRING-BONES. 



RUBBER IN THE COMING AGRICUL- 

 TURAL EXHIBITION AT PARA. 



Sir, — Your readers will be interested to hear 

 that an Agricultural Exhibition is to be opened 

 at Para on the 22nd June, 1909, under the aus- 

 pices of the Syndicato Industrial e Agricola 

 Parr.onse. The following exhibits are solicited 

 for the Rubber Section : — 



No. I. — Tapping Implements. 



No. 2. —Smoking apparatus for india-rubber. 



No. 3. — India-rubber blocking presses. 



No. 4. — Pails for carrying the latex. 



No. 5. — Other materials and accessories for 

 the smoking of india-rubber. 



No. 6. — Cups for the latex. 



I extract from the circular issued by the Syndi- 

 cate the following rules, which show the methods 

 to be adopted : — 



All machinery, implements, utensils, photographs, de 

 signs, cliches, etc., received by the .Syndicate, for the exhi- 

 bition shall become its entire property and the said Syndi- 

 cate will undertake to make a propaganda of all these 

 articles gratuitously among the principal agricultural cen- 

 tres of this State. 



The Syndicate undertakes not to sell or dispose of, in any 

 form whatever, the articles entrusted for its care |for 

 exhibition. 



I trust that British engineers will be well to 

 the front at the Exhibition, and that plant and 

 utensils similar to those being employed in the 

 East will be in evidence. Trade in this quarter 

 will have an important revival, and the market 

 is not to be neglected, — Yours, etc., 



" Paraense." 

 — India Rubber Journal Nov. 16. 



THE DA COSTA PROCESS OF RUBBER 

 COAGULATION, &C. 



F.M.S. Commissioner's Suggestion. 

 Sir, — In the Da Costa process, the latex is 

 coagulated by forcing into it a jet of steam and 

 smoke. The idea may possible be correct, and 

 certainly the rubber produced is of an en- 

 couraging quality ; but it appears tome that the 

 apparatus by which it is carried into effect is 

 very inefficient. It is an ordinary vertical steam 

 boiler, with an arrangement whereby a portion 

 of the smoke is driven, by means of an injector, 

 into the latex. I watched the apparatus at work 

 at the recent International Rubber Exhibition, 

 and naturally there was little or no smoke pro- 

 duced, because a boiler furnace is designed to 

 produce heat and not smoke, the two things 

 being inimical to one another. Further, when 

 visible smoke was given off, it was largely com- 

 posed of carbon, which appears to give the rub- 

 ber the curious grey appearance which it has. 

 Now I would suggest that the only way to carry 



this method into successful effect is to have two 

 distinct fires, one designed to produce smoke 

 and the other heat. Under these circumstances 

 it would be possible to supply a smoke similar 

 in character to that used in preparing the 

 Brazilian rubber ; that is one containing practi- 

 cally no free carbon, but large amounts of those 

 products of the destructive distillation of 

 vegetable matter, which are required to coagu- 

 late and cure the rubber. As I am not going 

 out again to the East, and therefore shall not 

 have an opportunity of trying this modification 

 of the process, I have decided, with your kind 

 permission, to publish this suggestion, in the 

 hope that someone may be induced to try it 

 and report the results. 



L. War ay. 



— India-Bubber Journal, Nov. 16. 



USES OF PLANTATION PARA. 



(To the Editor, "India Rubber Journal. '') 

 Sir, — In your issue of November 2nd, and 

 under the above title, Messrs Clayton Beadle and 

 Stevens, referring to my paper on " The Re- 

 lation of the Manufacturer to the Consumer," 

 say : — " The author holds that plantation rub- 

 bes is deficient in nerve or strength or resiliency 

 as compared with hard cure." I must ask you 

 to permit me to say that it is simply not true 

 that I have said this or anything of the kind. 

 What I did say, under a paragraph headed " A 

 disadvantage of some Plantation Rubbers," was: 

 — "Although the advantages of plantation 

 are both numerous and important, there is no 

 use blinking the fact that much of the plan- 

 tation rubber now being produced is in on6 

 respect decidedly inferior to the high class wild 

 product, namely in regard to 'nerve' or strength 

 or resiliency." 



Toaro-ue that because one particular brand of 

 plantation rubber is excellent and gives results 

 equal to fine hard cure, that therefore all (or the 

 great bulk) plantation rubber is equally good, 

 is not only childish, but opposed to the facts 

 There is one point on which every manufacturer 

 with whom I have discussed this question (at 

 the Rubber Exhibition and elsewhere) is agreed, 

 and that is that the plantation product varies 

 very widely in regard to strength. If indepen- 

 dent confirmation of this were required it is to 

 be found, curiously enough, in the article by Mr 

 John Parkin, in the same issue of the "India- 

 Rubber Journal " as that containing Messrs 

 Beadle and Stevens' letter — not to speak of the 

 opinions which were gathered from manufac- 

 turers by you, Sir, in reference to this matter, 

 some little while back. The attitude of your 

 correspondents reminds me of the patriotic 

 Scotsman who said: "There's guid whisky, 

 and there's whisky that's nae so guid, but 

 there's nae bad whisky," but they appear to go 

 one step further and to say : " There's no plan- 

 tation rubber that's not of the highest quality." I 

 can only say that I would it were so and express 

 the hope that in time it will be a fact. Meanwhile 

 I demur to a theory which seems likely to mis- 

 lead those to whom it is of vital importance to 

 knowthe simple truth. — \ours, etc., 



PHILIP SCHIDROWITZ. 

 — India Rubber Journal, Nov. 46. 



