and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



205 



RUBBER-TANNED LEATHER. 



Paragraphs have appeared recently in the 

 press, from which it will have been gathered 

 that the satisfactory tanning of leather by means 

 of rubber, which has for many years been re- 

 garded as a practical impossibility, has at length 

 been successfully ashieved, and will shortly be 

 undertaken on a commercial basis. It is possible 

 the new invention may have, at a later date, 

 some effect upon the raw rubber market; that 

 being so, planters will naturally wish to know 

 what tanned rubbor leather really is, what are 

 its uses and its claims. We are now in the 

 position of being able to afford full details to 

 our readers. The invention, we understand, 

 consists of a process for permeating hides 

 and skins with pure rubber — the result being 

 the substance known as Rubber-Tanned Leather 

 and alleged to possess qualities vastly superior 

 to those of the ordinary bark-tanned leather. 

 Increaf ed life, resiliency, durability, toughness, 

 pliability, softness and wator-resisting qualities 

 are claimed to be imparted in the rubber-tanning 

 process, giving a commercial value to the new 

 product far beyond that of any leather at pre- 

 sent known to the market. In the preparation 

 of ordinary bark-tanned leather, the cells of the 

 hide or skin are rilled with chemicals, oils and 

 other substances that add considerably to its 

 weight; while, as is well-known, the harmful 

 effects produced far out weigh any advantages 

 claimed for the process, a rigidity being given 

 to the leather which only remains so long as 

 it is kept dry and in no sense does it become 

 waterproof. In rubber-tanned leather it is ex- 

 plained, the effect produced is almost entirely 

 the reverse, the principle involved being to 

 effectually cleanse the pores of the skin and to 

 extract therefrom all foreign and superfluous 

 fatty matter so that the cells may become avail- 

 able for the absorption of the rubber. The result 

 is the production of a material which is practi- 

 cally waterproof, and which, while claimed to be 

 incomparably more durable than the ordinary 

 commercial leather, is at the same time soft 

 and pliable, qualities which remain some of its 

 distinguishing features even after immersion for 

 lengthened periods in water, and render it avail- 

 able for the manufacture of many articles for 

 which ordinary leather is wholly unsuitable or 

 unsatisfactory. We have seen the reports of 

 many eminent authorities on the utility of the 

 new process, so that the statement of the manu- 

 facturers may be accepted when they declare : — 

 "Leather so treated has been abundantly 

 tested and proved and is suitable for the manu- 

 facture of many articles cf domestic and com- 

 mercial use, including boots of all classes, and 

 particularly Army boots ; mining, sluicing and 

 seamen's boots, where water resistance and soft- 

 ness are essential ; the leather cover for spindles 

 in cotton manufacture ; pump valves ; washers ; 

 seat rings; covers for footballs, punching balls, 

 tennis balls and others ; harness including Army 

 harness ; saddlery ; belting and lacing for machi- 

 nery : portmanteaux ; solid leather trunks ; gig 

 aprons ; leggings ; bags ; soles for use in shotting 

 horses to protect the frog and for minimising the 

 jar on hard roads and streets ; lire hose ; bicycle, 

 motor and Automobile tyres, in seamless and 



jointless bands, practically unpuncturable, motor 

 strips on the tyres carrying the studs ; &c, &c, 

 and in fact for every article to which leather is 

 applied. In all the articles mentioned, tough- 

 ness and durability, softness and water-resisting 

 qualities are essential, and are attained by rubber 

 tanning. The leather can be dyed to any 

 of the colours that are most used. Weight, so 

 detrimental to the essentials of the products, is 

 avoided, whilst a much greater superficial area, 

 weight for weight -a most important consider 

 ation for buyers in bulk— is obtained, rubber- 

 tanned leather in most cases giving almost 

 double area, pound for pound, as compared with 

 ordinary bark -tanned leather, whilst its dura- 

 bility is enormously increased." 



A considerable quantity of raw rubber will 

 we suppose, be required for the tanning process'. 

 Any extra demand for rubber which this may 

 create will, however, we fear, be more than 

 counteracted by the fact that if the new sub- 

 stance fulfils all the claims made for it, articles 

 manufactured from it will supplant many at pre- 

 sent made almost entirely from rubber. The 

 owners of the new process claim great saving in 

 cost by the use of rubber-tanned leather. Rubber 

 tanning, they say, though a little more costly 

 than chroming, is less so than bark-tanning, 

 while the rubber-tanned product is greatly 

 superior to both. An important factor in the 

 case of rubber-tanned leather, as compared with 

 bark-tanned leather, is the very short period of 

 time required to produce the former, the result 

 being that there is no locking up for lengthy 

 periods, as in the case of bark tanned leather, of 

 large amounts of capital represented by stocks 

 in process; while bark-tanning requires anything 

 from 5 to 12 mouths, the rubber-tannins; process 

 occupies at the outside from 5 to 7 weeks only. 

 A large saving in interest on capital is thus 

 effected, while a much superior article, it is 

 claimed, is at the same time produced. 



GANGARUWA RUBBER EXPERIMENT. 



With regard to the rubber experiments at 

 Gangaruwa, all the Hevea and Castilloa trees 

 have been planted fifteen by fifteen. The former 

 were measured when 3* years old and the 

 girth averaged about 10 inches. The total 

 number of Hevea trees in the station is 1,305, 

 which in a short time will be bringing in a 

 substantial revenue. There is a plot "of 130 

 Castilloa trees on level ground, six years old, 

 and the average girth here is 18.V inches. The 

 gradual deterioration in the Castilloa trees 

 planted on the slopes as they go up was re- 

 marked upon, and this is illustrated by the 

 table, given below, supplied to our contem- 

 porary by Mr Lock, No. 1 row being the 

 bottom one, and No. 7 the topmost row. The 

 effect is seen in the number of trees as well 

 as in the girth. They are all six years old ; 

 and above them is pure jungle : — 



Row. 

 1 



2 

 3 

 4 



5 



No. of trees. Average girth 



52 ... 23i 



50 ... 22* 



51 ... 22 



21 

 17 



16 



