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RUBBER MACHINES AND OTHER 
IMPROVEMENTS. 
A great deal has been written in Ceylon papers about a new 
machine, of process, for dealing with crude rubber, invented by 
Mr. D. K. Michie and Mr. G. H. Colledge, and tor which a 
provisional patent has been taken out. It appears that the latex 
is treated with acetic acid and put into a centrifugal separa or, 
and in a few minutes the rubber coalesces. The rubber is then 
pas. ,d through a mangle, or some such appliance, rolled into a 
thin sheet, and then cut up in strips and dried. By. this method 
it is said that the rubber can be dried in twenty-four hours. As 
Sir William Theselton Dyer remarks in the “ India-rubber 
Journal;' it is rather difficult to see what is patentable in this 
process. The chief feature, the centrifugalization of the latex, 
was patented by Biffen in 1898, and an apparatus for centrifuga- 
lizing was invented in England not long after, based on Bmen s 
idea, but this turned out a complete failure. A specimen of the 
machine was presented to the Botanic Gardens Museum b\ 
Mr. Pears. . 
At present one only has the various reports in Ceylon 
journals to judge of as to the merits of Mr. Michie’s machine. 
Mr. Burgess wrote, however, on his way home, that lie had seen 
the design.anddid not seem very much impressed with it. Whether 
centrifugalizing the latex will be of any use remains to be seen, 
but it may be noticed that while in Biffen’s patent the latex was 
supposed to be coagulated by the action of centrifugalizing only, 
in Mr. Michie’s machine we learn from the reports that acetic 
acid has to be used in coagulating, before the use of the 
centrifugalizor. We have not yet heard of the process being in 
use in any estate in Ceylon, and have not had any account of the 
working of it, though the scheme was hailed by the Ceylon press 
as a wonderful success long ago, when the affair was in its 
experimental stage. Any further infqrmation on its working is 
to be desired. * . 
Meanwhile, the Selangor washing machine is in full work 
and there is a photograph of a large strip of crepe rubber, made 
by Mr. W. W. Bailey, of Lowlands, in the “India-rubber 
Journal ” of March 27. The sheet is precisely the same as is 
turned out of fine Para in the works, but contains rather less 
resin and less insoluble organic matter. The latex arrives at the 
store at 12 noon, is coagulated by 6 a.m. next morning, and in its 
soft wet condition is put through the washing machine, and after, 
carefully dried. 
Several rubber journals have commented on the immense 
number of tins required for collecting the rubber, and enamelled 
iron plates for making the biscuits in, and remark that the great 
number of these required would be cumbrous, and hopelessly 
impossible to work with on large estates. It is difficult to see 
