475 
of the very important uses of rubber and is responsible for the 
consumption of a great part of the fine Para imported. Here 
probably plantation rubber would be of great use, being pale in 
colour, clean and free from offensive odour, provided that the 
lasting properties of the rubber are not injured in the preparation 
Fabrics are coated with rubber in two ways. The rubber may 
be made into dough by masticating and mixing with sulphur and 
other ingredients and spread in this condition on the fabric by 
means of heated rollers ; or the rubber, sulphur and mixings are 
made into a paste with a rubber solvent and this paste is spread 
on to the fabric by the aid of rollers, and the solvent dried off by 
passing the fabric over plates heated by steam. 
For vulcanisation, the heat cure, using steam or water, is. 
usually adopted. The machinery necessary for spreading rubber 
is heavy and costly, the rolls are of polished steel about 2 feet in 
diameter and each machine has at least three, and may have four, 
rollers arranged vertically above each other on horizontal axes. 
The fabric is rolled over the top roller, round between this and the 
second, and even tension being thus given to the cloth, and finally 
it emerges between the second and third. The rubber as dough 
or paste is spread on to the fabric from the face of the third roller, 
as the cloth passes between it and the second. There are machines 
for spreading simultaneously on both surfaces of the cloth, and 
many different details in the actual mechanism of the spreading. 
The rolls are called calenders and the machines are very similar to 
the calendering machines used in paper manufacture. 
31. There are many forms of india-rubber goods which cannot 
justly be placed under any of the three previous clauses, but which 
deserve some mention here, especially as they are made for the 
great part from rubber ot the finest quality and for which planta- 
tion-grown rubber is at present never used. 
CUT-THREAD AND SHEET. 
32. Cut-thread is the name given to rubber in +he form of 
thread, or strands of square cross section cut from solid sheets of 
rubber already vulcanised. This rubber thread which when fine is 
woven into elastic webbing, is all of the best possible quality, and 
special nerve, elastic and keeping properties are demanded. The 
amount of labour which is actually spent on the rubber would 
make it a false economy to use untried cheap rubber, and makers 
of cut-thread will not use at present plantation rubber for this 
process. Each manufactory has its own special methods for 
actually cutting the thread and details of the machines are jealously 
guarded as secrets. I was, however, admitted in several instances 
and saw rubber being actually cut into threads by multiple scissors 
and knives, the thread afterwards being powdered and spooled and 
wound into hanks. The details of the cutting I shall not attempt 
to describe. 
Cut-sheet is made from large blocks or cylinders weighing 
about half a ton, the cutting being done by a blade four to six feet 
