AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAIT5 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 4.] APRIL, 1912. [Vol. 1. 
NOTES FOR A DEMONSTRATION CONCERN- 
ING THE IMPROVEMENTS IN, OR RELATING 
TO, THE CURING OF PARA RUBBER. 
(PATENTED). 
1. This invention relates to improvements in the curing of Para 
Rubber and refers more particularly to apparatus for coagulating, 
and curing the latex of Para Rubber known as Hevea Braziliensis. 
2. It is an anti-metal process and as will be apparent, the appa- 
ratus has been designed to accommodate the process of coagulating 
latex as it is brought from trees, without the addition of chemicals. 
In this first respect the process differs from all others that obtain, 
viz: — the machinery or apparatus has been modified so as to coagulate 
latex direct and not latex treated or manipulated to suit the machine. 
3. At the time of the first Rubber Exhibition held at Olympia,. 
London, I inquired of some of the leading manufacturers (the real 
masters of the rubber market) what they wanted from Plantation 
rubber and wherein it differed from fine hard Para. Plantation rubber 
was considered softer ; the addition of chemicals was disliked; and 
there was serious objection to variation in the character of the rubber. 
Not only did the rubber from different estates vary from one another 
but even from any one estate there was considerable want of uni- 
formity. What manufacturers required was “latex as it came from 
the tree, cured by smoke as was done in Brazil, without the aid of 
chemicals.” 
4. It is not asserted by manufacturers that fine hard Para is: 
always of an uniform character — indeed, I was informed that different 
results has been obtained from the same ball of such rubber when 
treated in Hamburg, Harburg, and Vienna — but it is claimed that 
the variation with Brazilian is far less than with Plantation rubber. 
It is obvious that climatic differences have to be considered — and due 
allowance should be made for the much shorter period of tapping in 
Brazil (April to September) as compared with the almcst-all-the-year- 
round seasons in Malaya— this difference is all the more important if 
it is remembered that the dry season in Brazil, April to September 
