Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-03-16
Cotton May Yet Become More Valua'
BILE for its Seed Thar Lint.
rcharleston News and Courier

The latest number of the Baltimore
Manufacturers Record contains letter
from Mr.. C.. B. Warrand, of Savannah,
Ca, in which the very interesting jnfor-
nation is stated that there is in opera
ton in that city truly unique manu-
featuring establishment, it being the
only one of its kind in the world, whose
cotton seed oil is manufactured by a
secret process into rubber, not substi-
tute for rubber, but bona fde rubber;
such at least some fof the best experts
having pronounced the product to be-"
1t is not hoax. The 1st Of April is
more than fortnight off, as yet. This
story is told in good faith, and with full
particulars by Mr.. Warrand, who is, we
believe, chemist and a citizen of
Savannah, and is well known writer on
industrial topics. The discovery of the
artificial rubber, he says, was made by an
artist of some prominence who was ex-
periEaenting with cotton seed oil to pro
duce varnish for art painting, and who,
as has so often happened in such cases,
stumbled on product entirely foreign to
his expectations. The discoverer states
that his process is so simple that it is not
patentable, hence his only safeguard is in
keeping it a secret The only informa-
tion he gives is that he uses Is per cent
Of genuine rubber to produce an article
which cannotin any way be distinguished
| from crude India rubber.
AS soon as his discovery was made he
went at once to Boston, where number
of experts pronounced the product genu-
inc rubber, and would not believe that
such an article could be produced by
artificial means. a prominent rubber
manufacturer recognized at once the
value of the discovery, purchased an in
terest in the process, and placed 100000
in the hands Of the discoverer to estab-
lish factory near Savannah. A site of
, five acres was purchased four miles from
the city: high board fence was erected
around the property, and the factory was
built in the enclosure and has been run
ming for months. Nobody knows what
is going on inside the factory except a
few ignorant negroes; and nobody is ad-
mitted within its doors.
The bare facts alone are known that
crude cotton seed oil, costing about 20
cents gallon. or about Sls5 a ton. is
carted in, in five ton lots, and that tons
of rubber, worth about 5000 a ton, are
carted out and shipped to a very promi-
nent rubber dealer and manufacturer in
Boston.
The value of the new industry to its
discoyerer and his associates is Indicated
by the figures we have just given. 1t is
not easy to over-estimatc its value to the
South and to the world. The uses of
rubber are increasing every year, and the
demand for the article is taxing the natu-
raj supply already. If the artificial pro-
duct can successfully be employed for
all or most OF the purposes to which the
natural product is applied, or would be
applied if its cost were cheapened. there
will soon be market for all of it that
can be made ir the South, and the cotton
farmers will be directly and greatly benc-
4ited by the increased vaiae of the raw
material, cotton seed oil, which they
must supply.
1t has been predicted that the seed OF
the cotton plant will some day represent
larger value than the lint, and that 1t
may yet come to pass that the crop will
be planted mainly for the profit in the
seed. 1t really begins to appear as if
the prediction, wild as it seemed at first,
will yet be verified. A berry or nut-or
whatever It is-that furnishes at once a
wholesome table and cooking oil. the
best kind of food for all cattle, sugar
fifteen times sweeter than cane sugar. a
rich fertilizing agent, and material for
the making such varied articles of use
fu!ness as Alabama strings, eraserS,
galoshes, gum boots, bicycle and buggy
tires, hospital beds, soldiers overcoat>,
ladies' wraps and car buffers and springs.
has future before it that it would be
vain to attempt to outline or to limit