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

The latest number of the Baltimore
Manutacturers Record contains letter
from Mr.. C. B. Warrand, Of Savannah,
Ca, in which the very interesting infor-
nation is stated t.haG there is in opera
ton in that city truly unique manu-
featuring establishment, it being the
only one of it's kind in the world, ''whose
cotton seed oil is manufactured by a
secret process into rubber, not substi-
tute for rubber, but bona fide rubber;
such at least some tof the best experts
having pronounced the product to be-"
1t is not hoax. The 1st of April is
more than a 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-
perimenting 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 iDforma-
ton 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 gcnu-
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 $4,000
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 adj
mitted within its doors.
The bare facts alone are known that
crude cotton seed oil, costing about 20
cents gallon, or about Sl35 ton, is
cartcd in, in five ton lots, and that tons
of rubber, worth about $1,000 a ton, are
carted out ard shipped to 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
ot easy to over-estimate 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 wi,ich 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 in the South, and the cotton
farmers will be directly and greatly benc-
flied by the increased value 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
a larger value than the lint, and that it
may yet come to pass that the crop will
be Siauted 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 Ill cattle, a sugar
fifteen times sweeter than cane sugar. a
rich fertilizing agent, and material for
the making such varied articles of use
fulness 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.