Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-01-30
HOW RUBBER IS MADE.
Short Talk on the Wonders of
the Crafts.
BEST RUBBER COMES FROM BRAZIL.
Machinery Used in Making 1t into Garden
Hose, Bands, Wagon Springs, Door
Mats, Etc Etc.
EST RUBBER COMES FROM BRAZIL.


overshoes into the alley or sneaks out
in the evening to drop his threadbare
arctics into garbage box he has an
idea that their days of usefulness are
over But there is where he is mis-
taken.
The rag-pickers and rubbish gather
ers, rescue the overshoes and gather the
arctics out of the garbage box and sell
them to the man who makes more
money buying waste material than
some do in corner lots or deals on the
board of trade. This man sends the
old worn.out footgear which has india
rubber in it to the india-rubber fac
tory, and there the old shoes are
worked up into garden hose, wagon
springs, door mats, betting and hun
dred other things turned out of india
rubber.
Simon pure rubber has it's limitations
in the industrial arts; it is too soft,
too stretchy and has not enough body"
and general toughness to withstand
the wear and tear to which overshoes,
door-mats and garden hose are sub
jected. Then again rubber is too cost
ly to be put in its pure shape into
many of the everyday articles which
are classed as india-rubber goods, SO
the manufacturer mixes in rubber
which has seen service with the pure
Para gum, and makes it into the thous
and and one things which are regarded
as indispensable by machinists, electri-
clans, workmen in all trades, and, in
short, every person in the civilized
world. By mixing old rubber, mill
eral earths and other substances with
the pure gum the manufacturer is able
to produce an article which he can sell
at II cents pound or less, when the
pure gum is selling for 65 cents pound
or more.
The best india rubber comes from
Brazil, and the best of that from the
upper Amazon river. and this is the
"fine Para" of commerce. 1t is sent
to the factories in the United States in
the shape Of irregular Jumps known
as "bisquits," and these BISCUITS are
made by the "seringueiros, 1.-THE rubber
gatherers of Brazil.
The seringueiro starts out with his
little tomahawk about O'Clock in the
for if he plunged at an ear
lier hour into the rank underground of
the forest in which the rubber tree
grows the heavy dew would soak him
through in few minutes. With his
in hand he goes from one
rubber tree to another, cutting little
gashes in the bark and fastening under
the cuts small tin or clay cups, not
much larger than teacups. He blazes
the trees until noon, when he retraces
his steps and finds that his cups are
filled with the milk-white sap which
has dripped from the wounds he made
in the bark. The sap is poured into a
basin-like vessel and taken to the hut
where the gum is to be cured. This is
done by smoking the gum over queer
furnace shaped like an inverted vase,
under which is burned the nuts of the
species of palm. The nuts
make dense smoke, which pours out
L
man. squatting beside his fire. dips
into the rubber sap wooden paddle,
to which clings thin layer of the
sticky juice. Then the gum-slneared
paddle is held and turned in the smoke
until the water in the sap evaporates,
when the paddle is dipped into the sap
again. This operation is repeated until
the gum forms large lump on the
paddle about the size of mans head.
This is cut from the wood, and after
the 'bisquit. as the ball of gum is
called, has been exposed to the sun for
a time, to complete the drying, it is
piled up with other biscuits and
shipped away.
The india-rubber manufacturer first
cleans the rubber. for bits of leaves,
pieces of bark, earth, stones and other
foreign substances are mixed with it in
the BISCUIT. so the BISCUIT is put in
the washing machine. Thisis COM
posed of pair of toothed rollers, over
which a perforated water pipe hangs.
The crude rubber is cut, squeezed and
mashed between the rollers, and spray
of water carries off the impurities.
The rubber comes from the washing
machine in irregular strips, rough as
bark, and resembling somewhat the
old slabs of lumber which are piled
up outside saw mill. The "mixing"
to which the rubber is taken
next, is not unlike the washing ma
chine, for it has pair of steel rollers,
and over them is box or hopper filled
with the compound which the rubber
maker mixes with the pure rubber. 1t
is at this stage of the manufacture
that the old overshoes, articles, garden
hose and other worn-out rubber goods
begin life again.
In the compound also is the sulphur,