The Republican., 1899-04-06
A SUBSTITUTE FOR RUBBER
New Process for OxidizinE Vegetable
Oils BEING Experimental
with In England.

A new industry which has just been
established upon an apparently firm
basis in England uses for its raw mate
rial linseed oil or any of the other vege-
table oils of similar properties. 1t
promises to become of wide impor-
tance because its products partake of
many of the qualities of india rubber
and gutta percha, the supplies of which
show a constant tendency to fall below
the growing demands. That oils of this
sort have in them qualities of high use
fulness was discovered ages ago, when
they were first used for paints, and the
new industry takes advantage of the
same quality of hardening by oxidiza-
tion.
Linseed oil has been used for paints
and varnishes for generations. 1t is
well known that when the oil is spread
out in a thin layer exposed to the air
it absorbs oxygen and becomes very
hard. When the oil is left in bulk ex-
posed to the air it gradually becomes
fatty" as it is called technically, or of
a gummy consistency. Exposures of
different periods will give any grade
of hardness between these two. Other
vegetable oils act in the same way, and
many attempts have been made to xsAe
commercial advantage of these quail
ties. Some, like the manufacture of oil
cloths and linoleum have been very
successful. The difficulty experienced
heretofore in attempting to use the
oXidized oils for other purposes has
been the fact that it was mechanically
impossible to accomplish the perfect
and graded combination of the oxygen
with the oil, as might be needed for the
different purposes. The general meth
cd adopted was to allow the oil to drip
from the top to the bottom of a wide,
suspended sheet of scrim, an open
meshed textile fabric. while a current of
air was driven upon it. BY this method
the surface of the oil was soidified but
the action did not extend all through
1t and there was, therefore, portion of
unaffected oil held within. which it was
known might be made of a more perfect
product.
Mr.. Charles Grist of England, has
perfected a system by which it is as
serted that this trouble is. entirely over
come, and large factory has been
built where many articles are manu-
factured from the oils soliditied by his
process. His method of treating the
oil is to saturate quantity of tow with
it, and then, in a centrifugal machine.
throw out every particle of the oil eX-
cept that which clings in minute
globules to the fiber of the tow itself.
The punches of tow are then put on
grids of metal in a chamber where
warm air is forced through them and in
"a hours the oil is thoroughly oxidized.
The material is then ground up, mixed
with any desired coloring matter and
finally rolled out into sheets, in which
condition it resembles india rubber and
possesses many of the qualities of rub
Der and gutta percha. 1t is as resilient
as rubber, but not as elastic. is in.
perviOus to chemical action. and with
stands heat up to 240 degrees Fehreu-
helt, and it can be vulcanized by the
same processes used for rubber and
gutta percha. It. has high electrical in
sulating qualities and can be used for
cable wire coverings and other forms of
electrical insulators, and it is made into
wheel tires, which are said to be equal
to those of rubber. 1t can be dissolved
in ethereal spirits of all kinds, and
from these solutions it can be applied as
waterprooting coverings for fabrics of
any sOrt.-N. Y. Sun.