The suburban citizen., 1901-07-27
Nrw suesrIrvrE EoR RueerR.
MILKY Juice of n Chinese Plant Mixed
with RRmie Fibre.


MILKY Juice of Chinese Plant Mixed
with RAmie Fibre.
There is probably no field that offers
greater chances of immediate profits
to the inventor than that open to the
man who can produce satisfactory
substitute for rubber. The uses Of rub
Der increase every year to such an ex-
tent that even with the utmost efforts
of the rubber hunters the price for
the gum keeps increasing, while every
little while notes of warning are
sounded to the effect that the forests
are being exhausted.
Fair substitutes have been found for
hard vulcanized rubber for a great
variety Of purposes in celluloid and
similar compounds, even a mixture OF
sawdust and blood making an accept
able substitute for some uses. To find
something, however, which may take
the place of flexible rubber and pos
sess, even in fair degree, the elastici-
ty and toughness Of rubber, is a more
serious as well as a more desirable
quest Even IL this substitute did not
possess all the qualities Of the fine
product Of Para It would at least leave
this gum free to be applied to only the
most exclusive uses.
An English inventor says that he
has succeeded in making fairly good
substitute from linseed oil, and now
comes a Frenchman who asserts that
with ramie fibre and the milky juice
of a Chinese plant, he can make an ar
ti1cial rubber which is of good mar
ketable quality.
According to the printed descriptions
of the Frenchman's process, he takes
ramie fibre, dries it and extracts from
1t the oily and volatile matters and
t:en mixes with it the juice Of a plant
called abornamortana brassa. This
juice commercially is known as ponti-
anak gum. The proportion of the mix
ture varies according TO whether a
hard or soft product is required. A GER
tain amount Of sulphur may also be in
corporated in the mixture, the same as
is used in india rubber that is to be
vulcanized.
To incorporate thoroughly the ramie
fibre and pontianak gum, the mixture
is passed repeatedly between rollers
at a temperature of fifty degrees cen
trigrade, and then placed in an oven
where the temperature is raised grad
ually to about 200 degrees centrigrate,
The mixture is again worked between
the rollers at the lower temperature
until the fibrous structure of the ramie
is entirely destroyed and the mass is
uniform in character.
During this mixing substances
which give off oxygen are added, such
as borate of manganese or permangan-
ate of potassium, in the proportions of
from five to eight per cent, and a soft
ening material like balata gum may
also be added if needed. The sulphur
is also added at this time. The mass
is then allowed to cool for about forty
hours The finishing process is cook
ing by steam under a fifty-pOund pres
sure.
The general proportions Of the in
gradients to produce the various rub
Der substitutes are stated as follows:
For a good quality of flexible rub
Der, gum, eighty per cent; fibre, fif-
teen per cent; sulphur or permangan-
ate, five per cent; for better quality
of flexible rubber: gum, seventy-twO
per cent; fibre, ten per cent; balata,
ten per cent; sulphur, eight per cent;
for flexible hard rubber; gum, seventy
FIVE per cent; fibre, twenty per cent;
| sulphur, five per cent.