The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-03-17
MAKES RUBBER
OF PETROLEUM
$
Professor c. H. La Belle InVents
a New Process.
PLANT TO BE BUILT IN UTAH
1
HYDROCARBONS USED As MA
TERIAL FOR PRODUCT.
'LANT TO BE BUILT IN UTAH
I ABELLITE is the name by which

7 ABELLITE is the name by which
an invention, a substitution for
the gum furnished by rubber
trees. will be known According TO its
inventor. Professor c. II. La Belle of
salt Lake. prices in rubber win be SO
reduced by the perfection of the dis
c0very that there will be a revolution
in the rubber trade. This revolution
is promised in the near future, for
the inventor is daily awaiting the ar
rival of a representative of wen
known New York banking house which,
ne says. viii Immediately form COM
pany with a capitalization of $4,000.
600 According to the inventor, the
substitution viii cost ~ cents per
pound. while gum from the trees costs
S1.25 per pound.
Yes. L am nearly on the shady side
of Easy street, said the inventor IN
his home at 1888 West Third South
street. yesterday afternoon. Here is
piece of The rubber. All right. isn't IT.?
1t took me nine years to perfect IT,
{ he continued. and now that my work
/ is finished, 7 am devoting my time to
having the product put on the mar
ket
Asked to explain the process, the
/ inventor swung round in his chair, and,
drawing a number of papers from his
! desk. began:
This process is in measure secret
/ so you must excuse me if ! fail to
I enlighten you on all points. To begin
with. 7 want to say that my invention
/ consists of what is known as pulp
/ This is similar to the gum that IS
! extracted from the rubber trees. From
! it the rubber is made.
Oil the Main Ingredient.
'"rhe principal constituent of my in
/ vention is shale oil. AS is well known,
! this is a crude petroleum extracted
1 from shale. which is crushed before the
I extraction takes place.
Then aIbertite. gilsonite. elaterite,
! tales and several other minerals are
Z used These minerals are used only to
give substance to the pulp
The new invention naturally means
much TO Utah. for all the minerals in
unlimited quantity, excepting albertite,
are mined IN this state. There is con-
siderable albertite here. too, but per
sons other than the promoters of the
Invention have prior claims.
According to the inventor, it is the
intention of the promoters to erect a
plant somewhere in Utah. The main
plant Of the company viii be located
on Long Island sound Mr. La Belle
says this win be done because the pulp
can readily and at least expense be
sent from there 10 all parts Of the
world. Another reason is that because
il was not able to get all the required
albertite in this state. the company
was forced to take up claims in Cuba.
There the company secured ninety
eight acres of solid formation of the
mineral The mineral can be shipped
from there by water at q much less
rate than it could from here by rail
the inventor saying that 10 mine and
/. ship the mineral from Utah will cost
$50 per ton, while from Cuba it costs
only s..
Better Than Natural Product.
Professor La Belle asserts that the
rubber made from the new invention
: will stand moisture and aikalis much
better than that made from the gun
of the rubber tree. He claims he car
prove that the new rubber viii stand
being immersed in water five years
while ordinary rubber viii rot in sis
months.
The claim is set forth that the pull
can be made into anything, from mos
simple rubber articles to the most com
r pick When the company is started
7 and the plant erected, Professor L
y Belle will have sole charge of the Op
e Grafton of it. The inventor is wei
known in this part of the country II
r is an architect. and while he spen
e many years in New York, he ais
n made California his home for som
= time. 1t was in 1890 that the invento
e / came here. Shortly after that he be
r gan his experiments and since then ha
G kent at them increasingly.