The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-04-15
RUBBER FOUND
IN COLORADO
MORE ABOUT WHAT PROMISES TO
BE A VALUABLE INDUSTRY.
The First Factory to Extract Rubber
from the Weed Is Now Approaching
Completion at Buena vista-It VIII
Produce Ton Of Gum q Day at
Clear Profit Of $l.Oo0-Discovery Due
to the: Death Of Ram.
st. Louis Globe-Democrat.


approaching completion at Buena Vista,
Col, on the standard-gage main line of
the Denver & Rio Grande railroad. Its
daily output will be ton of gum day,
worth 81 900, produced at cost Of
5000. For year q single experimental
machine has been grinding away in Den
yer, supplying gum enough to demon
strate what can be done.
Before the plant from which the gum
is extracted made its great hit it was
regarded as nuisance around home,
contemptuously designated as rabbit
weed, but now that1it is starred as the
great Colorado rubber plant, it has been
given agen;t the s imposing stage name a. Of pic
ennial, maturing from the seed in two 4
years. It is a short, bushy weed, 10 to
roots. The leaves are very small and
narrow, and the bark and branches ex-
tremely tough. and fbrous. 1t has al
ready re been found that good quality
well as from the pulp obtained from
the roots, after the, gum has been e4-
| tracted. There are hundreds Of square
miles literally covered with this weed
4 in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. 1T
grows only in arid sections at an alti-s
| tude ranging from 1000 feet to tim
Der line.
/ The plant is the first green thing to
be found in the spring, and for that rea-
son is eaten UP by sheep when they are
permitted to get at it. But the sheep .
men found that their sheep grew weak :
and emaciated and finally died after.
feeding on rabbit weed It never oe-s
ner in which the weed produced the
fatal effect until Myron G. Brownell,
a Denver real estate man, visited :
friend engaged in the sheep business
near Buena Vista. The friend had
valuable ram that had carelessly be
permitted to browse on rabbit weed, and
couple of weeks later died with the
4 usual symptoms. At Mr.. BrowneHss
suggestion a post-mortem was held on
1 the ram. The stomach was found to be
/ filled with pellets Of black gum. This :
gum was perfectly indigestible, and SO
had caused death. Mr.. Brownen had
some of the substance examined BY
/ Denver chemist, who said it was rub
I Der.
It did not take long to reach the con-
I clusion that the rubber came from the
rabbit weed on which the ram had been
/ feeding. Thereupon, Mr.. Brownell took.
to chewing rabbit weed; BY chewing
until he came near producing spawn
on his jaw he managed to secure rev
& From this singular beginning pro-
cess was evolved, after infinite trouble,
numerous disappointments and constd-
cradle expense, that was commercially
! practicable for the extraction of gum
1 from the plant. The gum is dried IN
centrifugal dryer, rolled into sheets by;
being passed thru corrugated rollers,
and is then ready for the rubber rae
tory. ~, 80, va. -,
a have 1872 grinders, 100 of which will be
in constant use, the rest being held IN
: reserve, so that stops for necessary re-
= pairs will not affect the output. II IS
estimated this new substance IS sup.
: stitute for rubber, for, as matter OF
: fact, it is rubber, chemically, in appear
ance and in every other way. It is net
, possible to distinguish articles of va
{ rious sorts that have been made from
: Colorado rubber from similar articles
9 made from the best Para rubber. But
: the manufacturers who have tried the
Colorado product find that it does not
; compound quite SO readily. Mr.. BROW
e thing If he could find a way to produce
y !. rubber from weeds. According to his
n logic, big thing could only be evolved
!. by al elaborate process Not until he
! had tried all the Enthusiastically imPrac.
= ticable things he could possibly think OF
: did he fall back upon the simple IDEA
: Of the two stones and the creek Of tho
Apaches. He got an old feed mill,
q ground up the roots and washed the re.
!. sultant pulp. It worked SO easily that
u he locked himself in his room and felt
70 ashamed Of himself for whole day.
g Then he applied for and secured pat.
2 ents on the process and also on ths
,s product, organized a company, Wnicn
le company, to make rubber. An expert
'r mental mill was set up in Denver, which
ol has heen running ever since.
10 In this experiment mill the tops are
N first cut off the roots with circular
" saw. Then the roots are fed into the
mill, where they are ground into pulp
1t stream stream Of water. These hundred
d machines will produce one ton Of gnan I'm
,e., day, worth $1,000, at a cost OF $500
to and several tons of pulp. suitable to-
< making paper, which will be worth 81
so ton. Thirty men will be required
t is as good as the green, and as the wees
ID has only to be gathered from the .prai
ries, where it grows wild, the mill ca
rim uninteruptedly the year round
From per cent to 16 per cent, or q,
average Of about 10 per cent, OF tht
weight Of the roots is saved as gum
Mr.. Brownell says the process would b.
g. profitable if only per cent was sayed
Each machine is expected to produce
fifteen pounds of gum in twenty hours
A cement is also made from the roots
y which has proved to be marketable al
IN $3.50 a gallon. Six per cent OF til!
Is weight Of ton Of roots can be savet
,f in the form of cement.
le Remembering the story Of the devel
se opment of the sugar beet from roo
q. with percentage of sugar too small t.
IS be worth extracting to its present i'm
q portant position, the company has ai
70 ready begun experimenting with tn
Z, cultivation of the rubber plant. Twenty
i. acres were put out in plants which weY'
"a given diversified treatment, to see un
1e der what conditions it would thriv,
IN best.
~ The value of this Colorado discover,
~ may be appreciated when it is remem
4 bered that, while the uses of rubber ar
3; constantly increasing, the maximum
supply seems to have been reached. Blu
W one satisfactory substitute for rubbe
y. has hitherto been found-gutta-j oota
Ne long. which comes from the East Indies
n n principally from Borneo. Last yea
q Ia, 984,S17 pounds were imported to mi,
NJ with the 50O1O,57l pounds of crud
OF rubber, 1859 1894 pounds Of old an
,e. scran rubber and 316,s30 pounds Q
pc gutta percha required to meet the need
to of the country. The rubber industr
! ;rs in the United States in the fiye grea
ne branches into which the trade is d
m vided-foOtwear, mechanical good!
X clothing, druggists sundries and har
ed lrubber-consumes considerably NOR
en- than half the rubber manufactured ii
lp- the world. One hundred million dollar