El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-12-07

w WASHINGTON. D. C.. Dec. L.
MAJ How does the idea of rubber
at 20 cents a pound strike
yau?"
The question was asked by Dr.
Charles E. Munroe, one of the most IA
nous Of living chemists, and dean Of
the George Washington university.
1--WE may soon have 1t at that price"
ne added, and at half that IN all ike
hhOOd little later on. The reason why
is simply that we have learned how ia
make the stuff by artificial means.
This does not signify that success
full imitation OF rubber mas Deen pro-
duced. The thing itself is now begin
ming to be ufactured-ruDber, that
is TO say. Just as real ana as truly
sucb a s any that can be obtained from
a tree. \ process dlf1erenL from tnSbL
employed by nature is used. but the
result physically ana CHeiniCe44S' 10
Crude rubber at the present time
costs anywhere from so cents to some
thing over 81 pound, according to
Not a secret Process.
a secret process Not at all. The
and lime. For the grain one must pay
about SO cents a bushel at present mar
ket rates, l belieIYe. The salt costs 81
a ton, and the lime about the same.
There is nothing very expensive so
'From the corn is obtained 'fusel oil
mixture of amyl. buJyI, and other al
cohols. This. serves as a base for the
process which I shall presently de-
scribe Doubtless you are aware that
the alcohol which gives to whisky its
stimulating property is ethyl alcohol
Other alcOhcls, such as propyL amyl,
and butyl, are liable to find their way
into the whisky. and, taken together
are called fusel oil
In whisky, of course. there are un-
desirable impurities. But when the
corn is fermented for the rubber max
ing process. the object in view is to
eel as much fusel oil from it as pos
sibIe the ethyl alcohol being sup
pressed To accomplish this, 1t Is neces-
sary merely to encourage the growth
in the mash Of certain xmas OF nllcro-
scOpic fungi, or yeastS-tnoSe species.
in fact. which produce the alcohols OF
'sThe fuseI oil being thus obtained,
il is treated with hydrOchlOrtc acid,
and afterwards with chlorine and lime.
Both the acid and the chlorine are OBJ
tanned from common salt. BY this
known to the chemist as 'isOprene.
If the isOprene' be allowed merely
to stand in contact with a small guam
tity of the metal sodium. it changes
into rubber. That is the whole busl-
ness. What could be more simple and
easy? Fusel oil is cheap stuff. Treat
if in the manner desert bed: immerse
little sodium in the resulting lsoprene.
and you have rubber-the pure STUN,
ready to be worked up Tor commercial
SCuriously enough. this discovery
was made almost simultaneously by
two chemists in different parts of the
wOrld-pne Of them, an Engl1shman.
DR. +. z. Matthews, and the other
prof. Karl Harries, OF Kiel. The raw
materials being so cheap, and the pro-
cess so simple, you viii undersland
v-bV- if is expected that the artificial
rubber will be produced at a cost not
exceeding % cents a pound
Emerges as n Soft Mass.
'aThe synthetic rubber, as II emerges
from the process described, IS SOFT
mass. readily pulling out into long,
elastic threads. But as yet OF course,
it is raw. To be made useful for in
dustriaI purposes. it mas to be vulcan
led like ordinary rubber
Thanks to Goodyear rubber mas
made for itself a most important place
in our modern civilization. being util-
lied for an immense variety OF pur-
poses. including waterproof coats, Dill