The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-07-06
ARTIFIcIAL RueRER.

winnipeg free EE6SSs "A EOplC winch
is claiming a good deal of attention
In the English papers is the question
of artificial rubber. On June IL before
the London section Of the British So
ciety OF Chemical Industry, Professor
Perkin of Manchester university read
an account of the process which has
been devised, after many months of
work, for the synthetic production of
rubber on a commercial scale, strict
~ comparable with the natural rub
ber," from raw materials. Professor
Perkin is the son Of Sir William Per-
kin, the eminent English chemist who
discovered aniline dyes; but though
that discovery was made in England,
1t was in Germany that its immense
value was first appreciated and turned
to practical account. E~iberdeld, In
Germany, is now the center of the
aniline dyes industry, and the exports
to Great Britain amount to many mill
lions of pounds annually.
Curiously it has happened that Ger
man and British chemists, who have
been at work at the problem of a prac-
ticable process for making artificial
rubber, have both succeeded; but when
the German chemists came to the point
of taking out patents a couple OF
months ago, they found that the pat
ent rights had already been secured
three months earlier by their British
competitors. The two bodies of chem
ical investigators and experfmenters
reached the goal by different routes;
and in the process which has brought
victory to the British chemists. 1t is
claimed that a method has been found
for producing acetone, which is largely
used in the manufacture of the ex-
plosfve cordite, at less than a third of
its present price, which is $3.50 a ton.
An expert who is quoted by The Lon
don Times, avs: from a national
defense point of view this discovery
cannot be overestimated. Every gov
eminent in Europe is gasping for ace
tone. and at war times its price is
fabulous"
The Saturday Review undertook to
make light Of the whole matter. "'The
chemist has a long way to go before
he can hope to supercede nature" II
declared. Artificial rubber will be
used for tires about the time that
artificial diamonds are being worn by
the ladies in the car" A later article
in The Times goes into the matter
from the point Of view of the owners
of rubber plantations. The artificial
rubber, it appears, can be produced al
a cost OF a shilling a pound; The Times
article shows that the cost of obtain
ing rubber from the tree has been re-
duced on many plantations to that
level and comes to the conclusion
that the natural rubber industry has
at present no cause for alarm, but thai
those interested in that industry
should spare no effort % reduce by
every the cost Of production
and here the same science Of chemis.
try can be relied on for effective help
There have been several previous
announcements Of secret processes fol
making rubber, none of which have
come to anything; Professor Perkins
process, which is not secret, Is a diff
ferent proposition, and has given q
great shock to the great number Of
people whom the failure of the
previously announced methods has lee
to becoming confirmed unbelievers in
the possibility of the manufacture OF
artificial rubber being ever achieved
The material used in the Perkins pro-
cess is starch in the form of cereals OF
potatoes. The process has not YET
been used IN a large scale.
The doubters still maintain stoutly
that no rubber produced in a labora-
tory can possibly have those remark.
able properties which belong to rub
Der obtained from the living tree. Al
the meeting of the British association
in 1905 it was announced that rubber
had been artiiciaily made, but by
slow and expensive process. The prob.
lem OF devising a cheap and easy
process has now been solved. In view
of this fact, and of the Importance
of the rubber growing industry to sc
many parts of the empire, The Times
calls on the governments of those
parts to do all that is possible to ad-
vance the interests of natural rubber
production, especially by seeing tina
the industry is fully supplied with the
necessary scientific assistance and tha'
which may endanger its future posi-.
ton.