The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-09-01

In guarding valuable processes as are manufac-
turers. For example. the Chinese government Is
the owner of the secret of making %vermillion red,
which is held by many experts to be the most
beautiful shade of red in the world. No one has
ever been able to produ &c a like vermillion.
The Turkish government, it appears, possesses
a similar secret process of lnlaying precious met
ais in the hardest steel. The work is done per-
fectly and defes all ate mpts at reproduction.
In 1913 it was announced that a distinguished
chemist of the imperial technical school of Mos
COW had solved the problem of making artificial
rubber, and that he could sell the new product at
about 30 cents a pound. Yet the price of rubber
remains pretty much the same, IL not more. The
reason may be found by examining the patent
office records. In the last decade many hundreds
of patents for artificial rubber have been taken
out. Substitutes have been made from petroleum,
from coal tar, turpentine, peat, from nitrated lin
seed oil and by treating cereals with phyalin.
The latter invention created a considerable sen
sation so long ago as 1906, yet, judging by the
constantly increasing demand for the natural
product, 1t has had little effect upon the real rub
Der market.
The chemist, working in his laboratory, can
take any substance and analyze 1t, that is, break
1t up into Its original constituents, and tell you
what they are and how much of each element
the substance in question is composed of; but
when 1t comes to building up the original sub
stance out Of its prime constituents he is at sea,
for the most part. By dint of long and patient
experiments or perhaps by pure chance he may
succeed in reproducing some few natural products,
but that is as far as he can go.
Indigo blue took many years to Synthetic. A
German chemist accomplished it at last, but the
curious discovery was made that If blended with
the natural product made from the indigo plant
the color obtained was both more durable and
brighter than that made by either dye alone. So
artificial indigo has not yet ruined the indigo
planter.
Gutta Percha Becomes Seareer.
Artificial camphor has also been produced. It is
now made from ~pine-tree turpentine. But the
chemist has not yet succeeded in synthetizing
gutta percha. This commodity yearly becomes
scarcer. Enormous quantities are required for va
rious purposes, notably the covering of submarine
cables and the making of golf balls. A fortune
awaits the man who can make artificial gutta
percha at a price that will permit 1t to compete
with the juice Of the Dichopis gutta.
Cork Is another substance of everyday use that
seems to defy the inventor. The only substitute
for cork Is paper treated with parafin wax. But
such a cork could not be used for a bottle of wine.
So far nothing has been artihcially made to COM
pete with the bark of the cork oak.
At Delhi, In India, stands an ancient iron mon
ument which, though exposed to all weathers,
never rusts or decays. Yet 1t has no protective
covering. Here is a secret which would be simply
Invaluable to the world, which has been discovered
by some Indian artihcer of old and most unfor-
tunately lost. At a meeting of steel and iron
men In London, the chairman said that they could
face the future with complacency If they could
redlscover the secret. To shipowners alone 1t
would mean a yearly saving of millions. Rust
is the great enemy of the steel ship and she has
constantly to go into dock to have her hull coated
with an anticorrosive solution.