The mirror., 1919-11-06
THE. RUBBER INDUSTRY
Very Interesting Treatise the Origin Collection
Uses Of this World Famed Commodity.
1hautauQaa Circle By f. E. ".

} ChautauQua Circle By F. E. ".
! purities and the SCOT in the bis
cults which was caused by the
coagulating of the latex and which
has colored the biscuits almost
black. The method used to do
this is series of machines with
rollers through which the raw
material passes back and forth
having stream of water running
over it at all times until it is per-
fectIy clean.
The rubber now goes to the dry
ing room where it is thoroughly
dried. It next passes into the
mixing room where it again goes
through series of rolls where the
chemicals necessary to give the
rubber the various degrees of
hardness aud elasticity are worked
into it and it leaves this room in
sheets about one inch thick by
about two and one-half feet wide
and four feet long.
/ We now move on to the calender
room where immense machines
take these sheets " hich are heated
slightly to make them more pill
able and they then pass through
great rollers which press the rub
Der into various thicknesses ac-
ding to the use to which it is to
be put and it is then wound into
rolls with strips of cloth between
80 that the rubber will not stick
together.
1t is now ready to be manufact-
ured into the many articles of
which rubber is the base. Taking
one of the very familiar articles of
which rubber is an important part,
the pneumatic automobile tire, we
will follow the process through
the rubber factory.
The fabric, or the backbone Of
the automobile tire is a heavy can
vas or duck, specially made from
long staple cotton which formerly
came mostly from Egypt or the
South Sea Islands. but lately one
of the large rubber companies
have started a great plantation in
Arizona, where long staple cot
ton equal in all respects to that
! mentioned above has been grown
with decided success.
When this fabric arrives at the
rubber factory, it is very rlgidly
inspected and the strength of each
individual strand is tested so that
any imperfections may be dis
carded before the fabric is made
into tire. This fabric now goes
to the calender room where it is
run through these large rollers
with very thin sheet of rubber
on either one or two sides, which
is pressed into the fabric by enor-
nous pressure. and this is called
frictioning the fabric.
This frictioned fabric is now cut
in bias strips and bundled, each
bundle being sufficient for one tire
and is also given at this time a
number which afterwards appears
on the outside of the tire and ena-
bles the manufacturer to trace this
individual tire back through the
various operations should at any
time they receive q complaint
upon the service the tire renders.
The next operation is to build
the fabric into tire which is done
by machines that seem to be al
most human in winding and lap
ping the fabric around an iron core
or mould; when this is completed
the breaker strip which is q much
lighter weight of frictioned fabric
is next put on the tread of the car.
cass, next comes the cushion,
which is q strip of almost pure
rubber over the breaker strip and
lastly comes the tread which must
be compounded SO as to Withstand
the abuse and hard usage over all
kinds of roads.
Curing. or treating the tires to
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