Evening star., 1936-12-05

uy SU OftyHk LHut UGOGW TOTO VI
their cars.
no novelty to Germany. In 1905, .
German chemist discovered rubber's
chemical formula. and four years later
another came along with . synthetic
rubber made from rnethyl alcohol.
During the World War. Germany
whose consumption had been 100000
tons year-found herself cut OF from
plantation rubber and had to depend
upon synthesis. But the product was
poor. Years Of research have gone by.
A few months ago, Adolf Hitler
opened the Berlin Auto Show with the
boast that in "buna" Is the Reich's
key to self-sufhciency, asserting the
synthetic product is from 10 to 80 per
cent more durable than its natural
competitor.
Other big powers, meanwhile. find
themselves far back on the road to
self -sufficiency. Synthesis is being
tried in Italy and Japan, but is still
very much in the testing stage.
France Depends on Deals.
Like the United States. France de-
pends on the deals her big rubber
companies have struck with the mo-
nopoly. If war comes, most of the
powers would depend on the British
fleet to escort their rubber out of the
Indian Ocean-and those countries at
odds with John Bull would have to
fight for rubber cargoes or do without.
At present, the worlds raw rubber
flows principally to six big manufac-
turers: England's Dunlap. Frances
Michelin and Americas Goodyear,
Goodrich, Firestone and United States
Rubber. Despite attempts at rebellion
in the past. the Americans 60 along
with the rubber IN. r. A." curtail
production and now pay II cents q
pound for rubber which. before the
monopoly took hold in 1884, had gone
down to three cents.
Americas strongest weapon has
been in her resorting-when things
became onerous-to reclaimed rub
Der. This Is . tribute to American
scientific ingenuity. It was an Amer
ican, Charles Goodrich, who invented
vulcanization in 1874.
Reclamation involves q process that
Is the reverse Of vulcanization, devul-
canization and the removal Of cot
ton f1bers from old tires. Last year,
10000 tons were obtained in this way.
As yet, synthetic rubber is not COM
peting with the crude variety in this
country, although there would be no
hardship in finding sufficient lime, al
cohol, turpentine or other necessary
raw materials. About 500 tons will
be put out this year for special pur-
poses. Chief of American synthetic
rubber Is "duprene," du Pont prod
uct.
Meanwhile, American attempts to
produce natural rubber outside the
field Of the monopoly have met with
no startling success. Plantations in
Brazil, for instance. have never pro-
duced more than $4,000 tons Of crude
rubber a year-in contrast with the
of the East Indies and, to
a lesser extent, Africa. to produce
nearly 2,000,000 tons annually.
Then, too, the incentive to rebel Is
somewhat stultified by the effective
ness Of monopoly which gives its
producing members q return of at
least 10 per cent on their capital.
Still, . measure Of rebellion-or
patriotism-does exist.
Henry Ford has been trying his hand
at rubber growing In Brazil. Good
year is playing with the plantation
Idea in the Philippines.
Experiments With Bush.
Another method which may provide
} degree of emancipation Is being
given q chance in California,s Salinas
Valley, where several thousand acres
nave been planted with the Guayule
push. It Ii . crude-rubber provider
ike the rubber tree. but differs In
hat its caoutchouc Is obtained after
he plant has been cut and dried,
the tree Is "milked."
A foreign war would certainly find
American rubber needs badly filled.
And war involving this country d.
'ectly would require either our feet
'r somebody else's to protect the rub
yer lanes on the high seas-for . time
It least.
Synthetic rubber, like synthetic
yasoline, Is chiefly q creature of price.
With the natural product scarce and
high priced, synthetic producers would
hen rise to the opportunity. The
'rice differential would be gone. Such
S the probable future Of synthetic
ubber in this country.
tcopyright. 1895. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. IneJ