The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-12
Rubber Industry's Conversion To War Work Amazina

ment together in place of rubber cement--arid perfecting a totally different process for vulcanizing seams.
 These are few of the unique transformations that have occur red in the rubber industry. Conver- sion from more popular peace pro- ducts to war goods is still another story-and one to which you are contributing to no small degree. Your golf ball is seeing service ice in a barrage balloon, your baby's rub Der pants are now wrapped around signal Corps telephone wire, your rubber boots have been converted into life-saving suits.
 Example could be cited of con- verting many fore of the 30,OO0 different rubber products which the rubber industry made in peacetime. And when you consider that there are 2,500 rubber parts in the mod eRn airplane, that 1t takes i5O,OOO pounds of rubber to build a battle ship equivalent to all the crude rubber in l2,500 average passenger car tires, the reasons behind the disappearance of many familiar rubber articles from the market be- comes apparent.
 This is especially true of your tires, which normally consumed three -fourths of all the rubber used In this country. About SO per cent of all our rubber still goes into tires for heavy bombers' landing wheels and combat tires that will continue to run after being punctured by machine gun bullets.
 Service Men As Consumers
 Men in service are still consumers with all the requirements of civilian life and more. They may need life- saving vests, diving rigs, outfits that resist poison gas, winter flying boots, gasoline satchels" for emergency fuel in combat and scout cars, jungle boots, etc., as well as the raincoats, hats and Eubbers they needed as civilians.
 To equip planes and ships and tanks and guns, the call comes to our industry for bullet-sealing hose, dust seals for turrets parts for radio systems, bomb-loading equipment, microphone bags, deck mating, ex- paI1sion joints and heating duets.
 one reason why we can go on producing such quantities of essen- ttal things in the face of Q dwindl- ing supply of raw materials is that you are cheerfully doing without new tires and countless other rubber articles, Another important factor has been the hearty response in do- hating old rubber for scrap, which, In 36 hours after reaching our plants, Is regenerated into reclaim and mixed with new rubber to ex- tend the supply Today, for example, we save about five pounds of crude rubber on every Army truck tire by using reclaimed rubber in the com pound.
 Plastics As Substitutes
 So this rubber conservation busi- ness iS something that both the armed forces and the rubber indus- try practice as well as preach--in a hundred and one undreamed of ways. All kinds of hospital supplies such as Sheeting, operating pads invalid cushions, ice bags and hot water bottles, formerly made of rub per- are now produced of plastics or are soon to be. The same goes for pilot boots, sterilization bags, bornb- CT floorings and propeller coyerinns.
 Conservation is further enchanc- ca by our increasing supply Of sym tnetic rubber, already being used in tires, bullet-sealing fuel tanks, bar Tage balloons, submarine battery Jars.-and many other products.
 I know you are tremendously in. terested in the development of the synthetic rubber program, so one observation may not be out of order, It took 50 years of hard work to develop our crude rubber supply up until the time of Pearl Harbor. An Army of 100000 workers had to tau over 2O0,00o,000 acres, in order to obtain the rubber we consumed in this country in one year alone.
 We are undertaking to replace that production the fruit of 60 years effort--in two years time!
 I submit that no industrial opera ton previously conducted will com pare In magnitude and technical complexity with the synthetic rub Der program. So let us not become impatient.
 There is still another factor of prime importance in the ability of the rubber industry to come back fighting after that knock down blow of December 7th. This is the willingness of individual compan- les to supplant normal, peacetime competition with the wartime CO., operation and pooling of knowledge which prevails today.
 The bullet-sealing fuel cell offers an excellent case in point. Here was a new product, difficult to make, in- volving great investment in experi- ment and research. One company developed, tested and discarded 27O different rubber compounds for the sealant material before finding the right one. One factory removed $1 100000 worth of latex foam equipment and installed another $l.000,000 worth of special equip ment for fuel cells. Yet every rubber company working on this product has pooled its knowledge with the rest, revealing ideas without reser- vation.
 SpiritsOf Cooperation
 Industrial pooling of technical in- formation has likewise prevailed in the development of the nylon tire fore bomberS, life rafts and pom toons, the rubberless raincoat. bar- rage balloons and the carbon diox- idle imitation gear. From the golf ball manufacturer who showed the ice bag maker how to make a horse gas mask all the way to the Inanu- facture of synthetic rubber, rubber companies are exchanging their knowl1ow, their patents. their cher ished secret formulas--even operat- ing plants together.
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