Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-08-07
Postwar Inner Tube
Won Leak Much II
III Is Made Of BufyI
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor.

ny nOWhnD W. DAhhECLEEs
Associated Press Science Editor.
BATON ROUGE, La. Aug. IT,
The newest synthetic rubber, butyl,
made In a tempesature far lower
than the stratopshere (the exact de-
gree is a secret, gives hope of an
automobile inner tube that hardly
ever will need imitation.
1t is now making tubes that need
imitation only three or four times
a year; tubes that have been pune
tured with 10-penny nail and con-
tinued to run for several miles be-
fore becoming soft.
Butyl now goes entirely to war
uses. 1t is second in volume OF syn
thetic rubber production, at nearly
rs 900 tons annually.
Run $4,000 Miles.
Butyl rubber begins where other
rubbers left of or even better than
that, as in tubes. Butyl auto tires
have been run $4,000 miles, but are
not the best tire rubber available.
The interesting point is that other
rubbers took years to approach the
present tire records, whose possible
tiles scarcely have been probed.
Imagine the rounded bulks OF
railroad tank cars standing on end,
each four stories high, and you have
a rough picture of the great works
here which make butyl at the Baton
Rouge refineries OF the Standard
Oil Co. Of New Jersey.
Set these great tanks on stubby
legs, some of which seem to be Of
solid white ice, the size of a mans
thigh. The ice is coating due to
the pipes delivering raw materials
chilled to substratosphere tempera-
lures.
Strange Explosions.
The pipes deliver isobutylene and
isoprene, two by-products of petro-
leum refining, which join up to
form butyl rubber. This they do In
strange sort of explosion, in
which two icy liquids unite into
snow-white puff balls.
This explosion was discovered In
the Bayway, N. j., ESQ laboratories
in 1887 by Robert Mckee Thomas
and DR.. w. j. Sparks, after months
of mixing gases or liquids, all re-
finery products, to get rubber.
Working overtime one afternoon
they tried new catalyst, COM
pound so lively that it turned to
mist on contact with air.
They put the catalyst into a jar
filled with a clear, sparkling liquid
that looked like water. The liquid
was made of gases chilled far be-
low zero. AS the catalyst entered
there was a rafting sound, like
stones banging together. At each
bang some of the liquid became al
snow-white, rubbery solid.
Sounds Of Boiling.
Actually the bangs were the
sounds of boiling at temperatures
below zero. The white rubber |
formed with a speed equal to the
explosions.
The icy experiment had to be
controlled. There were many diff
culties. At first experts called the
new rubber dead horse" because
it would not bounce. 1t was not I'M
til 1943 that the plant. the first in
operation, was ready in Baton
Rouge.
Now the rubber flows out of the
tanks and travels the distance Of a
city block through automatic con-
trolls, all without human hands
touching it. There are washings,
mixings, heatings, dryings. knead-
ings, and finally the butyl emerges
in an endless sheet, an inch thick,
color light brown, finished rubber.
The Baton Rouge development
was conducted by the ESQ Labora-
tories under direction of DR.. c. L.
Brown. This plant is owned by the
Government and operated by the
Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey.
Two other great Butyl plants are
in operation, one at Baytown, Tex,
at the Humble Oil Refining Co.,
the other at the Imperial Oil Co.,
Ltd, at Sarina, Ontario.
Air Saving Saves Tires.
Because air scarcely even diffuses
through Butyl, most of the produc-
ton goes into military inner tubes.
These take the bouncing of war
transport with much less loss of
air than other tubes.
The air saving is also a saving of
tires. A drop in pressure from 20
to "a pounds cuts down the life of
tire at the the rate of more than
IS per cent and increases gasoline
consumption on a level road by as
much as per cent.
Butyl promises many peacetime
uses. In addition to large va
riety of industrial applications, I'll
will coat draperies and upholsteries
so that they are water and weather
proof and do not have to be ironed
A Buutyl coating will keep colors
bright and fresh. Butyl makes a
number of fabrics, now going ex-
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