REMANUFACTUHE OF VULCANIZED CAOUTCHOUC.
A very interesting invention has lust been brought effectually to bear, for further utilizing the raw material of indiarubber. It VMS in 1843 that the discovery was made of the process of vulcanizing,—melting the material at an enormous heat, by which, while maintaining its most valuable properties of elasticity and unporousnesa, it loses some of its ori- ginal qualities, and amongst them the capacity for being worked up again. In the interval since 1843, the manufacture of indiarubber in England and the United States had grown into a great and still expanding branch of industry ; and ever since that year it has been a great desideratum to find some process by which spoiled or partially worn vulcanized india- rubber products could be again used as the raw material for further manu- facture. Several discoveries claiming to effect the desired end have been patented, but each one has been too expensive for practical use ; so that up to the present time the whole production of indiarubber, vulcanized into goloshes, mill-banding, hose-pipes, railway-buffers, valves, steam- packing, clothing, elastic webbing, &c., and used until rendered defective by holes or weakness, or loss of elasticity, has been thrown aside as use- less and lies valueless scattered over the world.
Let us attempt to give some idea of the extent of this waste. For some time, certain products of vulcanized indianibber were exclusively a manufacture and export of the United States, and it has not been milli within the last two years that two articles extensively used have been made in the United kingdom—goloshes, and mill-banding. Now of goloshes alone, more than 4,000,000 pairs are annually sold in the • United Kingdom. It is estimated that British mills have in use more than 18,000 miles of banding. At present this banding is chiefly made from leather which is constantly increasing in price, while the caout- choue is gradually taking its place from its greater effectiveness and cheaper cost. With all this increasing manufacture, however, there is the proportionately increasing waste. Indiarubber, once vulcanized and used, has not a price even for that merchant who deals in the waste of every other commodity—the marine store dealer. If any poor wretch carries to that obscure dealer a mass of rag, grease, or waste of any kind, to be sold by the weight, the dealer carefully picks out every piece of vulcanized indiarubber and throws it away.
It has at last been ascertained, however, that the same material here- tofore so worthless can be restored to commerce. Some twelve months ago a discovery was made by Mr. Hall, manager of the Beverley Rubber Company in the United States, by which vulcanized indiarub- her, in whatever form, is used with the same machinery as a raw mate- rial, and at less cost of manufacture than the usual indiarubber gum of commerce. The process has now been tested in America for more than six months, and the clothing, goloshes, and other articles produced are pronounced not only to be equal to but indistinguishable from those manufactured in the ordinary way. This process has been communi- cated to Messrs. Dodge and Giandonati, of St. Paul's Churchyard, who have taken out patents in the United Kingdom, securing their property in the invention.
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