SYNTHETIC RUBBER

Taranaki Central Press, Volume V, Issue 457, 26 June 1937, Page 2

SYNTHETIC RUBBER

BRITAIN’S NEW INDUSTRY Triumph For Chemistry London, May 23. Much interest has been aroused in commercial, scientific and industrial circles by the recent announcement that synthetic rubber is to be manufactured on a considerable scale for the first time in Britain. The new material, whose chief compounds are cojl, limestone, and rock salt, is to be called “neoprene,” and its production is to be in the' hands of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd An exhibition showing the various uses to which neoprene can be put has coincided with the publication of the first book on the subject, “Synthetic Rubber,” by Dr. W. J. S. Naiinton, in which the head of the rubber laboratories of 1.C.1., Ltd., has uescribedi the history of attempts to find a substitute for what is to-dcy, probably, his most hard-worked commodity. Perhaps a “supplement” rather than a “substitute” would be a more accurate way of describing the function of artificial rubber, .for, as Dr. Naunton said in tin interview with a representative of “The Observer,” a most important thing to remember is that synthetic rubber is not intended to repl'ace natural rubber at all. That is quite a wrong idea.

“It is making possible an extension of the whole vast rubber field. There are many purposes for which rubber is 'admirably suited, but, onthe other hand,, theta are an enormous number of uses to which it is l being put to-day just because it comes nearest to fulfilling the specific requirements.

“Take a motor car tyre now. There’s a case in point. Rubber practically always.' in contact with oil, which, as everyone knows, has an extremely detrimental effect on it. But | there you are. A new demand 'arose I which could *be met most nearly ; among the materials available by j rubber. It is a good example of the I entirely fortuitous way in which ; rubber has come to be used to-day in | so many things—because there was ! nothing better at the moment of de- i mand. The trouble has been,” continued j Dr. Naunton, “that in the p.ist there •' has been no chance of individual de- j velopment at all. Chemical firms ' wouldn’t spend the money. Between j 80,000 and 100,000 tons of natural ; rubber came into this country every i year, yet if we could only develop ! a market of a thousands tons of the synthetic stuff we should have a I commercial field which would im- | mediately give us opportunities for ! studying those special cases of .application which are ablfclutely essential to the proper development of the artificial rubber industry.

Supplies in Wartime, “Then there is another way of looking at the question. Supposing .ve were at war. All our rubber is imported from the Far East. Would st be a good thing to have to rely on the safety of that long sea passage for our supplies? “Remember, it takes seven years to grow a crop—seven years to increase your supply to meet the demands of war. Why, the war would be over long before anything could be done about it! “With synthetic rubber an extra supply could be got n-s fast as the engineers could put up the plant for making it.” “We’ve always taken what we’ve found to hand and tried to make it do. But it’s a fundamental mistake. It’s like fitting square pegs into round holes. The ideal thing is to decide first of all what it is you really ne-ed and then to discover a product which will exactly fulfil those demands.