s E m E m E K , 1940
INDUSTIUAI, AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
1153
New deposits, workcd by improved methods, are supplementing accumulated stocks of manganese, chromium, tuugsten, and antimony, as well as mercury noted above. Plans now being put into operation by the ‘C\’ar and Navy Departments include “educational orders” to assist in acquainting industry with its part in preparedness. This idea is being applied to both equipment of plants and their operntion. Among the equipment orders so placed are numerous plants for which equipment is being provided well in advance
of building. This “edue&tionel” equipment is ready to be put in service in the least possible time in case of need. Similarly, surpluses of many products of chemical manufacture are being accumulated in the program of acquainting industry with its duties in a war, should one come to us.
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Motorized military vehicles require rubber tires, and meehanized equipment use rubber tracks for greatest speed. Ships of all classes require electrical cables, cutless bearings, and dozens of other articles made of rubber. Submarines require rubber gaskets, battery boxes, and even rubber-lined compartments. To service all of this equipment rubber again enters in, for liquid fuel must be supplied by truck and diacbsrged through fuel hose. Along with its operating and servicing personnel, this equipment must be protected from the weather, poison gas, and gun fire. Military planes require leakproof
N THERE days of modern warfare the outcome of a cam-
paign may be determined long before the first shot is fired. Passive preparation is not sufficient. The victor is the one who has prepared men, materials, and machinery to strike dynamically. aggressively, and decisively. As rubher has heeu one of the stays of peace, i t now becomes one of the sinews of war; for in accomplishing maximum efficiency in the air, on land, on water, and under water, rubber plays an indispensable role. Airplanes require rubber tires, rubber springs, de-icers, rubber tubing, and rubber brakes. Balloons and dirigibles require rubberized fabric.
In general, the chemical situation looks eneouradng from a11 points of view. The industry and its suppliers are awake
to the problems they face and are ready to act.
1154
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEIIISTRY
VOL. 32, S O . 9
fuel tanks, forces in Perhaps the most action require protecefficient way to protive clothing and gas ceed would be for masks, and field r u b ber-c o n s u m i n g equipment requires companies to cooperwaterproof coverings ate with producers of impervious to weather the ultimate raw maand war gases. terials in order to Much has been said develop the most efof American dependficient methods of ence upon foreign manufacture and the s o u r c e s of r u b b e r . most superior types The United States of rubber. Expansion does consume as much would then proceed in NEW CHEMICAL PLANT OF THE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY rubber as the rest of sound and logical sethe world put toquence as potential gether-namely, l l / ~billion pounds (600,000 long tons) per profits from the venture would justify. Several cooperative year. Rubber now on inventory as raw material or in finished arrangements of this type are already in existence. But this economically safe and sure process might be too slow in case goods and in shipment would last less than a year a t the present rate of consumption if further supplies were cut off. of national emergency. Statements have appeared in the press that synthetic We need more speed, speed which can be expected from rubber could be manufactured and utilized to take the place private enterprise only if stockholders’ investments are proof natural rubber. This is true, for America has the requisite tected from unwarranted hazards. Special financial assistraw material resources, the technique for cracking and puriance would probably be necessary to accelerate construction fying hydrocarbons, the research background, and experience of the plants. However these are built or obtained, private in the manufacture and use of a variety of articles from a industry must find some means of operating them a t a profit. number of synthetic rubberlike materials. Because of superior properties such as heat and oil resistance, Kevertheless, certain essentials have yet to be dealt with a certain amount of synthetic rubber can and will be used a t before efficient production can be realized : a price much higher than that of natural rubber. However, the large volume of rubber used in tires (70 per cent of the 1. Definite plans for extensive production facilities are still total) will not justify a price higher than natural rubber unin the formative stage. It is estimated that sixteen plants each producing 100 tons of rubber per day would be required t o meet less a higher pound cost can be translated into more tire completely our normal requirements. To date not a single plant miles per dollar. Careful estimates show that synthetic of this size has been constructed and operated in this country. rubber can be made in plants producing 100 tons per day for 2. Technical personnel trained and experienced in this field a cost of approximately 25 cents per pound. This cost will are not available. The manufacture of synthetic rubber is as exacting as any industrial process in use today. A corps of techdecrease as production economies and better yields are realnicians must be trained to control the operations. Experience ized. However, on the basis of unrestricted trade, crude natuhas shown that men cannot be qualified overnight to supervise ral rubber can be delivered in New York a t a profit for 15 intelligently processes of this type. cents per pound, and if competition requires, it can be de3. Experience in the actual large-scale manufacture of a wide range of essential articles from synthetic rubbers is insufficient. livered for 10 cents per pound or less on an out-of-pocket For 100 years technicians have striven to adapt and improve basis. Moreover, improved plantation practice is increasing natural rubber, and we daily acknowledge their successgs, we y i e l h f rubber per acre and is modernizing the processes utilize the products of their endeavors. Time will be r uired of collecting and shipping, all of which reduces the cost of to perfect the general use of synthetics, for new processes must be developed and new machines designed and by+t to handle natural r u w r under normal conditions. them most efficiently. &ow then can the incentive be supplied for private develop the industry? Various suggestions have been made, However, the technical future of the American tever &erne may be adopted, the interests of the ultirubber industry is bright. It is even now in*posi nsumer must be guarded. A supply of essential rubber parable to the dye industry when, years ago, the must be guaranteed a t a price which is ultimately dyes had been synthesized. As knowledge was gain e a n e t a constantly decreasing service-unit cost. color-imparting groupings, of stability and f+ness, a y, we should consider the effect that internal procolloidal relation between dye and fiber, other dyes w duction of rubber would have on employment, business, and developed which far surpassed the natural ones. Man was other p*es of our national life. Last year over $200,000,000 thus able to improve on nature. Now as c h e m i s t s h d engi1 t this country in payment for natural rubber. A correneers in our leading research laboratories study the prepa $ sponding amount spent in this country to produce our own tion of raw materials, their polymerization to various ty$i rubber from petroleum gases, which are largely wasted a t of rubber, and the fabrication of these rubbers into finished present, would mean an increase of from $1,000,000,000 to articles, we see the possibilities for great expansion of the over ~2,000,000,000per year in new business when it is coiifield of usefulness for rubberlike materials. Rubber of defisidered that the money would filter back through every innite properties can be synthesized to fill certain needs, and dustry of the country, This would mean added profitable it is even possible to predict ahead of time the type of rubber employment for one to two million people. Further, it that may be produced from certain new and untried procwould mean decrease in money spent for relief since added esses. work would require labor of the now unemployed who could For our immediate needs, however, we require an ample again become self-supporting and self-respecting citizens of supply of synthetic rubbers which will take the place of natuthis country. ral rubber in industry. This can be achieved if we realize For national defense, for national self-sufficiency, and for the necessity of rubber for our comfort, our efficiency, and our the future progress of the industries of our country, let us protection, and are willing to forego temporarily the low encourage and utilize the technical advances which have prices we now pay for some articles in order to be assured made synthetic rubber a reality in the United States. of a continued supply of all in peace or in war.
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