File:The Popular science monthly (1912) (14582965398).jpg

Identifier: popularsciencemo81newy (find matches)
Title: The Popular science monthly
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Science Technology
Publisher: (New York, Popular Science Pub. Co., etc.)
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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fthe working population of Porto Ricoare infected; on many plantations inCeylon the infection rises as high as 90per cent.; of the three hundred millionof people in India 60 to 80 out of everyhundred harbor the parasite, and condi-tions are nearly as bad in the southerntwo thirds of the Chinese Empire. SYNTHETIC BUBBEBProfessor W. H. Perkin, of theUniversity of Manchester, who is theson of Sir William Perkin, the discov-erer of aniline dyes, presented a paperbefore the Society of Chemical Indus-try last month describing the methodsby which synthetic rubber had beenproduced, and stating that the processis such that rubber can 1 e made aseconomically as it can be obtainedunder natural conditions, probably, ata cost of about twenty-five cents apound. The scientific research wasundertaken under the auspices of Mr.Alfred Strange, the work being donelargely by Dr. F. E. Matthews, of Lon-don, and Professor Fernbach, of thePasteur Institute. It has been knownfor some time that caoutchouc, the
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The late Ralph Stockman Tarr, Professor of Physical Geography, Cornell University. 208 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY principal constituent of india rubber,is based on a cluster of at least 10 or20 molecules of the formula C5HN. ItThus possesses the same composition asoil of terpentine and other terpenes,which are the chief components of fuseloils. There is a hydrocarbon called iso-prene which has the formula of C5H8,and it has for some years been knownthat when this volatile liquid is allowedto stand for some time in a closedbottle, it gradually passes into a sub-stance having the principal propertiesof natural caoutchouc. The samechange may be effected, as ProfessorHarries had shown, in an article pub-lished last year, by treatment withmetallic sodium. Dr. Matthews inde-pendently made the same discovery.The difficulty was that isoprene is diffi-cult to obtain and is more expensivethan india rubber. Professor Fern-bach, however, after eighteen monthsof research, discovered a fermentatio

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