WE VISIT A RAW-RUBBER FACTORY
It is time for us, too, to leave the plantation, since we want to
see the milk made into rubber. A short walk brings us to one of the
Linggi factories, which is the rubber-making centre for a neighbouring
portion of the estate. Remembering that I promised to bring you to
one of the finest rubber factories in the East, you are disappointed
when you see only a medium-sized, one-story building, with a corrugated
iron roof. In your mind’s eye you immediately compare this building
with some of the enormous factory piles you have seen in connection
with other industries, and you think what a poor show it makes. Even
when you go inside, there are no striking sights which immediately
tempt you to alter your opinion.
[Illustration:
_C. H. Kerr & Co., Kandy, Ceylon_
TAMIL WOMAN TAPPING RUBBER-TREE UNDER SUPERVISION OF A KANGANY, ON A
CEYLON ESTATE. _Page 80_]
“Seems to me,” you say to yourselves, “there’s nothing much to be seen
here except dairy-pans and mangles. What a curious mixture!”
The explanation of your simple surroundings is that the process of
manufacturing rubber is extremely simple, making no demands for huge
machines such as a sugar-mill, for instance. I can assure you that in
this factory you are going to see the process being carried out by the
most scientific of present-day methods, with the assistance of the
most up-to-date machinery. But in order that you may fully appreciate
advanced methods of manufacture, let me first tell you how plantation
rubber was generally made not so very long ago.
The milk was poured into small, round, shallow pans. To each panful
a little acetic acid was added, to help the milk curdle, and the
mixture was then stirred by fingers until it became a thick dough. Each
little bit of dough was taken out of its pan, laid on a board, and a
rolling-pin was passed over it to squeeze the water out. The result
was a thin, round little “biscuit” of rubber. These biscuits were hung
over a line, and when they were dry they were sent to market. Rubber
biscuits are still made on some plantations, where the supply of milk
is too small, for the time being, to warrant the expense of putting up
a factory and buying machinery. But the bulk of plantation rubber is
now turned out in the form of crêpe or sheets such as we are now going
to see made.
You notice that some of the milk which is brought into the factory is
poured into those big pans which reminded you of a dairy, and some
into oblong trays of enamel ware. In the pans, the milk is coagulated
in bulk--that is to say, into big lumps--by the addition of acetic
acid. The milk in each tray has to have a separate dose of the acid, so
that each trayful will coagulate into a slab. To-day the machines are
working on yesterday’s milk-supply; the milk which has been brought in
to-day will not be sufficiently coagulated for them to work on until
to-morrow.
From some of the pans we see coolies lifting big lumps of a white
substance that looks like very heavy dough. These are put into a
machine which tears them into small pieces. A second machine, which has
rollers covered with a diamond pattern, kneads the pieces together, and
turns out a long strip of material which looks like tripe. When this
has been passed two or three times through a third machine, which has
smooth-faced rollers, a strip of “crêpe” rubber is ready to be taken to
the drying-room or to the smoking-room.
The slabs taken out of the trays are passed through a machine which
has smooth, copper rollers. The compact, oblong pieces of rubber which
are the result of this method of preparation are called “sheets.” Some
factories send smooth-surfaced sheets to market, others stamp their
sheets top and bottom with a deep diamond pattern, to provide for
ventilation when they are packed. Here we see the sheets, after they
leave the smooth rollers, passed through a machine that has a diamond
pattern deeply indented on its rollers.
[Illustration:
_C. H. Kerr & Co., Kandy, Ceylon_
MAKING RUBBER BISCUITS. _Page 82_]
All the rubber we see leaving the machine is white. We go now to the
drying-room, and there we find sheets and crêpe in all shades of
yellow, hanging over the wooden rails that stretch from end to end and
side to side of the apartment. The material turns yellow as it dries;
sometimes it takes on a pale lemon tint, sometimes a rich, deep amber,
or golden hue. The quality of rubber does not depend on the shade of
the material, but if any dirt has been allowed to get into the milk,
the light-hued strips tell tales more plainly than the dark ones. The
rubber which is finished off in the drying-room is uncured.
We are very anxious to see the smoking-room, for we know that every
planter’s great ambition is to turn out of his factory rubber which is
so thoroughly well cured that it can compete with the exceptionally
well cured Brazilian Para. We are even more anxious to get out of that
room. After a very few minutes we feel that not for another moment
shall we be able to breathe in such an atmosphere. On the ground floor
beneath us a big fire is consuming cocoanut shells, and belching forth
clouds of smoke. We cannot actually see the smoke, but, like all
the rubber around us, we are getting the full “benefit” of it as it
finds its way through a double ceiling of perforated zinc. The smoke
is turning most of the rubber in this room brown; some thin crêpe,
which has been here nearly three weeks, and some thick crêpe, called
“blanket,” which has been here over a month, are very dark brown. You
are quite right in thinking they must be well baked. They will soon be
taken from their present quarters, packed up and sent to market; and
they are so well cured, and are of such excellent quality, that they
will probably fetch a higher price per pound than the best quality wild
Para.
It is in this room that you happen to make your first acquaintance with
some crêpe rubber of a greyish hue. It is made from scraps, which are
collected by the tappers from trees, cups, and cans, after they have
taken the day’s milk to the factory. The scraps are washed as clean as
it is possible to get them, and then put through the crêping machines.
Plantation scrap is far superior in quality to wild scrap.