Show U S LEADS WORLD IN RUBBER MAKING only germany and russia can compare says say expert new york research chemists in the united states are credited with putting this country in the lead in an international race for development of synthetic rubber like materials I 1 dr H L trumbull ariti writing ing in the chemical and metallurgical en engineering gi magazine declared the competition among the worlds major powers is heightened by the fact act that every great industrial nation depends for its supplies of raw rubber on sources thousands of miles miles away while chemists in this country have been developing synthetic substances scientists in other nations have been engaged in a scramble to produce similar materials dr trumbull said lie he declared that only in germany and russia have there been any achievements which compare with those in the united states german substitute used german chemists have produced a material known as buna rubber and this substance has for months been specified in place of natural at rubber in goods purchased by the german government dr trumbull said buna has been made available in in several grades each of which in some respects is said to excel natural rubber the imposition of an import duty of idt marks per kilo on crude rubber is said to be for the purpose of raising money for additional factories for synthetic rubber production in germany which the german government hopes within the year may attain a i volume of tons I 1 the russians are reported to be making synthetic rubber from alcohol published results show that their product is inferior to natural rubbers in the united states scientists have developed several rubber like materials which are finding a wide variety of applications A recent advance of importance is the production and fabrication of Ko roseal a novel synthetic composition in many respects resembling cured rubber according to dr trumbull Trum buU who as manager of the chemical laboratories of the B F goodrich company aided in its development little affected by sun it does not require vulcanization to give it elasticity it withstands long exposure to ozone and oxygen and is practically aUy unchanged after two years in sunlight it is more inert than rubber to the action of corrosive chemicals even withstanding prolonged immersion in chromic or in concentrated nitric acid this thi novel elastic material seems designed to be used to best advantage where rubber is not at present being used another synthetic material is known as neoprene in many ways this product developed in the dupont laboratories resembles rubber more closely than other of the newer synthetics it has found many interesting te applications and ser serves ves the rubber industry as a raw material which may be used in compositions with or without rubber |