Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 860 Rubber

A small inland steamboat coming from Zhenhai Port slowly docked at Yong'an Port Wharf. With the assistance of the steam boom, the laborers on the wharf quickly unloaded a lot of packaged goods.Beside them, seven or eight heavy-duty carriages had long been waiting impatiently. The drivers took the bills of lading and directly grabbed some of the goods they needed—rubber and ether—and then drove the carriages towards the Driving to a factory not far away.

The factory occupies a fairly large area, most of which are built with spacious and bright brick and tile factory buildings.At this time, many workers were sitting in the company named "Yong'an Rubber Products Factory" (the Ministry of Industry and Commerce holds 70% of the shares, Dong'an Company holds 20% of the shares, and the New China Pioneering Team holds 10% of the shares). In front of the workbench, he was busy carefully.

They are concentrating on processing the raw film, and the source of the raw film is Xinhua Island.Since people from the East Bank planted more than 3000 rubber tree saplings and seeds in the mountains near Xinhua Port many years ago, the survival rate of rubber trees is not high due to climate, environment and poor care.Later, I had no choice but to change places for transplanting. After tossing so far, less than [-] rubber trees have grown up near Xinhua Port, and they have reached the rubber tapping period.

The mucus secreted by certain cells in the inner layer of the rubber tree bark is the raw material for the "latex" that people on the east coast need.Local harvesters take out knives or axes and cut an incision in the bark, and the liquid that flows from the incision can be collected in a container fixed to the tree.These collected liquids cannot be used directly, they must be properly diluted, then added with acetic acid to make it gelled, and finally heated and smoked before they can be used initially.

People from the East Coast didn't know anything about these processing techniques at first, because no one knew about them, and they gradually found some methods of processing rubber after years of continuous exploration and practice.For example, analyzing the components in the liquid flowing out of the rubber tree, such as how to remove impurities in the latex, such as how to make raw rubber, etc. - making raw rubber is the most critical process.

Producers generally take out a stick coated with a layer of white latex from the small barrel where the latex is placed, and then put the stick on the brazier to repeatedly smoke and dry it; In the barrel, continue to apply a layer of latex on the surface, and then smoke dry; repeat this many times, until a large piece of white gelatinous substance has accumulated on the wooden stick, then cut it off, put it aside, and let a special person take away.

At this time, the substance they got was raw rubber.Of course, sometimes a process is used, that is, repeated rolling and gelling with rollers to remove the whey, and then obtain a film with a thickness of several millimeters-this is also a valuable intermediate product.

As for how to use rubber, people on the east bank have also done a lot of research over the years - after all, this is a substance that is widely used in later generations, so they can't help but pay attention to it - first-hand information on the use of rubber by people on the east bank From the Mameluco people in Brazil, these slave catchers often go deep into the Amazon River Basin to capture the natives, so they are also fortunate to see how the natives use things like rubber.

The Indians living in the jungle discovered the wonderful uses of rubber early on. They knew how to make rougher film, and then used this film to make rain boots; Great function - people on the east coast have a big brain hole based on this, thinking that latex can be applied to canvas or clothing to make it waterproof; Indians also use clay molds to make many rubber containers, which is another magical function ;, of course, the greatest discovery of the Indians was their realization that latex, when smoked to give it a leather-like appearance, could be used to make many useful things.

All in all, the Indians have developed a lot of rubber uses and processing methods over the long years. After the people on the east coast tried their best to summarize this information, they began to design their own processing technology, preparing to grab the Europeans. Scale the application of this amazing boon of nature - rubber.

But maybe the people on the east coast are too optimistic. In fact, as early as 1615, the Spaniards began to use rubber to make soldiers' rainproof cloaks.It's a pity that the Spaniards were not deeply aware of the other wonderful uses of this thing. It was not until 100, more than 1736 years later, that a French expedition to Peru gradually developed various magical uses after studying rubber, and finally became popular all over the world.It can be said that the French developed the great material of rubber-of course, this honor now seems to be won by the East Coasters.

The rubber products factory now established in Yong'an Port has undertaken the important task of researching and developing rubber usage.Although it has only been established for just over two months, they have initially developed several gadgets based on some experimental records handed over to them by the Academy of Natural Sciences.The first is the eraser - they found that the rubber block can erase the pencil writing on the paper, which surprised the drawing technicians on the East Coast. They no longer have to redraw a piece because of a small mistake in the drawing, This saves them a lot of work.

The second use is more meaningful than rubber, because the technicians of the technical department of Yongan Rubber Products Factory imitated the ideas of Indians and Spaniards and produced many waterproof appliances, such as waterproof leather goods, waterproof cloth (cotton cloth, linen, cloth, etc.).However, they do not directly apply natural rubber latex to the cloth like the Spaniards or Indians. They do not have this condition, because it needs to be processed directly at the place of origin, but the goods shipped from New China are basically rubber blocks (natural latex is easy to coagulate. clumps), and rubber clumps obviously cannot be applied directly to anything since you need to soften them first.

But this obviously can't stop the East Coast technicians who have already opened their minds. They tried all the chemicals they could find over and over again, such as tar (benzene in coal tar can dissolve rubber), sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, soda ash, caustic soda , ether, etc., and finally found that ether (produced by the northern chemical plant, and currently mainly used in refrigerator refrigerants and medical anesthesia on the east coast) is a good solvent for raw rubber blocks.The dissolved and softened rubber has very good viscosity and can be blended into various sols, which are then evenly applied to materials such as leather or cloth by hand with a brush. After drying, it becomes a good waterproof material————————————————————————— Finally, there is no need to wear the low-yield, expensive and bulky whale skin waterproof products anymore.

Later, some people proposed that this kind of tarpaulin coated with sol can be used to make balloons. This idea even got the interest and investment of several people who traveled through time. At present, this project has been officially launched, and I believe it will be possible in the future. There is further news coming out.

In addition, the factory cooperates with Dayuhe Machinery Textile Factory, Pingan Weaving Factory, and Luocha Textile Factory to export raw film of fixed specifications to them, and then these companies glue the film to the fabric (dissolved Raw rubber has very good viscosity), and it is made into various suspenders, elastic pants and other textiles.Currently these products are also in the experimental stage, but judging from the response of some trial customers in the East Coast, the market has a high degree of acceptance of these textiles, and the sales prospects should be quite good-this will definitely become the East Coast Textile Series in the future. Another jewel in the

With suspenders and elastic pants, under the divergent thinking of technicians, various other rubber products have also been developed one by one. Air pillows, air cushions and more.The production method is also quite simple, as long as the inner core of these items is immersed in a sol made of dissolved rubber.In addition, useful small things such as rubber hoses, glue threads, tapes, and elastic bandages have also been gradually designed by everyone. The next step is trial production to see how the effects are used and whether they can be used.

Of course, it can also be seen from the above description that all rubber products on the east coast are made of raw rubber, that is, unvulcanized rubber.Items made of this kind of rubber are quite good in terms of viscosity, elasticity and stretchability, but if left in a low temperature environment for a long time, the rubber will slowly harden and lose its elasticity, which is fatal for this kind of product .Because this means that in the cold winter, rubber products will have a high chance of losing their effectiveness.

In addition, the raw rubber that has been dissolved in a solvent will easily decompose and lose its effectiveness once it encounters hot weather.It can be said that if these two defects are not resolved, then the sales of rubber products on the East Coast and even the world will encounter many limitations, which will eventually affect the development of this sunrise industry.

Especially in the cold southern Patagonia and the hot New China region, do you still expect this kind of thing to be sold at a high price? No reasonable person would buy such a kind that can only be used in summer and autumn used things.What?You say that rain boots made of whale skin are bulky?Well, maybe it's bulky and expensive, but these rain boots will hold up well in extreme low temperatures and insulate well, so that's a big plus, isn't it?

To solve this problem, maybe we can only think of a way to deal with the rubber.No matter how ignorant and ignorant the time travelers are, at least some people have heard of the term "vulcanized rubber".But when it comes to how to vulcanize, and what the specific process is, it's a black eye.There is no way, we still have to rely on Yongan Rubber Products Factory to find a way, at least they already know a general direction, that is to use sulfur to react with rubber.As for whether it is burning, heating, or dissolving, you have to do more experiments on your own. There is no other shortcut, you can only try step by step, and eliminate each possible possibility.

I would like to introduce a book to you. The colleague "Looking West: From China to the East Coast" written by book friend Liang Xiangjian was published on Qidian. If you have time, you can read it. I personally think it is better than me. . . . . .

(End of this chapter)