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New York Belting and Packing Company
| Firmenname | New York Belting and Packing Company |
| Ortssitz | New York (N.Y.) |
| Art des Unternehmens | Gummiwarenfabrik |
| Anmerkungen | John H. Cheever, Treasurer. |
| Quellenangaben | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 161] |
| ZEIT | 1868 |
| THEMA | Firmenbeschreibung |
| TEXT | The history of the manufacture of India Rubber Goods in this country cannot yet be written, mainly because those who possess the most important facts are interested in concealing them. The day is not distant, however, when this obstacle will be removed, and a truthful account of the authorship of the various inventions that have contributed to utilize this wonderful gum can be given. Suffice it to say for the present, that since 1825, when the first importation of the Para rubber over-shoe was made into the Boston market, inventions have been made by which the juice, or milk of an East Indian tree is now available for Clothing of all kinds, Boots and Shoes, Belting, and Steam-packing for machinery, Carriage Tops and Car Springs, Balls and Tops for children, Combs, Whalebone, and an infinite variety of other useful articles; and though it may be impossible as yet to assign to each his exact share and measure of credit, the names of Thomas C. Wales of Boston, Stephen C. Smith of Providence, John J. Howe of Birmingham, Connecticut, Daniel and Nathaniel Hayward of Easton, Massachusetts, Charles Goodyear of New Haven, Connecticut, William Atkinson, Dr. Thomas, Jas. Bogardus, Horace H. Day, and John H. Cheever, all of New York, Charles Mackintosh, Thomas Hancock and Charles Kean, of England, and numerous others in both countries, will be duly honored for their several contributions in opening up this new field of industry. There are now over thirty manufactories of India Rubber goods in the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which have a capital invested of nearly 4.000.000, employ about 4.000 operatives, and produce fabrics valued at 6.000.000. Connecticut alone has thirteen India Rubber factories, owned principally by capitalists of New York, and whose products find their chief market in that city. The most noteworthy of these manufactories, and the one producing a larger product than any other in the country, is that of the New York Belting And Packing Company, which we select to illustrate the modes and processes adopted for manufacturing India Rubber goods in the best establishments. The Factory is located on the Potatok River, in Newtown, Connecticut, a place that nature and art have combined to render attractive, and is the one in which Vulcanized Rubber was first practically manufactured under the direction of Charles Goodyear. The building is nearly 300 feet long, 41 feet wide, and five stories high; and to propel the ponderous machinery that is employed in the various processes of grinding and preparing Rubber, the Company have constructed a waterwheel fifty feet in diameter - which, with the exception of Burden's, at Troy, is probably the largest in the country. This is assisted by a steam-engine of three hundred horse power. Before describing the details of manufacturing, however, we may remark, that as the goods made at this factory are designed principally for mechanical purposes, the proprietors spare no pains or expense to obtain rubber which has the strongest fibre; and as the East India gum, or ficus elastica, has been found to be the best, they import that from Calcutta, Penang, and Singapore. It is imported in rude masses about two feet long and one foot thick, and covered with a rude matting, woven in wide meshes, through which the dark rubber is easily seen. A stock of hundreds of tons is constantly kept in their vaults or storehouses, which are built as nearly as possible fire-proof. The first process which the imported material undergoes is to cleanse it of foreign matter, the masses of native rubber as they are gathered in the East Indian forests being so mixed with dust, and bark and leaves, that in cleansing they lose over 20 per cent, of their weight. The rubber is first placed in a large vat filled with hot water, where it remains for some time, until the exterior is partially softened and the workmen are enabled to strip off the basket-work that is woven around the original bales, and which adheres so closely that it can be removed only in this way. The masses of rubber are then cut into slabs of about an inch in thickness, by means of a large circular knife, between three and four feet in diameter, which is driven by machinery and revolves with great speed, cutting the tough mass as easily as if it were clay. The slabs of rubber are then taken to the "crackers", as they are called. These crackers are large deeply-grooved iron cylinders, invented for this purpose, which revolve in pairs, slowly and heavily, grinding the tough rubber between, and driving out much of the bark and dust. These machines are so skilfully arranged that the long slabs of rubber are stretched as they are drawn through, and much of the dirt and bark drops out and falls beneath the machines. From the crackers the rubber is taken to the "washing-machine", a large vat, where it is cut into small pieces by numerous sharp knives which revolve under the water-, and where it undergoes a kneading and washing process, very much like the process of preparing the pulp in paper-making. By this process all dirt and foreign substances are perfectly expelled, and the pure rubber alone is left. From the washing-machine the rubber is taken to powerful grinding-machines, which consist of large hollow cylinders of cast-iron. These cylinders revolve in opposite directions, and here the rubber, which is brought from the wash- ing-machine in small fragments loosely adhering to each other, is pressed and kneaded into thick sheets or mats. At this stage the process is suspended for some time, in order that the rubber may be thoroughly dried and cured by the action of the air. For this purpose these mats are suspended in long drying-rooms, where they are allowed to hang for many months before they are thought fit for use. Of course, a large stock of this cured rubber is kept on hand. The rubber thus cleansed and dried is first taken to the mixing-machines. This is the first important process, as it is here that the rubber is combined with the metals and minerals to which metallic rubber owes its peculiar properties. The mixing-machines like most of the machines employed in the factory, are hollow iron cylinders, and it is necessary that they should be kept at high but regulated degrees of heat, as the tough masses of rubber would otherwise resist the action of machinery, however powerful. These cylinders are of great size and strength, and are heated by steam, which is let into the ends. Two are placed near together, which, as they revolve towards each other, knead the substances placed between them like dough. The rubber is placed in the machine, and as the heated cylinders slowly revolve, the tough rubber is twisted and kneaded, and torn between. This is accompanied by a constant succession of sharp explosions as loud as pistol-shots which are caused by the air being forced through the rubber. As the rubber is folded over and over, air is confined in the folds, and when that portion of the mass is forced between the cylinders, the air is driven through the tough material with an explosion like an air-gun. When the rubber is somewhat softened, the workman mixes slowly the various substances which are to be incorporated with it; these consist principally of sulphur and of the oxides of various metals, zinc, lead, iron, etc., which are combined in various proportions, according to the uses for which the rubber is destined. It is in this department that the greatest science and experience are required, for different qualities of rubber require different compounds, and every difference in the compound makes a different treatment necessary in the subsequent stages of the manufacture. When the rubber is thus prepared it is ready to be molded and shaped into the various forms in which it is to be finally perfected and used. As every distinct manufacture requires a different process and different manipulations, we will only describe the process of making "machine-belting", as that is of most importance and is the article for which this company are so celebrated. The rubber, which, after it is compounded as above described, resembles a dark slate-colored dough, is then taken to another department to the "calendering-machines." These somewhat resemble the other machines, but they are composed of more cylinders, and are of much larger size, and of a perfectly polished surface. Upon these calenders the prepared rubber is placed, and after passing between the cylinders it is rolled out in a perfect and even sheet, upon a web of powerful cotton or linen duck, which has previously been coated with rubber, driven through and through its meshes by powerful machinery. This duck is somewhat similar to the heavy duck used for sails, but it is woven expressly for the New York Belting and Packing Company, in a factory which is exclusively employed for the purpose, and it is woven in a mode which gives it double the usual longitudinal strength. The "bolts" of duck covered with rubber, after this process is completed, are taken to the belt-room; here the long webs are taken by the skilful workmen and unrolled upon tables 100 feet long, and in an incredibly short time, are cut into strips and folded together into machine-belting. In order to give the required strength to the belt, folds upon folds of the heavy duck are placed one upon the other, and then forced together by the tremendous power of the rolling-machines, until a belt is formed, more tough and solid than the best sole-leather. From this room the belts are taken to the heaters. These are immense steam-boilers, with a long iron frame or railway, which can be thrust in or drawn out from the boilers at pleasure; the goods are placed upon the railway and rolled into the boilers, which are then closed, and steam is admitted. This part of the process is the most remarkable of all; for the rubber, which, when placed in the heaters, is like a tough, unelastic dough spread upon the various fabrics for which it is used, becomes wholly changed into the new and peculiar substance called metallic or vulcanized rubber. All the attempts of the most scientific chemists in this country and in Europe to discover the cause of this change, or to produce it in any other manner, have been wholly baffled. The causes, and even the manner of the change, are mysterious. All that is known is, that after the rubber has been heated at a regulated temperature from eight to twelve hours, it becomes a new substance, with properties unlike any other. The rubber-paste, which was soft and sticky, and but slightly elastic, becomes firm and dry, and ten times more elastic than the best native rubber. Heat and cold, which destroy the value of native rubber, have no effect upon it; the solvents in which the native rubber dissolved like gum have no influence upon it whatever; in fact it becomes, as it has been well called, an "elastic metal." This 'Company make belts and bands of all sizes and lengths, from an inch to a yard or more in width, and adapted to all kinds of machinery. In their warerooms in Park Row there was recently a belt of seven plies thick, over a yard wide, and nearly 300 feet long. Such a belt, if made in the old-fashioned way, from leather, would have required the hides of 120 oxen, and would have been fastened together by thousands of copper rivets; but here the great rubber belt was made in one operation, without joint or seam or imperfection. With regard to the comparative merits of leather and rubber belting, a writer in the Scientific American, to whom we are principally indebted for these facts, says he saw the ends of a leather and rubber belt of equal size firmly clamped together, and when power was applied to tear them asunder the tough sole-leather parted with a loud explosion, but the rubber belt was unharmed. He also witnessed an experiment to test the comparative value of these belts in driving machinery, and says that the peculiar elastic and tenacious surface of the rubber belt enabled it to hold much more firmly upon the iron drums and pulleys than the hard leather. "An accurate measurement showed that it took fully 25 per cent, more power to slip a rubber belt on a smooth pulley than it did to slip a leather belt on it. A large iron pulley, such as is used in driving machinery, was placed upon a shaft, and a piece of rubber belting was passed over it. Heavy weights were then placed on each end of the belt, in order to bring it down firmly and with an even bearing upon the pulley. The question to settle was, whether leather or rubber belting would bear the greatest weight without slipping, for this would prove which had the most perfect friction-surface and would drive the machinery with least loss of power. To test this, weights were slowly added to one end alone until the belt slipped on the pulley. The same experiment was then tried with a leather belt of the same width and under precisely similar circumstances, and it was found that the rubber-belt greatly economized the power. Repeated experiments showed the same result in the most convincing and satisfactory manner." Certain it is that the demand for these rubber belts from manufacturers and our best mechanics, including the large manufacturing corporations of New England, is very great, for the Company are obliged to run their factory by night as well as by day to supply it. Another article made extensively by the Company is Steam Packing. Rubber, it is said, is the only substance that can counteract the expansion and contraction of metal and make a joint so tight that steam cannot escape through it. It is made into sheets and plates of different sizes and shapes, or cast into rings or hollow ellipses of all imaginable forms, and is used to pack around the piston-rods, to place between the iron plates in steam pipes, and in fact wherever a joint is formed. Another article manufactured to a great extent at this establishment is their celebrated "Croton Hose", and hydraulic hose of all sizes from a 1/4 of an inch to 8 and 12 inches in diameter. A large force of workmen is employed in this department. The tube is formed by means of long metallic pipes, around which a sheet of carefully-prepared rubber is first neatly folded; but the rubber alone has not sufficient strength to resist the pressure of water, which would swell and finally burst the elastic hose. To prevent this, and give additional strength, the outer covering is formed of webs of strong cloth, saturated and coated with prepared rubber. This is folded carefully around the hose until the requisite strength and thickness are obtained, and it is then finished by covering it with a final sheet of pure rubber. The hose, when formed, is taken to a steam-boiler of great length, where, while still remaining upon the iron pipes, it is heated and cured by a process similar to that before described; after which the rubber is drawn off from the pipe, and it is ready for the market. Hose designed for steam fire-engines, which this Company manufactures largely, is tested by turning the whole force of the vast water-wheel upon two large force pumps, through which the water is forced into the hose and driven in jets over the factory and high above the summit of its lofty tower. Unless the hose resists this trying test it is not considered fit for market. Besides these leading articles', the Company manufactures a large number of others for household convenience or mechanical purposes, - for instance, carpets for halls, and stairways, and billiard rooms; sinks without joint or seam; door springs that can be adjusted either to hold the door open or to close it; bed springs, spittoons, and clothes wringers; - of which hundreds are made daily. Of their minor manufactures, however, perhaps the most ingenious is the solid emery vulcanite. It is a novel combination of emery and rubber, and used for grinding and polishing wheels, and which is destined to produce a revolution in many workshops where metals of any kind are ground and polished. The soft rubber when combined with emery makes wheels which will cut an inch file in two in a few minutes. The Nfew York Belting and Packing Company own or are the sole licensees under no less than thirty-seven different patents, which secure to them not only the best means and processes and machinery for manufacturing their goods, but also a monopoly of certain branches. Such is one of the numerous factories that are giving profitable employment to thousands of operatives, and furnishing contributions of the greatest importance in manufactures and the arts. This age has been prolific in wonders, and among them few are more marvellous than the product of the India Rubber factories of America. We desire, however, to place upon record our settled conviction that the application of vulcanized rubber in the useful arts is as yet in its infancy, and that our ingenious mechanics and manufacturers will discover hundreds of new uses for this wonderful "elastic metal." |
| QUELLE | [Bishop: History of American manufacturers 3 (1868) 161] |
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