Chemistry in the Industries 291
itself is complex. And time is so important—for millions of
tons of chemical rubber are needed to help bring the war to
a victorious conclusion. Reserves of raw rubber amounted to
about 700,000 tons at the beginning of 1942 and synthetic
rubber capacity was scheduled at the rate of 40,∞o tons per
year. Contrast with this the first synthetic rubber program
which called for 886,000 tons in one year.
When Bernard Baruch and his committee estimated last
summer that the country must have about one million long
tons of synthetic rubber a year to get by, that sounded to the
public like the final word. But, not long ago, the United
States learned that it was going to have to get along with a
lot less. From Economic Stabilizer Jimmy Byrnes came an
order to blunt Bill Jeffers: as Rubber Director, he could have
top priorities on only enough key equipment to produce
425,000 tons of synthetic rubber this year. The vital ma-
terials for the original program could only come from still
more desperately urgent war needs—building of naval escort
vessels and manufacture of high-octane aviation gasoline.
In general, the synthetic rubber is at least equivalent to
the natural. Synthetic rubber is superior in gasoline, oil, and
chemical resistance; is more stable to light and air; and has
greater wearing properties. Some trucks using synthetic rub-
ber tires have gone over 35,000 miles. One may feel certain
that as good as synthetic rubber is today, it will be far sur-
passed by that yet to come. Producers of natural rubber de-
pend upon the life cycle of the rubber trees, and climatic and
soil conditions—while the chemically-produced rubber will
ultimately have the exact properties for which its structure
and use were designed.
There are some six varieties of synthetic rubber which
exist in the form of many types and grades. Well over a
thousand different synthetic rubbers are known and no one