Abstract
Returning now to an earlier subject, let us ask in what way the conversion of rubber to fatty substances differs from plasticization by milling. Both originate in the same way, i. e., by the action of oxygen, and both are similar in appearance and in effects. To distinguish the two phenomena, one must resort to an arbitrary point of view, viz., that one phenomenon is spontaneous, whereas the other is induced. One is harmful, the other is advantageous, but fundamentally, whether advantageous or disadvantageous, they are nothing more than one and the same change in the rubber. Whether the change is an advantage or a disadvantage depends upon when it happens and upon its extent. This will explain why milling is such a critical operation and is so difficult to control. Because plasticization is a conversion to fatty substances, which is stopped at the right time, the operations involved in practical milling are a delicate and dangerous process, a process the effects of which are attained not in years or even in months but in minutes. The least miscalculation, and disastrous results may be obtained. Without entering into detail, it may be asked how many irregularities hitherto unexplained are from this time on readily explainable. The success of mastication depends upon peroxides, neither the quantity nor the behavior of which have so far been controlled, and even the existence of which has not until recently been suspected. It is a surprising fact that everything has always taken place in the desired way, particularly since to add to the complexity of things, the formation of peroxides itself depends upon electricity, and worse still upon the most changeable or capricious form, static electricity. Without suspecting it, one requires of a mixing mill that it perform the function of a generator of static electricity. Mixing is then at the mercy of influences which hinder the output of static machines, and it depends to some extent upon all kinds of indefinite factors, such as the state of the atmosphere, the temperature, the humidity and surface effects, not to mention the mixing mill itself, where nothing has been planned in advance to promote the unforeseen action. Henceforth, with a knowledge of the mechanism of mastication, it is going to be possible to improve the various factors playing a part, and it does not require a great prophet to foresee within a short time a profound change in this century-old technique.
Use And Comparison of Topis And Electre Methods In Personnel Selection
