Word: buna
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...best.) Of that 800,000 tons, 100,000 will be specialty rubbers; 60,000, Standard Oil's famed butyl; 40,000, Du Font's long-established neoprene-strategic for self-sealing gas tanks, oil-resistant hose lines, etc. The rest will be what chemists designate as Buna-S, which has recently given road-test performances up to 130-160% of the best wearing qualities of natural rubber. The emergence of Buna-S almost unquestionably means that natural rubber will be a deader commodity at the end of this war than natural nitrates were...
...Buna-S, conceived long ago, has had a most painful birth. It is produced by uniting, through heat, pressure and catalysts, two chemicals, butadiene (bewta-die'een) (75%) and styrene (25%). Styrene is not a basic problem; Dow Chemical and Monsanto should be adequately big factors in producing it. The bloody salient of the synthetic-rubber battle has been butadiene which, except for synthetic rubber, has so far no other reason for existence. Once the plants are created and producing, the problem again becomes simple; the rubber companies in their existing plants take the combined ("co-polymerized") butadiene-styrene...
...rubber was regarded as the average man regards his life insurance: protection against the unthinkable. NDAC's Ed Stettinius pleaded for 100,000 tons of insurance. But to Jesse Jones the rates seemed too high. They obviously were too high for large-scale private investment so long as Buna-S cost 25-35? a Ib. and natural rubber, even at war-kited rates, only 20?. In May 1941, the same day that his RFC head. Emil Schram, told Congress "I think we will have to start rationing rubber very soon," Jesse himself said: "Unless we are cut off from...
Trouble was, the letters were all too often followed by "we didn't mean it" telegrams and they were all based on little or no decision as to process. The new plants-for butadiene, styrene and their combination into buna-were pushed around because too many cooks were stewing over how big the rubber program...
...Alcohol Argument (TIME, June 1) has obscured and delayed the buna program at its raw-materials base. It was raging hotter than ever last week when Leon Henderson's OPA (presumably hoping to pick up some much-needed Congressional good will) suddenly came out on the alcohol side. But it is now decided: for the 700,000 tons of buna for 1944, alcohol (from wheat or molasses) will contribute some 220,000 tons-about all the alcohol producers can spare from their commitments for explosives. Yet, even though the program is set, the arguments continue...