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"Scrap Rubber Drive. Bing Crosby." 1942



[picture source:fdrlibrary.marist.edu/]

Those pictures of the various drives and particularly tires and rubber brings up a question:

With all the scrap rubber drives, millions of tires and everything else rubber being collected then, if the technology of the day allowed the reuse and repurposing at one would assume a reasonable cost, what changed in the ensuing years to make old tires such a pariah today.

We have 50+ years of technology and thousands of new and different products to apply toward improving, using and one could assume, lowering processing costs but you pay a fee when you buy tires, another fee to dispose of them and still for the most part, it seems they are not really wanted.

Recycled rubber products today seem to be limited to a few niche products such as ground cover, mats or funky shoes and like -- all done by a few small businesses.

Howard, I quite agree with you but believe that you focused too much on technology. In time of war it was a question of availability within short time, today it is the diktat of economic efficiency. Costs aren't reasonable as long as they are the second lowest.




Wodden bicycle tire - a distinctive sign of caoutchouc shortage.


[picture source: www.fahrradhaus-reiners.de]

"Wooden wheels are attached to a P-51 ("Mustang") fighter plane so it may be moved around the ramp at the Inglewood, Calif., plant of North American Aviation, Inc." 1942


[picture source:fdrlibrary.marist.edu/]

I guess necessity triumphs in both cases but this one shows someone is either extremely optimistic, has a wicked sense of humor, or just bored.

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If somebody would mill three circumferential joints it could be a perfect three ring pulley.

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I don't know but it is very likely that rubber was not recycled into any 'new' rubber products for the war effort but rather served some other use. Today there is somekind of recycling of rubber into somekind of road paving material.

For early WWII even if used rubber was recycled into other rubber products then such a product only had to last long enuf to fight one battle. Strangely enuf one battle then probably lasted longer than what it takes us today to go buy some import junk at a discount store and then throw it out the window befoer we get home with it.

Early wwII effort was an act of desperation for ANYTHING that would work long enuf until the US could tool up for better technology. Witness the Chrysler abortion of the very early (Sherman??) tank that used 5 dodge PASSENGER car flathead 6 cylinder engines bolted together for an early army tank power system. I mean if that was not an act of desperation then what would be considered desperate???

.45 caliber hand guns left over from WWI that were even used as late as Nam. .

My step grandfather who was somekind of WW1 cavalary stable master for the Army had recieved a letter very early january of 42 requesting that his services mite be called upon. So the US apparently was even considering a horse cavalry. DESPERATION!

Over the years, as late as 1994 i have bought WWII surplus most all of which still packed in cosmo. there is always several pieces of any crate full that show signs of quality defect. Cans that are half full, cast items with clearly visible air pockets. Most of the food is pretty good tho. Coffe cake dated sometime 1945 is some of the best coffe cake i ever ate in my life. i ate the last can about 5 years ago.

When ever anyone gets the chance to look at some of the US WWI war machine, especialy very early WWII, it becomes evident that a lot of it resemebles little more than just so much cobbled up back yard mechanic efforts.

Nonetheless, it was obviously good enuf to win a world wide war fought against two different countries in two different parts of the world.

I mite add that i doubt that there was any 'unbranded import' parts or materials or labour of anykind in the war machine of WWII.

Getting way, way OT here, but that's what we do, it seems.

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FWIW, tires haven't been made of rubber since WWII. The plantations which supplied natural rubber were in southeast Asia and the Japanese took those first. Since we had no rubber, it was imperative to recycle what we had, but the real solution was synthetics from petroleum. These cannot be returned to their feedstock state as easily.

Simple economics. It costs money to ship used tires, store them in a manner where they won't be breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Grinding up a steel belted radial is a bitch. The machines are expensive to build, expensive to operate, dirty, noisy, so not in my back yard. Once ground into bits, tires make good boiler fuel, but not as cheap as coal. Tires make good asphalt filler, but not as inexpensive as asphalt. Petroleum base can be extracted, but not as inexpensively as getting it out of the ground.

Simple economics - glass is easy to recycle, but given the typical cost to round it up, grind it up, it is still cheaper to make new glass.

jack vines

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Keith, as far as I can remember you weren't all alone. Nepal declared war on Germany two years before your nation did, not to mention Cuba as one of your most faithful allies ...



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Pat Green.

How is the AC project comming along???? If u are having trouble with the dual pulley AC pump then depending on how the pump mounts it is most likely that u need ONLY ONE belt. Not two.