In a typical factory then, the spongy mass of rubber derived from the acidified latex is fed into the first washing machine. The rubber is passed repeatedly through this machine under a stream of water, and finally emerges as fairly thick crêpe. This cr£pe is passed through a second machine in which the rollers are closely set, and is converted into a continuous strip of very thin or lace cr£pe. The thin wet cr6pe is arranged in thin layers on the trays of the vacuum drier, and when all are full the door of the oven is secured and the pumping machinery set to work. From the vacuum drier the rubber emerges after a couple of hours in a fluffy condition, looking very much like a blanket much more so than the blanket crfepe into which it is next converted by passing repeatedly through a machine in which the rollers are set fairly wide apart. The crfipe is finally cut up into lengths convenient for packing in boxes, which contain from one to two cwts. of rubber.

An objection to crêpe, as usually exported at present, lies in the fact that it does not bear the brand of the estate impressed upon the rubber; whereas sheet and block rubber is regularly marked in this way. A machine could easily be devised for stamping the sheets of crêipe at frequent intervals, and the use of some such method is strongly to be recommended.