The ever increasing number of rubber chemicals that are being introduced has led to an increasing rate of depletion of the first edition of Dr. J. van Alphen's book which so usefully provided chemical names, trade names and the names of suppliers of a very large number of commonly used rubber additives. The need for a revised edition of this valuable book, original edited by "Rubber-Stichting" in 1956 was recognized by Shell International Chemical Company who was ready and willing to sponsor the necessary work to update and extend the contents of the book, preparations of which - following the death of Dr. van Alphen - were already taken in hand by Mr. R. J. Kuipers, at that time a TNO rubber technologist. Unfortunately Mr. Kuipers did not live to see the completion of this work and the Economic Technical Information Centre of the TNO Plastics and Rubber Research Institute was prepared to undertake the extensive task of cataloguing the expanded range of rubber chemicals in the following groups, largely following the original pattern set by Dr. van Alphen. The present book contains the following chapters: peptizing agents vulcanizing agents accelerators activators retarders blowing agents antidegradants co-agents It is gratefully acknowledged that several producers have responded to the request for data and information, so that all chapters are now fully up to date.