The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-27
What Rubber Is
Story of a Rubber Tire From Tropical Forest and Cotton Field to the Finished
 Product
Copyright, 1911, The FirestOne Tire
 & Rubber Co.,, Akron, o.


 Most people think that rubber gum is derived from the sap of a tree This is not true Rubber has noth- ing whatever to do with the saI but is found only in the bark. It is derived from a thick milky juice call ed latex (pronounced lay-tex) and 1s supposed to be placed there by na- ture as a protection against boring beetles and insects.
 Rubber is found in tropical and sub-tropical regions which include South America, Africa, Mexico, Gen. tral America, Ceylon and the Malay Islands Tn the latter localities if grows in cultivated state but in all others grows wild in jungles and
 Although civilization first heard of rubber at the time of the second voy- age of Columbus, it was not used much in commerce until the process of vulcanization was discovered over fifty years ago. Vulcanization con- sists of combining rubber gum with various chemicals, principally sul- phur, and subjecting the mass to great heat This toughens the rub Der and makes it hold it's shape.
 So rapidly has the demand for rub Der increased of late that the worlds harvest now amounts to 80,OOO tons a year, valued at about $150, 100000 and the total value of the manufac- tured products in which rubber forms a prominent part amounts to sever al hundred million dollars per year.
 The best grade of rubber is known as Para and comes from up the Am aZon River in South America, where it grows wild in immense jungles. This rubber has sold as high as S3.15 per pound in New York and it con- stitutes about 50 per cent of the to- tai crude rubber tonnage of the world
 In Africa and Central America the Ceylon districts it is raised on iru- mense plantations. Based upon sta tistics from the India Rubber Jour- nal it is estimated that there are now about one million acres of rub Der plantation under cultivation. An immense amount of money has been invested by American and English people in stocks and wild cat prompt ing schemes, but some rubber plan tations are very profitable invest ments when properly located and notably the Ceylon rubber the wild Amazon product. Those plan tations have all been started from para rubber trees imported from South America.
 Rubber gathering in the Amazon district is hazardous and difficult
 
 reach and harvesting can be con- ducted only in the dry season, from to May, as in other m ontts the forests are inundated and the climate is at it's worst. Very few white men can do this work and it is necessary to rely upon the na- tives, who at best are undependable and lazy. Their mode of living is SO unsanitary, and the heat and fe- vers are so destructive, that often half the number of a single expedi- ton will perish in the rubber forests.
 When a native locates a rubber tree he hacks or encircles the bark with his hatchet and places tin cups to catch the latex as 1t oozes out. The contents of these cups are ac- in large vessels and when enough is gathered the native pre- pares to dry and fumigate the rub Der. First he builds a fire of palm caves and nuts. then takes his wood en paddle, dips it into the liquid and holds it in the smoke of the fire turning it around to dry. When this aver has dried he dips his paddle into the lateX again again and keeps on repeation, adding layer upon lay sr to the mass. In time this mass becomes as large as half bushel basket and about the shape of a l emon. The native then cuts this in half, l removing the paddle and setting l lside these ''hams' or 'tbiscuitS'' of | rubber ready to ship down the riv- | 1T and export The rubber is deliv- | cred to the tire factory in this form. | Crop after crop can be taken