The daily Alaskan., 1917-05-23
ENVIRONMENT OF RUBBER

The average man believes that rub Der k rubber, just as silver is silver and ivory iS ivory; but. as a matter of Act, the different kinds of rubber run into the hundreds. If you were to take up one of the commercial dailies which devote their columns to the news of the different industries you would find prices quoted ou thirty or forty differ eut sorts of ruhhcr. Some are called after their geographical location, some take their name from the method of preparation. and others have names de sCriptlvc ot tleEc Cur-.
 Originally all rubber came from the valley of the Amazon. When 1t was first discovered ao one knows. At any rate, when .ne first white men, follow ing along after Columbus, visited South America they found the Indians play ing with balls made from the eXuda- tiOn O, the bark oc d certain tree, and these balls differed from any the Europeans had ever Se2n, for they bounded and ruhounlcl and were full of life But that was not the only use the Indians put this milk of the tree to. They smcarej it on their blankets to make them waterproof.
 Still 2rg years and more went by, and, while many wise men believed rhIs c,usti.. cohesive, impermeable sub stance ou-At to be full Of usefulness. nobody found any way to use it to any Rdvaura-a-it was So brittle in cold weather and so disposed to get soft in hot weather. But in the fullneSs of time a Connecticut Yankee started to puzzle 1t out. It took him the better part Of ten years, but he did it, and in 1880 gave the world his yulcauizatiOn process. wLi.h iS in use .Oiay.
 Up to that time rubber was so cheap that shtrs from South AuerIca some times used it as ballast, taking their chances of selling t for what they could get ia some American port. With the discovery of the vulsanlzing process rubber took ou a new hue and u new value, and the tropics were searched for it everywhere. It was found in the vines of Africa, and gutta percha. a sort of first cousin to rubber, was found in Bornco, and some years ego a large volume of rubber was found in the gUayule shrubs of Mex leo.
 As rubber grew in value the chem lsts fell Go work and devised ways of recovering it from old shoes and hose end other articles Into which 1t en- tered, and thus reclaimed rubber" soon came to equal the new rubber in SoIume, and all these varieties found eome legitimate use. Gutta perCha makes uuapproachable insulation for ocean cables. Balata, which comes from the Guianas, Is famous for belt hg, and even "reclaimcI rubber" taken from junk heaps. serves perfect G well for flooring and mats and other Articles where resi'iency Is not needed
 For many years the best rubber was that which came from the banks of the Amazon. The people of that country enjoyed a practical monopoly and de- Eermined to keep It. Not a rubber seed would they let get out of the country, pnder heavy penalties. But from time hnmemorial the fear of punishment has given way before the lure of shin mg gold, and in 1876, by means of gen Srous presents here and there, a ven euresome EngliShman sailed out of the Amazon with 7OO00 rubber seeds, and Ehat was the start Of the great rubber plantations of Ceylon and the Malay peninsula.