Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1917-02-07
STORY OF RUBBER.
The Romance OF Ibis Now Highly
Priced Material.
WAS OF LITTLE USE AT FIRST.

Not Until the vulcanizino Process Was
Invented Did Its Vast Possibilities
Become - earsnt-How the Amazon
Monopoly Was Broken.
The average man believes that rub
Der is rubber, just as silver Is silver
and ivory is ivory: but. as a matter OF
fact, the different kinds Of rubber run
into the hundreds. If you were to take
ND one of the commercial dailies which
derote their columns to the news Of the
different industries you would find
prices quoted on thirty or forty diner
ent sorts of rubber. Some are called
after their geographical location. some
take their name from the nethsd OF
preparation, and others have names de-
scriptive Of their form.
Originally all rubber came from the
valley Of the Amazon. when 1t was
first discovered no one knows. At any
rate, when the first white men, follow
ing along after Columbus, visited South
America they found the Indians play
Ing with balls made from the exuda-
ton OF the bark Of q certain tree.
and these balls differed from any the
Europeans had ever seen, for they
bounded and rebounded and were full
Of life. But that was not the only uss
the Indians Iut this milk Of the tree to.
They smeared II on their blankets to
make them waterproof.
Still, 200 years and more went BY,
and. while many wise men believed
this elastic. cohesive, impermeabls sub
stance ought to be full Of usefulness.
nobody found any way to use It to any
advantage-it was 30 brittle In cold
weather and 50 disposed to get soft In
hot weather. But in the fullness Of
time q Connecticut Yankee started to
puzzle It out. 1t took him the better
part Of ten years. but he did 1t, and In
1899 gave the world his vulcanizatiou
process. which Is in use today.
Up to that time rubber was 30 cheap
that ships from South America some
times used It as ballast, taking their
chances of selling 1t for what they
could get In some American port
With the discovery Of the vulcanizing
process rubber took on a new hue and
a new value. and the tropics were
searched for 1t everywhere. 1t was
found in the vines of Africa, and gutta
percha. sort of first cousin to rubber.
was found In Borneo. and some years
ago large volume Of rubber was
found in the guayule shrubs Of Mex
leo
As rubber grew In value the chem
lists fell to work and devised ways OF
recovering It from old shoes and hose
and other articles into which 1t en-
tered. and thus reclaimed rubber
soon came to equal the new rubber In
volume. and all these varieties found
some legitimate use. Gutta percha
makes unapproachable insulation for
ocean cables. Balata, which comes
from the Guianas, Is famous for belt
ing. and even reclaimed rubber"
taken from junk heaps, serves perfect
ly well for. flooring and mats and other
articles where resiliency 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-
termined to keep 1t. Not rubber seed
would they let get out of the country.
under heavy penalties. But from time
immemorial the fear Of punishmeHt
has given way before the lure of shin
ing gold, and in 1875. by means Of gen
erous presents here and there, a ven
turesome Englishman sailed out Of the
Amazon with 10000 rubber seeds, and
that was the start of the great rubber
plantations Of Ceylon and the Malay
peninsula.
The beginning was slow. It was
Twenty-Five years after these seeds left
the Amazon before the first plantation
rubber was ready for the market, and
then the total was only 146 tons That
was In 1905. But since them the pro
duction OF pia ntation rubber, has grown
enormously. until now it is about 100.-
600 TONS
Various rubbers can be used for vari.
ous purposes. For some purposes a
lifeless rubber will answer well enough,
while for other purposes the only rub
Der that will adequately serve is the
one that has life and resilency and
toughness. There are numberless rub
Der articles Of commerce where resili-
ency and wear combined are necessary
and where cheaper grades or too large
a proportion Of reclaimed rubber" IL
the poorest sort Of economy.-Hartford
Times.
SUSPICIOUS.