The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-02-03
STORY or RUBBER.
The Romance Of This Now Highly
Priced Material.
WAS OF LITTLE USE AT FIRST
Not Until the Vuicanizing Process Was
invented Did lts Vast Possibilities
Become Approximation tho Amazon
Monopoly Was Broken.

Become Approximation tho Amazon
Monopoly Was Broken.
The average man believes that rub
her is rubber, Just as silver is silver
and ivory is ivory but. as matter OF
fact, the different kinds OF rubber run
into the hundreds. II you wore to take
mp one OF the commercial dailies which
devote their columns to the news ofth
different industries you would lind
prices quoted on thirty or forty differ
ent sorts OF rubber. Some are called
after their geographical location, some
take their name from the method of
preparation. and others have names de.
scrfptive 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, y.sited South
America they found the Indians play
ing with balls made from the exuda.
tor Of the bark of certain, tree.
and these balls differed from any tho
Europeans had over seen. for they
bounded and rebounded and were full
Of life. But that was not the only Uss
the Indians put this milk OF the tree to.
They sneared 1t on their blankets to
make them waterproof
Still. 200 years and more went by.
and, while many wise men believed
This elastic. cohesive, impermeable SUBJ
srance ought 10 be full OF usefulness
nobody found any way to use 1t to any
advantace-it was so brittle in cold
weather and so disposed to get soft In
hot weather Iut III the fullness Of
time Il Connecticut Yankee started to
puzzle 1t out 1t took him the better
part OF ten years, but he did it. and In
1889 gave the world his vulcanizatlon
process. which is In use today.
Up to that time rubber was 50 cheap
that ships from South America some
times used 1t MS ballast, taking their
chances of selling it for what they
could get in some American port.
With the discovery Of the vul,anizins
process rubber took On a new hue and
q new value. and the tropics were
searched for it everywhere. Ii was
found in the vines of Africa. and gutta
percha, sort of first cousin TO rubber.
was found in Borneo. and some years
ago n large volume of rubber was
found in the guayule shrubs Of Mex
leo. .4
As rubber grew in value the chem
Isis fell 10 work and devised ways of
recovering 1t from old shoes and hose
and other articles into which IL en-
tered, and thus reclaimed rubber
soon came to equal the new rubber In
volume and all these varieties found
some legitimate use Gutta perclIa
makes unapproachable insulation for
ocean cables. Balata, which comes
from the Guianas, is famous for belt
ing, and even reclaimed rubber
taken from junl, heaps, serves perfect
ly well FOR flooring and mats and other
articles where resiiency 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 it. Not rubber seed
would they let get out of the country.
under heavy penalties But from time
imncmorial the fear Of punishment
has given way before the lure Of shin.
ing gold. and in 1876. by means Of gen.
erous presents here AMI there. 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. 1t was
twenty-nine yenrs after these seeds left
the Amazon before the first plantation
rubber was ready for the market. and
then the total was only 145 tons. That
was in 1905. But since then the pro-
duction of plantation rubber has grown
enormously, until now it is about 10o,-
coo tons.
Various rubbers can be used for vari-
Gus purposes. For some purposes
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-
cncy and wear combined are necessary
and where cheaper grades or too large
O proportion OF reclaimed rubber is
the poorest sort Of economy.--Hartford
Times