Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-01-09
The Story Of Rubber.

ihC WOilu HAS udu otuuC o6S ohA
bronze age, and now has an iron age
1t is not, however, doing violence tc
facts to speak Of the present as the rub
Der age. A complete list Of the in
Vulnerable uses to which rubber is put
would almost fill the space allotted to
this article. In the order in which they
have become known to the world, the
! more common articles made Of rub
Der are erasers, rubbers and rubber
boots, waterproof garments. hose fol
fire engines and for the street and lawn
hot-water bags, toy balloons, balls fof
tennis and other games, betting and
finally, tires, solid and inflated, for
carriage, bicycle and automobile.
| have mentioned the use OF rubber
as an eraser, and thereby hangs a tale
worth telling. In the year 1925 a
Spanish traveller in Mexico came upon
some children playing with elastic balls
He had never seen anything of the kint'
before, and, on his return home, pub.
lished an account Of what he had seen
A further study revealed the fact that
rubber had been in use for many CEN
turies in Mexico and parts Of Soutf
America.
The first scientific article that dis
cussed the properties Of rubber appear
ed 1863. This was by two French
chemists who had been occupied for
some time in studying the behavior o.
the material toward solvents. Then
about ITO Priestley, the immortal dis
coverer Of oxygen, recommended the
novel elastic substance for erasing PEN
Gil marks. On account OF this use il
came to be known as Indian rubber
and finally rubber. Tie Indians in
Brazil called it cahuchu, and from that
word is derived the word caoutchouc
which is sometimes used on state &C.
casions. 1t is a good name; but rub.
Der has the upper hand.
This remarkable substance is the
product of large number OF tropical
trees, shrubs and vines-more than
three hundred varieties, it is said. But
the principal source is the Brazilian
hevea tree, or Hevea brasiliensis. When
the trees are tapped, milky LIQUID. like
the milk OF the milkweed, oozes out.
That liquid, which is called the latex:
contains the rubber.
To get the rubber from the milky
liquid the native pours it into paddle
and holds it over a wood fire. The
heat drives off most Of the water con-
tanned in the larex and causes the rub
Der to coagulate. This is crude rub
Der, ready for shipment. !
Until fairly recently, virtually all o,
the rubber in use came from South
America, especially from the upper
basin of the Amazon. Manaos is the
greater rubber centre Of the country
from there the crude product is transl
ported down the Amazon a thousand
miles to Para, where it finds welcome
from the freighters that are waiting to
distribute it to the world.
The increasing demand for rubber
after the bicycle came into world wide
use led those who were engaged in the
rubber industry to take steps toward
cultivating the Brazilian hevea. Al
though Brazil prohibited the taking Of
any of the seeds from the country, ar
Englishman did take some home with
him. They were planted in the famous
Kew Gardens near London and flourish
ed. Young rubber trees were taken to
Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula, and
there they found favorable conditions
for growth. Thus the great rubber
plantations had their beginning. To-
day there are thousands OF acres oil
rubber trees in Ceylon, Borneo, lava
Sumatra and other islands in that pari
Of the world.
Not only has the worlds supply
rubber greatly increased but the quail
ty Of the product has improved. Meth.
DDS of treatment better than those en-
ployed by the South American Indians
have been adopted on the plantations
and the whole rubber problem has taken
on a new aspect. The trees are tapped
more carefully than they were in the
wilds, and the latex is cured more
satisfactorily. The struggle is on be-
tween plantation rubber and wild rub
Der, and plantation wins.
In 1906 there were $4,000 acres plant
ed in rubber trees; less than ten years
later there were $4,000 acres under
cultivation. The effect upon the price
has been marked The advent Of the
bicycle and the automobile caused E
great increase in the demand, and for P
time the price rose rapidly and to alarm
ing heights. Twenty-Five years ago
the average price OF rubber was onc
dollar pound. BY the middle Of 1910
it had risen to almost three dollars
But the law Of supply and demand was
at work, and before the end Of 1911 the
price had dropped to below a dollar
where it has remained ever since
There is every reason to believe that
the worlds needs can be met and that
the price can be kept within reasonable
bounds.
Raw rubber is not a very valuable
substance in the form in which it is
obtained from natural sources. Ii Is
sticky at ordinary temperature and be-
comes stickier as the temperature rises
&c I'D so e.