Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1921-07-07

ured enough rubber tires during
the year ending Jnne 20, 1920, to
supply the millions of cars that
are skimming over her splendid
roads and also to ship about 40
million dollars worth Of them to
tporfs of the world from bonny
Scotland to volcano.torn Java.
4 "Crude rubber comes to our
shores free of duty from places
equally as divergent in latitude. Z.
says bulletin from the Wash
ington headquarters of the Ma
tional Geographic society.
Brazil contributed more than
50 million of the 275 million
pounds which we received last
year, the Dutch East Indies an
equal or slightly larger amount,
and the British Straits Settle
ments nearly five times as much
as either Of these. while sundry
contributions of balta, guayule
gum, gutta jelutong, gutta per-
cha. and india rubber come from
Japan, Belgian Congo, French
Africa. Venezuela. Mexico. Pan
anna, Peru, the British possessions
and many other countries.
The discovery Of rubber, or
caoutchouc, is attributed TO Co
lumbus who reported that he had
found the natives of Haiti play
ing with balls that bounced.
Priestlev. the great English chem
list, found. while experimenting
with the substance. that it would
erase lead pencil marks. For
want of better name, he dubbed
1t rubber, and the name has stuck
and is used almost exclusively
in English-speaking countries.
1.-The large balls or leaves of
raw rubber imported to America
are made not from the sap, as is
ordinarily supposed, but from the
milk of the rubber trees. The
hydrocarbonous substance when
it first comes from the trees re-
minds one of the juice that
comes from the everyday milk
weed. ..
"The Para rubber. one of the
best of the grades of raw rubber,
which got its name from the port
Of Brazil from which so much of
it is shipped, is obtained from
trees that thrive in the hot damp
forests of the Amazon. Many of
the trees measure from 8 to 10
feet.in girth and 60 feet in height.
The leaves are three -lObed and
the flowers small and inconspic-
uous.
t'Rubber inspectors go through
the forests and pick out the trees
to be tapped, cut several notches
in each and fix below the notch a
cup to catch the milk which i'm
mediately begins to flow. After
few hours the flow ceases and
the cups are emptied into larg-,
err receptacle. A fire is lighted
and the nuts from various kinds
ot palm trees are thrown on it
in order to make a dense smoke.
Then the natives dip paddles in
the rubber latex and hold them
in the smoke until the fluid coag-
uiates and forms thin layer on
the paddle. The paddle is dip
ped into the latex again and
again and smoked until a suffi-
ciently large quantity of rubber
Is collected. 1t is then removed
and rolled into leaves for export.
1t comes to the manufacturer in
this form, brown or black on the
outside. gray on the inside. and
viii a peculiar smoked fish odor.
Inferior grades of rubber usually
have very disagreeable smell.
Though it's properties have
long been known, rubber has Just
within the last century come into
everyday practical use. Mackin-
tosh, a caIny Scotchman. in 1923
dissolved some rubber in naptha
and spread the solution on mar
bic slab TO dry. He then fasten-
eG his rubber sheet between two
pieces of fabric and introduced
the world TO the raincoat.
But il was left for Charles
Goodyear. an ardent enthusiast
over the possibilities of rubber.
who plunged his fortune into the
game and died discredited, to
rrlsl L. n Il 4