Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-07-12
SOMETHING ABOUT RUBBER
Remarkable Usefulness for aHef
. Known Commodity. ,>s....,t;1 i
LEADING PLACE IN WORLDS 'IRIDf
Considered Merely az a curiosity;sat :
First But as Time Went on .ExPsf
iment and Invention, Developed
Some of It's Qualities. .as

The United States manufactured
enough ruber. tiresi during theS year
ending June 20. 1920, to supply the
millions Of cars that are skimIning
over her splendid roads and also, to
ship about forty million dollars worth
of them tosports the world over from
bonny Scotland to volcano-torn Java.
Crude rubber, comes to our shores
free of duty from places equally as d.
vergent in, latitude. says a bulletin
from the. Washington, d. c., head,
quarters Of the. National SIaa Geographic
society. ~. -,
Brazil contributed more than IS
million Of the SIS Million pounds
which we receive each year, the Dutch
East Indies an equal or slightly larger
amount, and the British Straits Settle.
ments nearly five ), times as muchH;c.; as
either Of these while sundry contribn.
tions of .balatar: guayule gum, Slttar
jelutong, gutta percha, andrindia rub
ber come from Japan, Belgian Congo,
French Africa, Venezuela. Mexico,
Panama, Peru, the British possessionai
and many other countries. 10 ~;
Did Columbus. Also Discover Rubhsr2
1.-THE discovery of7rubber or caont-
chouc. is attributed, to Columbus, who
reported that he had found the natt8pS
Of Haiti playing with balls that
bounced. Priestley,,: the great;:EngHsh
chemist, found while experimenting
with the substance, that IT Woald
erase lead pencil marks. Epr :want:os
better. name he sdubbed;it' rubber.
and the name has stuck and iissssnaed
almost exclusively in English speak.
ing countries. >:sIII I':s''e:s9st "a
1.-THE large, balls or, loaves Of .Eaw
rubber imported to America ars: :m44e.
not from the sap. as is ordinarily sup:
posed, but from the milk; Of the rub
Der trees. The hydrocarbonous sub I
stance when it first. comes from the
the trees reminds one Of the juice that.
comes from the everyday nilkweed: 4 !.
''The Para rubber. ,ones Of the best
of the grades of, raw rubber. which
got its name from the port. Of Brazil
from which 50 much Of A. ia< shipped,
is obtained from traes--fhat I'VE; ~
the hot damp forests of the, Amazon:-
Many of the trees measure from, 8. &c
10 feet in girth and 60 feet in. height
The leaves are three-1obsd and the
flowers small and inconspiehors. y, :,
Resembles Maple Sugar, Process. = &
Rubber collectors go through the
forests to pick out the trees. to sbe@
tapped, cut several notches In each /.
and fix below the -c--- cup to catch
next year, similar. to he one made by
the milk which Immediately begins: to
flow. After q few hours the flow
ceases and the cups are emptied into
a large receptacle. A fire Is lighted
and the nuts Of various kinds of.palnn
trees are thrown on it. in, order to
make a dense smoke. Then the; ma;
tives dip paddles in the rubber latex
and hold them in the smoke until the
fluid ceagulates. and forms O layer on
the paddle. The paddle Is dipped into;
the latex again and again and smoked
until sufficiently large quantstyaof
rubber Is collected. 1t Is then rennoyed;
and rolled into loaves for export. Il
comes to the manufacturer; in: thta
form. brown or black on..the outside. ,
gray on the inside, and with q, pesn1
liar smoked-hsh odor.; Inferior grades
of rubber usually have q very> dtst.
agreeable smell. -.:!tt -: IL.
Natives Of Africa ,fequently cor-s
cred their bodies with the ). latex and
scraped off, after there; had been suf-
ficient evaporation, and nodded 1t into
cubes. but at the present time excel
lent machines for coagulating the
product have been put into use.
Practical Use Recent -
Though its properties have long.
been known, rubber has just within.
the last century come into everyday
practical use. Macintosh, a ean1y
Scotchman. in 1928 dissolved some
rubber in naptha and spread the solu-
ton on a marble slab to dry. He then
fastened his rubber sheet between.
two pieces of fabric and introduced
the world to the raincoat. -,...!
But it was left for Charles Coed
year, an ardent enthusiast over the
possibilities of rubber, who plunged
his fortune into the game and died
to make possible the over
shoe and the automobile tire. He had
mixed some rubber and sulphur and
while dissertating on the wonderful
qualities of the substance. he let some
of the mixture fall upon the door Of
the red-hot stove near which he was
standing. Casually looking down on,
what he had spilled, he noted with
that it had hardened
without melting.
Dramatically grabbing a knife he
scraped the residue from the stove.
His friends thought that they had seen
him suddenly become insane. particu-
larly as they already regarded him
more or less unbalanced on the. SUBJ
ject, but he had discovered that it was
possible to vulcanize rYbber-a.i, ,pso-
cess which makes it no longer. sepBi-