Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-13
IN THE DAYS NEWS
RusRER

The United States manufactured enough rubber tires during the year ending June 20. 1920, to supply the mil lions of cars that are skimming over her splendid roads and also to ship about forty million dollars worth of them to ports the world over from bonny Scotland to volcano-torn Java.
 Crude rubber comes to our shores free of duty from places equally as divergent in latitude says a bulletin from the Washington, D. C., head quarters Of the National Geographic Society.
 Brazil contributed more than s l million of the 575 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 much as either of these, while sundry contribu- tions of balata; guayule gum, gutta- | jelutohg, gtitta bercha, and india rub | Der come from Japan, Belgian Congo, l French Africa, Veneztiela, Mexiv6. Panama. Peru, the British possessions, and many other countries.
 ''The discovery Of rubber or caout- l chouc, is attributed to Columbus, who reported that lie had found the. natives ] bounced. Priestley, the great English | chemist, found while experimenting | with the substance, that. it would erase lead pencil marks. For want of a better name he dubbed it rubber; and the name has stuck and is Used | almost Exclusively in English speak ing countries.
 "The large balls or I6aves of raw 1 rubber imported to America are made not from the sdp, as is ordinarily sup posed, but from the milk of the rubber trees.- The hydrocarbonous substanee l when it first comes from the trees re- minds one of the juice that comes from the everyday milkweed.
 "The Para rubber, one of the best Of the grades of raw rubber, Which got it's name from the port of Brazil from
 which so much Of it is shipped, is ob- tained from trees that thrive in the hot damp forests of the Amazon. Many
 of the trees measure from to 10 fec
 in girth and so feet in height. Tht leaves are three -lobed and the howeri
 small and ineonspicuous.
 Rubber collectors go through the
 forests and pick out the trees to bt 1 tapped cut several notches in eact
 ana fix below the notch cup tt
 catch the milk which inmediatell begins to flow. After few hour.
 the How ceases and the cups art
 emptfed in to a larger receptacle. A
 fire is lighted and the nuts of vari
 ous kinds of palm trees are throwr
 on it in order to make a dens,
 smoke. Then the natives dip paddle, in the rubber latex and hold them ir the smoke until the fluid cba guIa te, and forms a thin layer on the paddle
 The paddle is dipped into the iate5
 again and again and smoked until {
 sufficiently large quantity of ruoDet i, 1 collected. It is then removed and rolled into loaves for export It comes ft the manufacturer in this form, browf
 Or black on the outside, gray on fht
 inside. and with a peculiar smoked -ffsf odor. Inferior grades of rubber usual ly have very disa greeable smsIl
 Natives of Africa frequently cover
 ed their bodies with tue Iatex ant
 scfaped the rubber 6ff, after there haf t been sufficient evaporation, and n75jd Cd it into cubes, but at the pfese6t
 time excellent machines for e6a eulaf inE the product have been put into lIae | Through it's properties have lont been known, rubber has just within
 the last century come into evefyda
 use. Maekintosh, a canny Scotchfnafl n
 in 1923 dissolved some rubber in ffaptl1;
 and spread the solution ofi q fIafhi,
 slab to dry. He then fastened his rub Der sheet between two pieces of fabri,
 and introduced the world to the rain coat.
 But 1t was left for Charles Good
 year, an ardent enthusiast over th, possibilities of rubber wh6 bfunfet
 His f6ftuIie into the game And died dis credited. to make possible the over shoe and the atit6mobiIe tire. He hal [. mixed some rubber and sulphur 1nI