The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-08-11
STORY OF RUBBER
FULL OF INTEREST
How Far East and Brazil Traded
Their Industries.
TREES SHIPPED TO CEYLON

discovered so many new things in til,
Western Hemisphere. 1t was in 1893
on his second voyage to America, says
Fred b. Pitney, writing IN the romance
OF rubber in Durant's Standard. Co
lumbus saw some Indian boys playing
a game with a bouncing ball on the
hard sand of the beach and the ball
was made of rubber.
In 1882" says Mr.. Pitney, "Charles
Goodyear accidentally dropped some
rubber mixed with sulphur and white
lead on the kitchen stove. So was dis
covered h process of ~vulcanizing,
which made rubber a commercial ar
ticle. Columbus was thrown into
prison for bringing rubber instead of
gold home from America. Charles
Goodyear died in 1860 In debt because
of his faith in rubber. Not a very en-
%couraging start for a new industry
which was destined to assume such an
important industrial position
Many Plants Produce Rubber.
1t will doubtless surprise many per-
sons to learn that nearly 500 plants,
vines and trees produce rubber. They
grow in a belt extending for 80 de-
grees north and south of the Equator.
Only a small number of these plants
provide rubber in sufficient quantity or
quality to make it commercially valu-
able. The hevea tree is the best of
all. and it so far surpasses all the rest
that practically 90 per cent Of the
worlds supply of crude rubber comes
from hevea trees. The home of these
valuable trees is in a belt extending
ten degrees on either side of the Equa-
tor, and this is known as the india rub
Der belt. The hevea tree is q native
Of Brazil, and until 1900 nearly the
entire worlds supply of raw rubber
came from the swamps and jungles
where these trees flourish.
"The story of the development OF
the rubber industry says Mr.. Pitney,
is the story of the discovery of the
great American oil fields, the invention |
of the automobile and the blight of the
East Indies coffee plantations. The
greatest factor was the automobile, for
1t made the pneumatic tire a necessity.
After Goodyear's discovery the indus
try proceeded slowly. SO much an
tagonism and skepticism had been de-
veioped toward rubber in the years
before the discovery of vulcanfzation
1t was extremely difficult to over
popular feeling and gain a ia
vOrable place for it. In 1850 Brazilian
exports of raw rubber amounted to
only 1,467 tons. But by 1879 the an
nuai volume of the American rubber
business exceeded $4,000, 900.
AA4 tIs1 49, II1--x
Britisher, had the vision to see the pos
in rubber. He had spent sew
eral years in Brazil and when, in the
middle '70s of the last century, a
blight fell upon the East Indies coffee
and ruined them, he pro-
POSED to the British government that
he cultivation of rubber be substi-
uted in the Far East.
Takes Seeds TO England.
"He returned to Brazil and made a
ong and dangerous trip into the Anna
on jungles, gathering seed. 1t was his
.ood fortune to find on his return to
he borders of civilization a British
hip lying in the river in ballast. |
he had neither cash nor credit, !
Vickham chartered the ship to carry
i'm and his precious burden to Eng
md. Speed was vital to success, for
he seed decOmpoSeS with unusual
apidity. The vessel arrived at Liver
In June, 1876. A special train con-
eyed Wickham and his SEED to Lon
on, where a fortnight later 1000 hevea
'ees had sprouted at Kew. The seed
ngs were forthwith shipped to Ceylon
nd the rubber plantations of the East
ldies and the Malay Peninsula were
Urn.
"Curiously enough, in this affair, the
ar East and Brazil really merely
industries. Rubber was sub
ituted for coffee in the East, while
rail imported coffee plants from the .
asst and is today the greatest coffee =
'oducing country in the world. l.
"As though waiting on the energetic II
ickham, the industry which was to IL
an so heavily on an adequate rubber {
pply now began to come into being, {
rst, there was the development Of the E
nerican oil fields, from which later E
)uld come gasoline. Then came the e
cycle, with its fine facilities for the e
1dy of tire making. And in the late E
IS, at just about the time that the e
bier plantations of the East were <
from their period of c~aItiva- 8
and experiment, the first success s
American automobile was designed. Il
le automobile and the successful rub Il
+ plantation arrived simultaneously. 3
in 1900 the worlds supply of plan is
rubber amounted to four tons. IL
st year plantation rubber prOduc- IL
n was in excess of 100000 tons lE
~ree-fourths of the worlds supply of lis
bier is now used in America" III