Evening star., 1925-07-24
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

that an inventor named Hayward had
preceded him In mixing sulphur with
rubber TO harden It. He bought out
Haywards rights, but II was years
later when he accidentally let some
of his rubber and sulphur drop onto
a hot stove and beheld the work of
the Roman god, Vulcan. He had pro-
duced hard rubber and elastic, heat
and cold defying rubber of today's
commercial uses 80 'vulcanized rub
ber."
Still there was no immediate use
made OF the new substance. IN spite
Of Goodyear's so patents on the proc
esses, he died poor in 1860. and 10
years after his death the modern,
prosperous and Notwithstanding
rubber industry began in Akron,
Ohio.
DR.. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, a
young surgeon of the Civil War, fail
ing to pick up medical practice in
New York, resorted to real estate
trading. In one of his trades he ac-
quired the stock of a small rubber
company located on the Hudson
River, and soon after he moved 1t to
Akron, where the town was Offering
factory sites and cheap water power.
would not burst under pressure of the
water, and it was such good hose that
1t soon came into demand. From
that other rubber manufactures were
developed by the same company.
The methods of handling rubber
became more or less familiar to
Akronians, and the next chapter in
the romance came from that general
acquaintance with it's manipulation.
DIR. John Boyd Dunlop, a vetertna-
rian of Akron, was the proud father
only 81 years old, and his practice
was gaining slowly. His boy meant
more to him than a team OF horses.
He gave the boy tricycle., and then
noted that, in spite of it's solid rub
Der tires, the child was having a
bouncing time, riding over cobble-
stones. That set DR.. Dunlop to
pondering, which resulted in an ex-
pertinent of producing for the toy
tricycle. the first pneumatic tires ever
made.
1t is noted that even those first
tires of 2 inches diameter, bore a
greater ratio between diameter and
load than do the. greatest balloon"
tires of today. The sudden craze for
bicycles grew out of the comfort of
the pneumatic tires, and Immediately
following, came the automobile era,
making an unlimited demand for
made by the Goodyear Company
Now that the rubber famine is
soaring the Market 1t is the aim of
who depend on rubber, to discover
land and climates where Americans
can produce 1t independent of the
British A commission appointed by
Congress has reported that in the
Philippine Islands there are 1900, 900
acres suitable for the purpose; the en-
tire worlds rubber acreage today Is
only ,000, 900.
There are laws governing the Philip
pines intended to prevent a monopoly
of rubber land, which Ii Is claimed
hamper production on an economical
scale, and at the next session Of Con-
gress efforts will be made to modify
the restrictions, which now prevent
any company from owning or con-
trolling more than $500 acres in the
Philippines. In the meanwhile, 1t Is re-
ported that Mr.. Firestone of the Fire
stone Tire Co., Akron, is acquiring, by
leasehold, a monopoly of many thou
sands of acres in Liberia, and Is plan
ming to finance that country in con-
sideration of his monopoly, so that
Liberia will be enabled to make great
improvements in roads and railways
to the rubber plantation. All rubber
trees require from 6 to Is years before
they produce paying yields Of latex-
the milky fluid which makes rubber.
Truly IL Boston continues to be the
Hub" she will not dispute Akron's
right to be the tire OF the world.
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