Evening star., 1934-11-06
House Plant Source of Rubber
Experiments of Chemist Sh0,u
Poinsettia Could Supply
60 Per Cent Of Needs
OF America.
100000 Acres of Land
in Florida to Be Planted
Next February.

Enough rubber to supply go per
cent of Americas need can be raised
from a common house plant for less
than the price now asked for i'm
ported crude, If the formula and plans
of an obscure chemist and rubber en-
gineer can be realized.
Accomplishment of this hope may
revolutionize the entire rubber indus
try in America and give to motorists
tires for price below anything they
have spent in the past.
A species of poinsettia. sold each
year at Christmas time as form of
holiday decoration, has led to the
source of rubber that not only can
replace India's strips and Niger
heads. but can also be produced and
refined for a price that will make
ineffective the agreement that Britain
and its territories and the Netherlands
have made to raise the price of rubber
Engineer Watched Experiments.
Herman E. Pitman, for Is years
rubber engineer. became interested
long ago in the experiments of Thomas
A Edison, Harvey Firestone. John
Burroughs and Henry Ford. He
watched them experiment with varie-
ties of golden rod. milk weed, cactus
and palmettos and palms and sought
for himself source of plant sap that
/ might bear rubber.
Months ago, by using poinsettia
that was given to him at his home in
ST. Louis as a Christmas decoration,
he found in the sap or lateX small
percentage of rubber. At the same
time he found that this particular
rubber was too expensive for COM
mercial production and that the
original source-sap-becam rancid
within a few hours.
BY the use of common chemical
kept in most homes as a cleanser he
found that the souring and rancidity
of this rubber latex could be avoided
While Pitman will not admit that this
particular experiment was an accident,
i his friends have revealed that the be-
ginning of his discovery was a house.
hold accident
Admits Experiments.
Pitman, reticent sort of person.
who dislikes telling of his experiences.
admitted under questioning he had
spent considerable time experimenting
With the poinsettia after the acci-
dental discovery of a means to fore
stall the souring of the poinsettia
lateX.
Considerable expensive chemicals
were used. Finally another simple,
common and cheap chemical was
dropped in vat of his hopeless
weed sap and he found, much to his
surprise, latent rubber that had
evaded the chemists of Edison, Ford
and Firestone.
Pltman, after months, found an
other variety of the same plant that
responded quickly to his very simple
chemical treatment. His own sur
prise was surpassed by that of a
washington analytical chemist
Henry c. Fuller-who found that the
plant juice contained between so and
IS per cent crude rubber.
Pltman has nothing for sale. He
discouraged public announcement of
his discovery and invention. The in
vention involves the extraction of the
poinsettia latex and its chemical
treatment. A lawyer. Alva D. Adams,
was retained in Washington to make
a search and determine whether Pit
man had process that could be
patented. Before Adams could COM
! plete the work asked by Pitman. he
| found that he could get support to
complete his experiment by the prof
fer Of 100000 acres of muck-land in
the Everglades of Florida by cor
poration that has been forced to re-
tire its property under the Cuban
sugar treaty. This land is to be