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The Romance of Rubber · How to Analyze People on Sight

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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Romance of Rubber edited by
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Speaker 1: John Martin, editor of John Martin's book The Child's Magazine,
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Speaker 1: published by United States Rubber Company. An introductory note. We
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Speaker 1: have undertaken to print this booklet telling you how rubber
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Speaker 1: is grown, gathered, and then made useful. For this reason,
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Speaker 1: the United States Rubber Company, as the largest rubber manufacturer
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Speaker 1: in the world, wants the coming generation of our country
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Speaker 1: to have some understanding of the importance of rubber in
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Speaker 1: our everyday life. We hope to interest and inform you.
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Speaker 1: We believe the rubber industry will be better off if
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Speaker 1: the future citizens of our country know more about it.
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Speaker 1: Chapter one, The Discovery. If you were asked what did
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Speaker 1: Columbus discover in fourteen ninety two, you would have but
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Speaker 1: one answer. But what he discovered on his second voyage
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Speaker 1: is not quite so easy to say. He was looking
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Speaker 1: for gold when he landed on the island of High
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Speaker 1: Ti on that second trip, so his eyes were blind
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Speaker 1: to the importance of a simple game which he saw
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Speaker 1: being played with a ball that bounced by some half
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Speaker 1: naked Indian boys on the sand between the palm trees
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Speaker 1: and the sea, instead of the coveted gold he took
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Speaker 1: back to Europe just as curiosities, some of the strange
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Speaker 1: black balls given him by these Indian boys. He learned
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Speaker 1: that the balls were made from the hardened juice of
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Speaker 1: a tree. The little boys and girls of Spain were
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Speaker 1: used to playing with balls made of rags or wool,
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Speaker 1: so you may imagine how these bouncing balls of the
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Speaker 1: Indians must have pleased them. But the men who sent
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Speaker 1: out this second expedition and gave the balls little thought
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Speaker 1: and certainly no value. Since Columbus brought back no gold,
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Speaker 1: he was thrown into prison for debt, and he never
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Speaker 1: imagined that four hundred years later men would turn that
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Speaker 1: strange gummy tree juice into more gold than King Ferdinand
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Speaker 1: and Queen Isabella and all the princes of Europe ever
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Speaker 1: dreamed of. In the next century, after Columbus's travels, the
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Speaker 1: Portuguese founded the colony of Brazil on the continent of
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Speaker 1: South America. Their settlements were near the coast, and they
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Speaker 1: did not begin to explore the great Amazon region for
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Speaker 1: a hundred years or so. The journey down this great river,
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Speaker 1: which Theodore Roosevelt took so many years later, was first
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Speaker 1: made by a Portuguese missionary who found the same kind
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Speaker 1: of gummy tree juice as that of the West Indies.
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Speaker 1: But the natives along the Amazon had discovered that, besides
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Speaker 1: being elastic, it was waterproof, and they were making shoes
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Speaker 1: that would keep out water. You can picture a native
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Speaker 1: boy spilling some of this liquid on his foot, then
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Speaker 1: covering it as he might with a mud pie, and
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Speaker 1: when it dried, wiggling his toes to find that he
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Speaker 1: had made the first and perhaps the best fitting gum
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Speaker 1: shoe that ever was made. Little by little, samples of
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Speaker 1: this new substance found their way to Europe. It was
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Speaker 1: another hundred years before thoughtful men believed it worth while
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Speaker 1: to investigate this gum. In seventeen thirty one, the Paris
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Speaker 1: Academy of Science sent some explorers to learn about it.
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Speaker 1: One of these Frenchmen, La Condamin, wrote of a tree
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Speaker 1: called Hevea. There flows from this tree a liquor which
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Speaker 1: hardens gradually and blackens in the air. He found the
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Speaker 1: people of Quito waterproofing cloth with it, and the Amazon,
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Speaker 1: Indians were making boots which, when blackened in smoke, looked
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Speaker 1: like leather. Most interesting of all, they coated bottle shaped molds,
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Speaker 1: and when the gum had hardened, they would break the mold,
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Speaker 1: shaking the pieces out of the neck, leaving an unbreakable
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Speaker 1: bottle that would hold liquids. It was not long afterwards
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Speaker 1: that Lisbon began to import some of these crudely fashioned articles,
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Speaker 1: and it is said that in seventeen fifty five the
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Speaker 1: King of Portugal sent to Brazil several pairs of his
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Speaker 1: boots to be waterproofed. A few years later, the government
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Speaker 1: of Para, Brazil sent him a full suit of rubber clothes.
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Speaker 1: For all that, this elastic gum was for the most
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Speaker 1: part only a curiosity, and few people knew there was
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Speaker 1: such a thing about the year seventeen seventy, a black
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Speaker 1: bouncing ball of kutchuk, as the Indians called the gum,
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Speaker 1: after many travels, found its way to England and Priestley,
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Speaker 1: the man who gave us oxygen learned that it would
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Speaker 1: rub out pencil marks. Then and there he named it
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Speaker 1: what you have probably guessed long before, this rubber. Nearly
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Speaker 1: every language except English uses in place of the word
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Speaker 1: rubber some form of the native word kutchuk, which means
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Speaker 1: weeping tree. After Priestley's discovery, a one inch rubber sold
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Speaker 1: for three shillings or about seventy five cents, but artists
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Speaker 1: were glad to pay even that price because their work
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Speaker 1: was made so much easier Chapter two, Charles Goodyear. In
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Speaker 1: eighteen hundred, Brazil was the only country manufacturing rubber articles,
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Speaker 1: and her best market soon proved to be North America.
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Speaker 1: Probably the first rubber this country saw was brought to
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Speaker 1: New England in clipper ships as ballast in the form
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Speaker 1: of crude lumps and balls. Rubber shoes, water bottles, powder flasks,
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Speaker 1: and tobacco patches found buyers in the American ports, but
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Speaker 1: rubber shoes were most in demand. Soon some Americans began
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Speaker 1: to import raw rubber and to manufacture rubber goods of
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Speaker 1: their own. And in the Old World, a scotchman named
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Speaker 1: Macintosh found a way of waterproof in cloth by spreading
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Speaker 1: on it a thin coating of rubber dissolved in coal naphtha.
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Speaker 1: Many people still refer to raincoats as macintoshes. Rubber clothing
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Speaker 1: shared favor with rubber shoes but its popularity was short lived,
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Speaker 1: for it did not wear well and was almost as
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Speaker 1: sensitive to temperature as molasses and butter. The rubber shoes
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Speaker 1: and coats got hard and stiff in winter, and soft
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Speaker 1: and sticky in summer. A man wearing a pair of
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Speaker 1: rubber overalls who sat down too near a warm stove
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Speaker 1: soon found that his overalls, his chair, and himself were
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Speaker 1: stuck fast together. The first rubber coats became so stiff
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Speaker 1: in cold weather that when you took one off, you
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Speaker 1: could stand it up in the middle of the floor
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Speaker 1: and leave it, for it would stand like a tent
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Speaker 1: until the rubber thawed out, and when thawed it was
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Speaker 1: almost as uncomfortable as is fly paper to the fly.
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Speaker 1: One day, Charles Goodyear, a Connecticut hardware merchant of an
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Speaker 1: inventive turn of mind, went to a store to buy
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Speaker 1: a life preserver. He could find only imperfect ones, but
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Speaker 1: they drew his attention to the study of rubber, and
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Speaker 1: presently he was thinking of it by day and dreaming
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Speaker 1: of it by night. Rubber became a passion with him.
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Speaker 1: He felt sure some way could be found to make
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Speaker 1: it firm yet flexible, regardless of temperature, and for ten years,
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Speaker 1: he experimented with different mixtures and processes, hoping to find
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Speaker 1: the right one. So intent was he on his search
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Speaker 1: that he found time for nothing else. Due to neglect,
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Speaker 1: his business went to pieces, and he became very poor. Finally,
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Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty nine, when he was on the point
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Speaker 1: of giving up in despair, he accidentally came upon the solution.
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Speaker 1: He was experimenting in his kitchen, a place which, through
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Speaker 1: lack of funds, he was often forced to use as
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Speaker 1: a laboratory. Part of a mixture of rubber, sulfur, and
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Speaker 1: other chemicals with which he was working happened to drop
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Speaker 1: on the top of the stove. It lay there, sizzling
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Speaker 1: and charring until the odor of the burning rubber called
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Speaker 1: his attention to it. As he stooped to scrape it
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Speaker 1: off the stove, he gave a start of wonder as
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Speaker 1: he noted that a change had come over the rubber
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Speaker 1: during its brief contact with the stove. To his surprise,
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Speaker 1: the mixture had not melted, but had flattened out in
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Speaker 1: the shape of a silver dollar. When it had cooled
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Speaker 1: enough to be handled, he found that it bent and
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Speaker 1: stretched easily without cracking or braking, and that it always
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Speaker 1: snapped back to its original shape. Strangest of all, it
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Speaker 1: was no longer sticky. Apparently half the problem was solved.
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Speaker 1: Whether his new mixture would stand the cold, he had
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Speaker 1: yet to find out. So he nailed it to the
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Speaker 1: outside of the door and went to bed. Probably he
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Speaker 1: slept but little and was up early. At any rate,
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Speaker 1: he found the rubber unaffected by the cold. Then he
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Speaker 1: knew that he had made a real discovery, and he
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Speaker 1: named the process vulcanizing, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
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Speaker 1: Vulcanizing means mixing pure rubber with certain chemicals and then
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Speaker 1: applying heat on this process, which is by no means simple,
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Speaker 1: the great rubber business of the world has been established.
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Speaker 1: Practically everything made of rubber, or of which rubber is
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Speaker 1: a part, has to go through the vulcanizing process, whether
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Speaker 1: it is a pair of keds, a tire, a fruit
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Speaker 1: jar ring, or a doormat. So many people had been
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Speaker 1: deceived by previous rubber ventures that Goodyear had great trouble
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Speaker 1: in finding anyone with enough faith to invest money in
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Speaker 1: his discovery. It was some time before he was able
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Speaker 1: to take out the first of the more than sixty patents,
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Speaker 1: which he was granted during his lifetime for applying his
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Speaker 1: process to various uses. Under these patents, he licensed several
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Speaker 1: factories to use the process in the manufacture of rubber goods,
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Speaker 1: but required them to s stamp all goods with the
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Speaker 1: words Goodyear patent. Scores of companies have since used the
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Speaker 1: name Goodyear, but the only factories that he licensed which
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Speaker 1: are now in existence are parts of the United States
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Speaker 1: Rubber Company. Goodyear often had to defend his patents in court.
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Speaker 1: In the most famous of these suits, he was defended
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Speaker 1: by Daniel Webster and opposed by rufus Choate, So that
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Speaker 1: we see interwoven in the story of Rubber the names
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Speaker 1: of two of the greatest statesmen this country has produced.
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Speaker 1: Chapter three, the hevea tree for the very first of
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Speaker 1: the rubber story. We may thank a little wood boring
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Speaker 1: beetle and the way nature has of helping her children
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Speaker 1: to protect themselves. The thistle of the meadow is as
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Speaker 1: safe from hungry cattle as though fenced in by barbed wire.
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Speaker 1: A cow must be starving that would care to flavor
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Speaker 1: her luncheon with the needles that the thistle bears. The
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Speaker 1: common skunk cabbage would make a tempt meal for her
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Speaker 1: after a winter of dry feeding, had not nature given
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Speaker 1: it an odor that disgusts even a springtime appetite. The
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Speaker 1: milkweed welcomes the bees and flies that help to distribute
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Speaker 1: her pollen where she wants it spread. But she has
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Speaker 1: her own way of punishing the useless thieves that trespass
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Speaker 1: up her stalk. Wherever the hooks of an insect's feet
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Speaker 1: pierce her tender skin, she pours out a milky juice
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Speaker 1: to entangle its feet and body. And it is a
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Speaker 1: lucky bug that succeeds in escaping before this juice hardens
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Speaker 1: and holds him a prisoner condemned to die. All over
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Speaker 1: the world there are plants with the same ability that
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Speaker 1: the milkweed has, but it is especially true of certain
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Speaker 1: trees and vines of the tropics. As soon as the
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Speaker 1: little beetle begins to bore into the bark of one
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Speaker 1: of these trees, there pours out a sticky, milky fluid
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Speaker 1: that kills the insect at once. If this were all,
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Speaker 1: the wound would remain open, ready for the next robber
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Speaker 1: who came along. In order that the brake may be healed.
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Speaker 1: A cement is necessary, but not a hard, unyielding one,
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Speaker 1: for that would crumble away with the motion of the
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Speaker 1: tree in the wind. So, with Mother Nature's perfection in
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Speaker 1: doing things, the very plant juice that has done duty
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Speaker 1: as a poison is hardened into an elastic stopper, with
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Speaker 1: the result that no matter how far the tree may
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Speaker 1: sway and tug at the wound, the filling gives and
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Speaker 1: stretches true to the task it has to perform. This
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Speaker 1: was the juice the crafty savage induced the tree to
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Speaker 1: give up. Wherever the bark was cut, The fluid poured
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Speaker 1: forth to heal the brake and hardened like blood on
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Speaker 1: a cut finger. The native caught it while it was
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Speaker 1: still soft and applied it to his simple needs. This
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Speaker 1: juice is not the sap of the rever tree. Sap,
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Speaker 1: which is the life blood of the tree, flows through
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Speaker 1: the wood. But the juice we are describing is contained
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Speaker 1: in the inner bark, a thin layer directly below the
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Speaker 1: outer bark. Scientific men call this juice latex. It is
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Speaker 1: like milk in three ways. It is white, it contains
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Speaker 1: tiny particles that rise to the top like cream, and
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Speaker 1: it spoils quickly The particles in cow's milk are full
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Speaker 1: of fats, which make it good for us to drink.
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Speaker 1: But a rubber tree's milk has tiny atoms of rubber
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Speaker 1: and resin and other things. And it took time to
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Speaker 1: discover which of the vines and trees was the prize
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Speaker 1: milker of the tropics and gave the largest amount of
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Speaker 1: pure rubber. Finally, the hevea, the very tree the Frenchman
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Speaker 1: wrote about, proved to be the best, and although by
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Speaker 1: no means the only rubber tree of commercial value, it
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Speaker 1: is acknowledged the greatest of rubber trees. The heavia tree
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Speaker 1: grows sixty feet tall and when full grown, is eight
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Speaker 1: or ten feet around. It rises as straight as an elm,
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Speaker 1: with high branching limbs and long, smooth with oval leaves.
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Speaker 1: Sprays of pale flowers blossom upon it in August, followed
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Speaker 1: in a few months by pods containing three speckled seeds,
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Speaker 1: which look like smooth, slightly flattened nutmegs. When the seeds
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Speaker 1: are ready to drop, the outer covering of the pod
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Speaker 1: bursts with a loud report, the seeds shooting in all directions.
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Speaker 1: This is nature's clever scheme to spread the Heavia family.
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Speaker 1: The tree grows wild in the hot, damp forests of
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Speaker 1: the Amazon Valley and in other parts of South America
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Speaker 1: that have a similar climate. The ideal climate for the
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Speaker 1: rubber tree is one which is uniform all year round,
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Speaker 1: from eighty nine to ninety four degrees at noon and
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Speaker 1: not lower than seventy degrees at night. The Amazon country
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Speaker 1: has a rainy season which lasts half the year, though
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Speaker 1: the other season is by no means a dry one,
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Speaker 1: and so for half the time the jungles are flooded.
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Speaker 1: These rubber storehouses had been growing for thousands of years
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Speaker 1: in the Amazon jungle, with their wealth securely sealed up
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Speaker 1: in their bark, the peck of a bird, the boring
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Speaker 1: of a beetle, or the scratch of a climbing animal
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Speaker 1: being the only draft upon their treasure. The trees around
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Speaker 1: the mouth of the river supplied whatever was needed for
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Speaker 1: the little manufacturing that was at first done. But the
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Speaker 1: discovery that made a universal use for rubber changed all this.
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Speaker 1: Brazil was surprised to find what great treasure her forests contained.
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Speaker 1: Large rubber areas were found a thousand miles up the river,
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Speaker 1: and she began in a serious way to develop a
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Speaker 1: large crude rubber business. Less than twenty years ago, Brazil
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Speaker 1: produced practically all the rubber used in the world, but
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Speaker 1: to day she furnishes less than one tenth of the
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Speaker 1: world's supply. How Brazil, possessing in her vast forests millions
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Speaker 1: of rubber trees of the finest quality, has been forced
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Speaker 1: by unfavorable conditions to permit the Far East to sweep
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Speaker 1: from her in this short time. The crude rubber supremacy
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Speaker 1: of the world is one of the most unusual chapters
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Speaker 1: in modern industrial history. Chapter four Wickham's idea. The story
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Speaker 1: of the success of the East Indies in resting the
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Speaker 1: crude rubber supremacy from Brazil, begins with an Englishman named Wickham,
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Speaker 1: who might be called the father of plantation rubber. Wickham,
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Speaker 1: who had spent some years in South America, understood the
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Speaker 1: difficulties of gathering rubber in the jungles. He believed that
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Speaker 1: if rubber could be cultivated, it might prove a good
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Speaker 1: crop on the coffee plantations in India, which a blight
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Speaker 1: had recently rendered valueless for coffee. What a strange fact
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Speaker 1: it is that this blight gave Brazil a chance to
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Speaker 1: go into coffee growing, and that while Brazil was losing
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Speaker 1: the rubber supremacy to the Far East, the Far East
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Speaker 1: at about the same time was surrendering the leadership in
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Speaker 1: coffee to Brazil. The latter now holds first place in
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Speaker 1: coffee growing as firmly as does the Far East in
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Speaker 1: rubber growing. Wickham saw that there were difficulties that would
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Speaker 1: prevent the gathering of wild rubber from keeping pace with
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Speaker 1: the growing demand. Although millions of rubber trees still stood
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Speaker 1: untouched in the Brazilian forests, only those trees near the
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Speaker 1: river banks could be tapped because of the impossibility of
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Speaker 1: getting the rubber out of the dense vegetation. Life in
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Speaker 1: the jungle was dangerous and lonely, and therefore rubber gatherers
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Speaker 1: were not easy to find. They were compelled to work
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Speaker 1: far from their families and friends, and in constant danger
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Speaker 1: from wild beasts, reptiles, and death bearing fevers. It is
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Speaker 1: no wonder that rubber obtained in this way came to
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Speaker 1: be known as wild rubber. Moreover, transporting the crude product
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Speaker 1: through the jungles was hard and expensive, and the rubber
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Speaker 1: obtained under these can nditions was not always so clean
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Speaker 1: or high in quality as might be wished. If rubber
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Speaker 1: trees grow from the seeds which nature scatters in the jungle,
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Speaker 1: said Wickham to himself, why should they not grow from
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Speaker 1: seeds put into the ground by hand. If rubber trees
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Speaker 1: could be raised from seed, they could be planted in
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Speaker 1: the open, in rows where they could easily be tended
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Speaker 1: and tapped, and the rubber gathered quickly and safely. Instead
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Speaker 1: of having to brave the dangerous jungles, men could plant
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Speaker 1: and cultivate rubber in spots of their own, choosing, so
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Speaker 1: long as they chose places where the climate was right.
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Speaker 1: For many years people only laughed at Wickham's great idea,
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Speaker 1: but like Goodyear, he had faith enough to persevere. While
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Speaker 1: in Brazil, he planted some rubber seeds to see what
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Speaker 1: would happen. The seeds did grow, and the book which
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Speaker 1: Wickham wrote about his idea and his experiments finally came
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Speaker 1: into the hands of Sir Joseph Hooker, the director of
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Speaker 1: the botanical gardens in Qeue, near London. So interested did
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Speaker 1: he become that he called Wickham's plan to the attention
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Speaker 1: of the Government of India, and finally Wickham was commissioned
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Speaker 1: to take a cargo of rubber seeds to England so
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Speaker 1: that his idea might be tried out. This commission was
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Speaker 1: more difficult than one might think, and all of Wickham's
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Speaker 1: faith and perseverance were needed to carry it out. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: for a time it seemed hopeless, principally because the seeds
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Speaker 1: so quickly dry up and lose their vitality that they
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Speaker 1: must be planted very soon after being gathered. But Wickham
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Speaker 1: watched his opportunity, and finally he was able to charter
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Speaker 1: a ship in the name of the Indian government about
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Speaker 1: a third of the way up the Amazon River. He
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Speaker 1: placed in her hold several thousand carefully packed seeds of
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Speaker 1: the Hevia brasiliensis, or rubber tree. Let Wickham himself tell
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Speaker 1: how he surmounted the next difficulty. We were bound to
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Speaker 1: call in at the city of Para as of entry
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Speaker 1: in order to obtain clearance papers for the ship before
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Speaker 1: we could go to sea. Any delay would have rendered
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Speaker 1: my precious freight quite valueless and useless. But again fortune favored.
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Speaker 1: I had a friend at court, in the person of
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Speaker 1: Consul Green, who went himself with me to call on
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Speaker 1: the proper official and supported me as I presented to
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Speaker 1: his Excellency my difficulty and anxiety being in charge of,
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Speaker 1: and having on board a ship anchored out in the
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Speaker 1: stream exceedingly delicate botanical specimens, especially designated for delivery to
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Speaker 1: Her Britannic Majesty's own royal Garden of Kew. Even while
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Speaker 1: doing myself the honor of thus calling on his Excellency,
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Speaker 1: I had given orders to the captain of the ship
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Speaker 1: to keep up steam, having ventured to trust his Excellency
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Speaker 1: would see his way clear to furnishing me with immediate dispatch.
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Speaker 1: An interview most polite, full of mutual compliments in the
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Speaker 1: best port Shuese manor, enabled us to get under way
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Speaker 1: as soon as the captain had got the dinghy hauled aboard.
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Speaker 1: Can you imagine Wickham's sigh of relief as his vessel,
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Speaker 1: with its freight of perishable treasure steamed out of port
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Speaker 1: and began the long journey to England. Chapter five Plantation Development.
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Speaker 1: The transporting of the rubber seeds from the Brazilian forests
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Speaker 1: to England was only the first step in Wickham's project.
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Speaker 1: The real test was still to come. The seeds were
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Speaker 1: planted in the famous botanical gardens of kew And on
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Speaker 1: August twelfth, eighteen seventy six, the several thousand seedlings which
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Speaker 1: had been raised from them were packed in special cases
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Speaker 1: and shipped to Ceylon, on the other side of the globe,
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Speaker 1: for the final and most important stage of the experiment.
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Speaker 1: How long the next five years must have seemed to
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Speaker 1: the anxious Wickham, for it was that long before the
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Speaker 1: first rubber tree flowered in the gardens of Heneratkada, sixteen
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Speaker 1: miles from Colombo, where the trees had finally been planted
22:05
Speaker 1: in this year eighteen eighty one, experiments in tapping began,
22:10
Speaker 1: and it was plain that Wickham's dream was to be realized.
22:14
Speaker 1: From these few trees, so carefully tended in their youth,
22:17
Speaker 1: has sprung the whole rubber industry of Ceylon and the
22:20
Speaker 1: far East. Wickham must indeed have been proud to see
22:23
Speaker 1: the plantations spreading from Ceylon to Malaya, where rubber was
22:28
Speaker 1: eagerly taken up by planters who were despairing of ever
22:31
Speaker 1: making a living out of coffee, and later to Sumatra
22:34
Speaker 1: and Java and Borneo. Today, rubber plantations cover an area
22:39
Speaker 1: of over three million acres, with a yearly output of
22:43
Speaker 1: almost three hundred and sixty thousand tons, or about ten
22:46
Speaker 1: times the average yearly output of wild rubber. There is
22:51
Speaker 1: a curious coincidence in the fact that Wickham got his
22:54
Speaker 1: idea about planting rubber trees in India at about the
22:58
Speaker 1: same time that men in America began to experiment with
23:01
Speaker 1: the horseless carriage. You may never have stopped to think
23:05
Speaker 1: of it, but mechanical experts say that without rubber pneumatic tires,
23:09
Speaker 1: automobiles could never have become the fine, swift vehicles they are.
23:14
Speaker 1: It was a wonderful thing that, when in the early
23:16
Speaker 1: part of this century the automobile industry suddenly burst forth
23:21
Speaker 1: with a demand for rubber so great that Brazil could
23:24
Speaker 1: never have hoped to supply it, there was found ready
23:27
Speaker 1: in the Far East as a result of the planting
23:30
Speaker 1: that had been done, there a supply that took care
23:33
Speaker 1: of the sudden emergency. A little more than ten years ago,
23:37
Speaker 1: American businessmen began to take an interest in the rubber plantations.
23:41
Speaker 1: They have shown characteristic energy in the field, and the
23:45
Speaker 1: greatest single rubber plantation in the world is owned by
23:48
Speaker 1: an American company, The United States Rubber company. This plantation
23:53
Speaker 1: is on the island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies,
23:57
Speaker 1: one of the best governed colonies in the East. On
24:00
Speaker 1: this island is an orchard of rubber trees as beautifully
24:04
Speaker 1: laid out and as well cared for as any orchard
24:07
Speaker 1: of fruit trees in our own country. For seventy square miles,
24:11
Speaker 1: an area as large as the district of Columbia. The
24:14
Speaker 1: orderly ranks of trees fill the gently rolling landscape, every
24:18
Speaker 1: inch of which is weeded as carefully as a garden.
24:22
Speaker 1: It takes twenty thousand employees to care for the trees,
24:25
Speaker 1: which number more than five million. On this plantation, the
24:30
Speaker 1: science of growing rubber trees has been brought to a
24:33
Speaker 1: perfection known nowhere else in the world. Groups of botanists,
24:37
Speaker 1: chemists and arboriculturists study constantly tree diseases, methods of increasing
24:43
Speaker 1: the yield, and the other problems of growing fine trees
24:47
Speaker 1: that will produce high grade rubber. Here by experiment and inspection,
24:52
Speaker 1: the secrets of the rubber tree are being brought to light,
24:55
Speaker 1: so much so that growers look to this plantation for
24:58
Speaker 1: leadership in methods of rubber culture. This great project so
25:02
Speaker 1: far from American soil and in a field so new
25:06
Speaker 1: gives a thrill of pride to the Americans visiting Sumatra
25:09
Speaker 1: on their way around the world. Chapter six, Plantation Life.
25:15
Speaker 1: The moist but very hot climate which rubber trees require
25:19
Speaker 1: is found only in a zone around the world between
25:22
Speaker 1: the parallels of latitude thirty degrees north to thirty degrees
25:26
Speaker 1: south of the equator. Within this zone there have been
25:29
Speaker 1: found more than three hundred and fifty rubber bearing trees, shrubs,
25:33
Speaker 1: and vines. For this reason, this zone is called the
25:36
Speaker 1: rubber belt. As most of the rubber used commercially is
25:39
Speaker 1: gathered from trees growing within a zone extending from ten
25:43
Speaker 1: degrees north to ten degrees south of the equator. This
25:47
Speaker 1: latter zone is sometimes called the inner rubber Belt. If
25:51
Speaker 1: you will trace this belt on a map of the world,
25:53
Speaker 1: you will see that it includes the Amazon region, which
25:57
Speaker 1: produces more than three quarters of the wild rubber used
26:00
Speaker 1: in manufacturing. Most of South America's wild rubber is obtained
26:04
Speaker 1: from Brazil, the remainder from Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela. Now
26:09
Speaker 1: continue the belt around the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where
26:13
Speaker 1: you will strike the belt in Congo, which produces a
26:16
Speaker 1: small quantity of wild rubber, partly owing to the careless
26:20
Speaker 1: manner of gathering, and partly to the fact that it
26:23
Speaker 1: is not originally of as good quality as Brazilian rubber.
26:27
Speaker 1: Congo rubber is not as valuable for manufacturing as Brazilian.
26:32
Speaker 1: Then complete the circle by following the belt across the
26:34
Speaker 1: Indian Ocean to Ceylon and the East Indies, which contain
26:39
Speaker 1: the great rubber plantations, where most of the rubber used
26:42
Speaker 1: today comes from. To establish a rubber plantation requires very
26:47
Speaker 1: careful planning. The choice of a site is of first importance.
26:51
Speaker 1: For the planter must find a locality having a moist
26:54
Speaker 1: climate with an evenly distributed rainfall, where the temperature throughout
26:59
Speaker 1: the year does not fall below seventy degrees fahrenheit, and
27:02
Speaker 1: where there is protection from the wind. There must also be,
27:06
Speaker 1: of course, access to a steady labor supply and a
27:09
Speaker 1: convenient shipping port. As the proper climate is a tropical one,
27:14
Speaker 1: there is usually dense jungle to be cleared away. Immense
27:17
Speaker 1: trees and thick bushes, rank straggling weeds and vines form
27:22
Speaker 1: an almost impenetrable jungle. To turn such a place into
27:26
Speaker 1: a garden spot means a genuine battle against jungle conditions,
27:31
Speaker 1: but gradually trees, shrubs and undergrowth are torn out and burned,
27:36
Speaker 1: laying bare the rich soil ready for the plow of
27:39
Speaker 1: the planter. Meantime, the rubber seedlings have been sprouted in nurseries.
27:44
Speaker 1: When the ground is ready, they are carefully taken up
27:46
Speaker 1: and transplanted to the holes which have been made for
27:49
Speaker 1: them in the field, where they are to be permanently planted.
27:53
Speaker 1: Though the growth of the trees is very rapid, sometimes
27:56
Speaker 1: as much as twenty feet in the first year, there
27:59
Speaker 1: are five years of anxious waiting and guarding against winds
28:02
Speaker 1: and disease before they are ready to be tapped and
28:06
Speaker 1: so begin to reward the planters. At first, the yield
28:09
Speaker 1: of a tree is only about one half pound of
28:12
Speaker 1: rubber a year, and this increases so slowly that it
28:16
Speaker 1: is many years before it amounts to as much as
28:18
Speaker 1: ten pounds a year. The highest yield ever recorded was
28:23
Speaker 1: given by one of the original trees set out in
28:25
Speaker 1: the gardens at Heneratgoda, which gave ninety six and one
28:30
Speaker 1: half pounds in one year. How different is life on
28:34
Speaker 1: the rubber plantations of today from the life of the
28:37
Speaker 1: gatherer of wild rubber in the jungle in Brazil. The
28:40
Speaker 1: solitary workers have to plunge at dawn into the perilous
28:44
Speaker 1: forest with its lurking wildcats and jaguars, its coiled and
28:49
Speaker 1: creeping serpents. The dwellings are flimsy huts, food is scarce
28:53
Speaker 1: and expensive, and disease and fever cause many deaths. On
28:58
Speaker 1: the other hand, workers on a well managed plantation live
29:02
Speaker 1: in comfortable houses in healthy surroundings, and are supplied with
29:06
Speaker 1: plenty of good food. In fact, the conditions are so
29:09
Speaker 1: much better that generally prevail among natives in the Orient
29:13
Speaker 1: that work on a plantation is considered more desirable than
29:17
Speaker 1: most other forms of labor. The unmarried men live in barracks,
29:21
Speaker 1: but the men with families have individual houses with garden
29:25
Speaker 1: plots adjoining big kitchens, prepare and cook the food in
29:29
Speaker 1: the best native style. Schools for the children, recreation centers
29:34
Speaker 1: for old and young, and hospitals to care for the
29:36
Speaker 1: sick are all parts of the plantation organization in erecting
29:41
Speaker 1: hospitals and caring for the health of its plantation workers.
29:45
Speaker 1: As in other branches of the rubber industry America has
29:48
Speaker 1: taken the lead. So well is this recognized that the
29:52
Speaker 1: Dutch government has awarded a medal to the United States
29:55
Speaker 1: Rubber Company for the efficiency and completeness of its Plantation
29:59
Speaker 1: High Hospital, which happens to be the largest private hospital
30:03
Speaker 1: in the East Indies, having accommodations for nearly a thousand patients.
30:09
Speaker 1: Chapter seven. Harvesting the rubber, it is a cheerful sight
30:13
Speaker 1: to see the workers men and women, dressed in all
30:17
Speaker 1: the colors of the rainbow, trooping out from their quarters
30:20
Speaker 1: to begin the day's work. The tapping must be done
30:23
Speaker 1: early in the day for the latex or rubber juice
30:26
Speaker 1: stops flowing a few hours after sunrise. When the trees
30:31
Speaker 1: reach eighteen inches in girth at a point eighteen inches
30:34
Speaker 1: from the ground, they are ready for tapping. This growth
30:38
Speaker 1: is usually attained when the trees are about five years old.
30:42
Speaker 1: In tapping, a narrow strip of bark is cut away
30:45
Speaker 1: with a knife, the cut extending diagonally one quarter of
30:49
Speaker 1: the way around the tree. At each succeeding day's tapping,
30:54
Speaker 1: the tapper widens the cut by stripping off a sliver
30:57
Speaker 1: of bark one twentieth of an inch in width. He
31:01
Speaker 1: must be careful not to cut into the wood of
31:03
Speaker 1: the tree, as such cuts not only injure the tree,
31:07
Speaker 1: but permit the sap to run into the latex and
31:10
Speaker 1: spoil the rubber. When the tapper has made the proper
31:13
Speaker 1: gash in the bark, he inserts a little spout to
31:16
Speaker 1: carry the dripping latex to a glass cup beneath. Later
31:20
Speaker 1: in the morning, the workers make the rounds of the
31:22
Speaker 1: trees with large milk cans, gathering the latex from the cups.
31:27
Speaker 1: When the cans are full, they are carried to a
31:29
Speaker 1: collecting station called a coagulation shed. It is as clean
31:34
Speaker 1: and well kept as a dairy. Here the latex is weighed,
31:38
Speaker 1: and when each collector has been credited with the amount
31:40
Speaker 1: he has brought, it is dumped into huge vats. The
31:44
Speaker 1: next step is to extract the particles of rubber from
31:47
Speaker 1: the latex and to harden them. The Jungle method of
31:50
Speaker 1: hardening rubber is to dip a wooden paddle in the
31:53
Speaker 1: latex and smoke it over a fire of wood and
31:56
Speaker 1: palm nuts. It is a back breaking process to cut
32:00
Speaker 1: over the paddle with layer after layer until a good
32:03
Speaker 1: sized lump, usually called a biscuit is formed. The plantation
32:08
Speaker 1: method is a quicker and cleaner one. Into the vats
32:12
Speaker 1: is poured a small quantity of acid, which causes the
32:15
Speaker 1: rubber cream to coagulate and come to the surface. The coagulum,
32:20
Speaker 1: as it is called, is like snow white dough. It
32:24
Speaker 1: is removed from the vats and run in sheets through
32:27
Speaker 1: machines which squeeze out the moisture and imprint on them
32:30
Speaker 1: a criss cross pattern to expose as large a surface
32:34
Speaker 1: as possible to the air. These sheets of rubber are
32:38
Speaker 1: then hung in smoke houses and smoked from eight to
32:41
Speaker 1: fourteen days in much the same way that we smoke
32:44
Speaker 1: hams and bacon. After being dried in this way, they
32:48
Speaker 1: are pressed into bales or packed in boxes ready for shipment.
32:53
Speaker 1: Chapter eight. A last word. It would be an adventure
32:57
Speaker 1: to follow a bale of plantation rubber. As carefully boxed
33:01
Speaker 1: or wrapped in burlap, it starts on its long and
33:04
Speaker 1: picturesque journey. Bullock carts, railroads, boats and steamers bring it
33:10
Speaker 1: at last to one of the world markets Singapore, Colombo, London,
33:15
Speaker 1: Amsterdam or New York, where it is bought by dealers
33:18
Speaker 1: and then sold to factories which make rubber goods. An
33:22
Speaker 1: equally fascinating story might be told of its progress through
33:26
Speaker 1: the factory, how it is needed and rolled, mixed with chemicals,
33:31
Speaker 1: rubbed into fabrics, baked in ovens, and finally emerges as
33:35
Speaker 1: any one of the tens of thousands of articles that
33:38
Speaker 1: are made wholly or partly from rubber. Rubber manufacturing is
33:43
Speaker 1: peculiarly an American industry. South America gave us the original
33:47
Speaker 1: rubber trees, and the one man who, more than any other,
33:51
Speaker 1: was responsible for making rubber useful was the American Charles Goodyear. Today,
33:57
Speaker 1: two thirds of the entire output of rubber is sold
34:01
Speaker 1: to the United States, whose manufactured rubber goods set the
34:04
Speaker 1: standard for the whole world. In spite of the wonders
34:08
Speaker 1: which rubber has already accomplished and the adventures which have
34:12
Speaker 1: colored its history, only the beginning of the romance of
34:15
Speaker 1: rubber has been told. The plantation industry is still in
34:19
Speaker 1: its infancy, and experiments are constantly being made to determine
34:23
Speaker 1: the best methods of planting the most fruitful number of
34:26
Speaker 1: trees to the acre, the most advantageous way of tapping.
34:31
Speaker 1: In the laboratories of the great rubber manufacturers scientists are
34:35
Speaker 1: at work improving old methods of using rubber and devising
34:39
Speaker 1: new ones. Rubber is a substance of so many important
34:43
Speaker 1: characteristics that its uses are countless. It is used for
34:47
Speaker 1: certain purposes because it stretches, for others, because it is
34:52
Speaker 1: air tight and watertight, for others, because it is a
34:55
Speaker 1: non conductor of electricity, for others because it is shock absorbed,
35:00
Speaker 1: and for others because it is adhesive. It is on
35:03
Speaker 1: rubber that infants cut their teeth after all the teeth
35:06
Speaker 1: are gone. Old age makes use of rubber in plates
35:10
Speaker 1: for false teeth. Ten million motorists and other millions of
35:14
Speaker 1: cyclists in the United States ride on rubber tires that
35:17
Speaker 1: are durable, noiseless, and air tight. Balloons of rubber float aloft,
35:23
Speaker 1: and huge submarines plow their roots beneath the ocean's surface,
35:27
Speaker 1: propelled by electricity stored in great rubber cells. Sheathed and rubber.
35:32
Speaker 1: The lighting makes a peaceful way through our homes, offices,
35:36
Speaker 1: and factories. Furnishing light and telephone service divers sink out
35:41
Speaker 1: of sight beneath the waves in rubber suits. Rubber air
35:45
Speaker 1: brake hose on railroad trains make safe the travel of
35:48
Speaker 1: a nation. Air drill hose rivets our ships. Fire hose
35:53
Speaker 1: protects the property in city and town, and garden hose
35:57
Speaker 1: brings nourishment to our growing plants. Rubber clothing protects against storm,
36:02
Speaker 1: and rubber footwear guards us against cold and wet. Tennis
36:06
Speaker 1: balls and golf balls, and rubber cord base balls give
36:09
Speaker 1: healthful sport to the millions in hospitals and medical work.
36:13
Speaker 1: The uses of rubber are without number. To select the
36:16
Speaker 1: most important use to which rubber is put would be difficult.
36:20
Speaker 1: One student of the subject says, of all the applications
36:24
Speaker 1: of rubber, that of packing for the steam engine and
36:27
Speaker 1: connecting machinery appears to have been the most important, as
36:31
Speaker 1: it has been an essential condition of the development and
36:34
Speaker 1: extended use of steam as a mode of power. Even
36:38
Speaker 1: as you read this, rubber may be in the act
36:40
Speaker 1: of performing some new magic, some fresh service to mankind.
36:44
Speaker 1: And who knows which one of us will, in the
36:47
Speaker 1: years to come write a chapter in the story of
36:50
Speaker 1: rubber more thrilling than we are able to imagine to day.
36:55
Speaker 1: A review and questions. Number one, who is the first
36:59
Speaker 1: white man to see rubber? Number two? What use were
37:03
Speaker 1: the natives making of it? Number three? Who was the
37:07
Speaker 1: first white man to go up the Amazon? Number four?
37:11
Speaker 1: Of What nationality were the explorers who were sent to
37:15
Speaker 1: find out about rubber? Number five? Who was the first
37:19
Speaker 1: European monarch to use rubber? Number six? How did rubber
37:23
Speaker 1: get its name? Number seven? How did rubber first come
37:27
Speaker 1: to the United States? Number eight? Why are some raincoats
37:32
Speaker 1: called macintoshes. Number nine. Why is Charles Goodyear called the
37:37
Speaker 1: father of the rubber industry? Number ten? What is falconizing?
37:43
Speaker 1: Number eleven? What famous men fought in court over the patents?
37:48
Speaker 1: Number twelve? What has a beadle to do with rubber?
37:51
Speaker 1: Number thirteen? Name and describe the liquid in which rubber
37:55
Speaker 1: is found? Number fourteen in What part of the tree
37:59
Speaker 1: is this liquid found? Number fifteen. What is the difference
38:03
Speaker 1: between this liquid and the sap of a tree? Number sixteen?
38:08
Speaker 1: Name and describe the best rubber tree. Number seventeen. How
38:12
Speaker 1: are the seeds spread? Number eighteen? What climate is needed
38:17
Speaker 1: for rubber trees? Number nineteen. Which country formally supplied all
38:22
Speaker 1: the rubber used in the world? Number twenty Who first
38:26
Speaker 1: thought of growing rubber trees on plantations? Number twenty one.
38:31
Speaker 1: Why did he think it was better to grow them
38:32
Speaker 1: on plantations? Number twenty two? How were the rubber seeds
38:37
Speaker 1: taken from Brazil? Number twenty three? On what tropical island
38:42
Speaker 1: was the first plantation started? Number twenty four. Where are
38:46
Speaker 1: rubber plantations found today? Number twenty five. What is the
38:50
Speaker 1: yearly output of the plantations? Number twenty six? What was
38:55
Speaker 1: the curious coincidence in the growth of the plantation industry?
38:59
Speaker 1: Number twenty seven. What is meant by the rubber belt
39:02
Speaker 1: around the world? Number twenty eight. What countries are the
39:06
Speaker 1: principal producers of rubber? Number twenty nine. Why is the
39:10
Speaker 1: worker on a plantation better off than one who lives
39:13
Speaker 1: in the jungle? Number thirty When are trees ready to
39:17
Speaker 1: be tapped? Number thirty one? How are trees tapped? Number
39:22
Speaker 1: thirty two. How is rubber cured in the jungle? Number
39:26
Speaker 1: thirty three? How is it cured on the plantation? Number
39:29
Speaker 1: thirty four. Why is rubber manufacturing peculiarly in American industry?
39:36
Speaker 1: Rubber products? There are so many different articles made in
39:40
Speaker 1: whole or part of rubber that it would not be
39:42
Speaker 1: possible to list them all on this page. The following
39:46
Speaker 1: list is just a few of the thousands of rubber
39:49
Speaker 1: products made by the United States Rubber Company, the oldest
39:53
Speaker 1: and largest rubber organization in the world. Will help you
39:56
Speaker 1: to think of many other articles made of rubber. Tires
40:02
Speaker 1: U S Royal cord, automobile tires, U S Mono twin
40:06
Speaker 1: truck tires, U S traction tread, motorcycle tires, U S
40:12
Speaker 1: bicycle tires, U S Royal tubes for automobile tires, clothing, rainster, raincoats,
40:20
Speaker 1: NAUGA hide belts for men, women and children, bathing caps
40:24
Speaker 1: and suits, footwear, keds, the standard canvas, rubber soled shoes,
40:30
Speaker 1: U S. Boots, U S arctics and gaiters, U S. Rubbers,
40:35
Speaker 1: hard rubber goods, battery jars, radio parts, diye sticks, household
40:42
Speaker 1: hot water bags, rubber gloves, ice caps, tubing and sheeting,
40:48
Speaker 1: nursing bottle, nipples, toys, fruit jar, rubbers, mechanical goods U S.
40:55
Speaker 1: Rainbow packing, US rainbow transmission belting, U S. Elevator and
41:00
Speaker 1: conveyor belts, U S. Hose for all purposes including garden, steam, suction, water, fire, oil, irrigation,
41:08
Speaker 1: et cetera, paracoorp insulated wire and cable molded goods in
41:14
Speaker 1: thousands of varieties, as for example, washers, gaskets, plumbers, rubber goods,
41:20
Speaker 1: drainboard mats, bath mats, et cetera, U s, tile and
41:24
Speaker 1: sheet flooring, sundryes, Naugahi, traveling bags, US Royal golf balls,
41:31
Speaker 1: balloons and balloon fabrics. Notice to teachers, these booklets are
41:36
Speaker 1: intended for presentation to your pupils. A full supply will
41:40
Speaker 1: be sent to you free of charge. If you will
41:42
Speaker 1: indicate the number of students in your class, Please address
41:47
Speaker 1: Educational Department, United States Rubber Company, seventeen ninety Broadway, New
41:53
Speaker 1: York City. End of The Romance of Rubber, edited by
41:59
Speaker 1: John Martin, read by Judy Bieber, Albuquerque, New Mexico, June
42:04
Speaker 1: two thousand and six,