The Romance of Rubber | Page 8

progress through the
factory, how it is kneaded and rolled, mixed with chemicals, rubbed
into fabrics, baked in ovens, and finally emerges as any one of the tens
of thousands of articles that are made wholly or partly from rubber.
Rubber manufacturing is peculiarly an American industry. South
America gave us the original rubber trees, and the one man who, more
than any other, was responsible for making rubber useful was the
American, Charles Goodyear. To-day, two-thirds of the entire output of
rubber is sold to the United States, whose manufactured rubber goods
set the standard for the whole world.
In spite of the wonders which rubber has already accomplished, and the
adventures, which have colored its history, only the beginning of the
romance of rubber has been told. The plantation industry is still in its
infancy, and experiments are constantly being made to determine the
best methods of planting, the most fruitful number of trees to the acre,
the most advantageous way of tapping. In the laboratories of the great
rubber manufacturers, scientists are at work improving old methods of
using rubber and devising new ones.
Rubber is a substance of so many important characteristics that its uses
are countless. It is used for certain purposes because it stretches, for
others because it is airtight and watertight, for others because it is a
non-conductor of electricity, for others because it is shock-absorbing,
and for others because it is adhesive.
It is on rubber that infants cut their teeth; after all the teeth are gone old
age makes use of rubber in plates for false teeth. Ten million motorists
and other millions of cyclists in the United States ride on rubber tires
that are durable, noiseless and airtight. Balloons of rubber float aloft,
and huge submarines plow their routes beneath the ocean's surface

propelled by electricity stored in great rubber cells. Sheathed in rubber,
the lightning makes a peaceful way through our homes, offices and
factories, furnishing light and telephone service. Divers sink out of
sight beneath the waves in rubber suits. Rubber air-brake hose on
railroad trains makes safe the travel of a nation, air-drill hose rivets our
ships, fire hose protects the properly in city and town and garden hose
brings nourishment to our growing plants. Rubber clothing protects
against storm and rubber footwear guards us against cold and wet.
Tennis balls and golf balls and rubber-cored baseballs give healthful
sport to the millions. In hospitals and medical work the uses of rubber
are without number.
To select the most important use to which rubber is put would be
difficult. One student of the subject says:
"Of all the applications of rubber, that of packing for the steam engine
and connecting machinery appears to have been the most important, as
it has been an essential condition of the development and extended use
of steam as a motive power."
Even as you read this, rubber may be in the act of performing some
new magic, some fresh service to mankind. And who knows which one
of us will, in the years to come, write a chapter in the story of rubber
more thrilling than we are able to imagine to-day!

A REVIEW AND QUESTIONS
1. Who was the first white man to see rubber?
2 What use were the natives making of it?
3. Who was the first white man to go up the Amazon?
4. Of what nationality were the explorers who were sent to find out
about rubber?
5. Who was the first European monarch to use rubber?
6. How did rubber get its name?
7. How did rubber first come to the United States?
8. Why are some raincoats called mackintoshes?
9. Why is Charles Goodyear called "the father of the rubber industry"?

10. What is "vulcanizing"?
11. What famous men fought in court over the patents?
12. What has a beetle to do with rubber?
13. Name and describe the liquid in which rubber is found?
14. In what part of the tree is this liquid found?
15. What is the difference between this liquid and the sap of a tree.
16. Name and describe the best rubber tree.
17. How are the seeds spread?
18. What climate is needed for rubber trees?
19. Which country formerly supplied all the rubber used in the world?
20. Who first thought of growing rubber trees on plantations?
21. Why did he think it was better to grow them on plantations?
22. How were the rubber seeds taken from Brazil?
23. On what tropical island was the first plantation started?
24. Where are rubber plantations found to-day?
25. What is the yearly output of the plantations?
26. What was the curious coincidence in the growth of the plantation
industry?
27. What is meant by the Rubber Belt around the