THE ROMANCE OF RUBBER EDITED BY JOHN MARTIN EDITOR OF JOHN MARTIN'S BOOK THE CHILD'S MAGAZINE PUBLISHED BY UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY CONTENTS 1 THE DISCOVERY 2 CHARLES GOODYEAR 3 THE HEVEA TREE 4 WICKHAM'S IDEA 5 PLANTATION DEVELOPMENT 6 PLANTATION LIFE 7 HARVESTING THE RUBBER 8 A LAST WORD AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE We have undertaken to print this booklet, telling you how rubberis grown, gathered, and then made useful, for this reason: The United States Rubber Company, as the largest rubbermanufacturer in the world, wants the coming generations of ourcountry to have some understanding of the importance of rubber inour every day life. We hope to interest and inform you. We believe the rubber industrywill be better off if the future citizens of our country know moreabout it. CHAPTER 1 THE DISCOVERY If you were asked, "What did Columbus discover in 1492?" you wouldhave but one answer. But what he discovered on his second voyageis not quite so easy to say. He was looking for gold when helanded on the island of Hayti on that second trip. So his eyeswere blind to the importance of a simple game which he saw beingplayed with a ball that bounced by some half-naked Indian boys onthe sand between the palm trees and the sea. Instead of thecoveted gold, he took back to Europe, just as curiosities, some ofthe strange black balls given him by these Indian boys. He learnedthat the balls were made from the hardened juice of a tree. The little boys and girls of Spain were used to playing with ballsmade of rags or wool, so you may imagine how these bouncing ballsof the Indians must have pleased them. But the men who sent outthis second expedition gave the balls little thought and certainlyno value. Since Columbus brought back no gold, he was thrown intoprison for debt, and he never imagined that, four hundred yearslater, men would turn that strange, gummy tree juice into moregold than King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and all the princes ofEurope ever dreamed of. In the next century after Columbus's travels the Portuguesefounded the colony of Brazil on the continent of South America. Their settlements were near the coast and they did not begin toexplore the great Amazon region for a hundred years or so. Thejourney down this great river--which Theodore Roosevelt took somany years later--was first made by a Portuguese missionary, whofound the same kind of gummy tree juice as that of the WestIndies. But the natives along the Amazon had discovered thatbesides being elastic it was waterproof, and they were makingshoes that would keep out water. You can picture a native boyspilling some of this liquid on his foot, then covering it, as hemight with a mud pie, and when it dried wiggling his toes to findthat, he had the first and perhaps the best fitting gum shoe thatever was made. Little by little samples of this new substance found their way toEurope. It was another hundred years before thoughtful menbelieved it worth while to investigate this gum. In 1731 the ParisAcademy of Science sent some explorers to learn about it. One ofthese Frenchmen, La Condamine, wrote of a tree called "Hevea"[1]"There flows from this tree a liquor which hardens gradually andblackens in the air. " He found the people of Quito waterproofingcloth with it, and the Amazon Indians were making boots which, whenblackened in smoke, looked like leather. Most interesting of all, they coated bottle-shaped moulds, and when the gum had hardened theywould break the mould, shaking the pieces out of the neck, leavingan unbreakable bottle that would hold liquids. [1] Hevea is pronounced Hee'-vee-uh. Caoutchouc ispronounced koo'-chook. It was not long afterwards that Lisbon began to import some ofthese crudely fashioned articles, and it is said that in 1755 theKing of Portugal sent to Brazil several pairs of his boots to bewaterproofed. A few years later the Government of Para, Brazil, sent him a full suit of rubber clothes. For all that, this elasticgum was for the most part only a curiosity, and few people knewthere was such a thing. About the year 1770, a black, bouncing ball of caoutchouc, as theIndians called the gum, after many travels found its way toEngland, and Priestley, the man who gave us oxygen, learned thatit would rub out pencil marks. Then and there he named it what youhave probably guessed long before this: "rub-ber. " Nearly everylanguage except English uses in place of the word rubber some formof the native Word "caoutchouc, " which means "weeping tree. " AfterPriestley's discovery, a one-inch "rubber" sold for threeshillings, or about seventy-five cents, but artists were glad topay even that price, because their work was made so much easier. CHAPTER 2 CHARLES GOODYEAR In 1800 Brazil was the only country manufacturing rubber articles, and her best market soon proved to be North America. Probably thefirst rubber this country saw was brought to New England inclipper ships as ballast in the form of crude lumps and balls. Rubber shoes, water-bottles, powder-flasks, and tobacco-pouchesfound buyers in the American ports, but rubber shoes were most indemand. Soon some Americans began to import raw rubber and to manufacturerubber goods of their own, and in the old world a Scotchman namedMacintosh found a way of waterproofing cloth by spreading on it athin coating of rubber dissolved in coal naphtha. Many peoplestill refer to raincoats as mackintoshes. Rubber clothing sharedfavor with rubber shoes, but its popularity was short-lived for itdid not wear well and was almost as sensitive to temperature asmolasses and butter. The rubber shoes and coats get hard and stiffin winter and soft and sticky in summer. A man wearing a pair ofrubber overalls who sat down too near a warm stove soon found thathis overalls, his chair and himself were stuck fast together. Thefirst rubber coats became so stiff in cold weather that when youtook one off you could stand it up in the middle of the floor andleave it, for it would stand like a tent until the rubber thawedout, and when thawed it was almost as uncomfortable as is fly-paperto the fly. One day Charles Goodyear, a Connecticut hardware merchant of aninventive turn of mind, went to a store to buy a life preserver. He could find only imperfect ones, but they drew his attention tothe study of rubber, and presently he was thinking of it by dayand dreaming of it by night. Rubber became a passion with him. Hefelt sure some way could be found to make it firm yet flexibleregardless of temperature, and for ten years he experimented withdifferent mixtures and processes, hoping to find the right one. Sointent was he on his search that he found time for nothing else. Due to neglect his business went to pieces and he became verypoor. Finally, in 1839, when he was on the point of giving up indespair, he accidentally came upon the solution. He wasexperimenting in his kitchen, a place which, through lack offunds, he was often forced to use as a laboratory. Part of amixture of rubber, sulphur and other chemicals, with which he wasworking, happened to drop on the top of the stove. It lay theresizzling and charring until the odor of the burning rubber calledhis attention to it. As he stooped to scrape it off the stove hegave a start of wonder as he noted that a change had come over therubber during its brief contact with the stove. To his surprise the mixture had not melted, but had flattened outin the shape of a silver dollar. When it had cooled enough to behandled, he found that it bent and stretched easily, withoutcracking or breaking, and that it always snapped back to itsoriginal shape. Strangest of all, it was no longer sticky. Apparently half the problem was solved. Whether his new mixturewould stand the cold he had yet to find out, so he nailed it onthe outside of the door and went to bed. Probably he slept butlittle and was up early. At any rate he found the rubberunaffected by the cold. Then he knew that he had made a real discovery and he named theprocess "vulcanizing" after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. "Vulcanizing" means mixing pure rubber with certain chemicals andthen applying heat. On this process, which is by no means simple, the great rubber business of the world has been established. Practically everything made of rubber, or of which rubber is apart, has to go through the vulcanizing process, whether it is apair of Keds, a tire, a fruit jar ring, or a doormat. So many people had been deceived by previous rubber ventures thatGoodyear had great trouble in finding anyone with enough faith toinvest money in his discovery. It was some time before he was ableto take out the first of the more than sixty patents which he wasgranted during his lifetime for applying his process to varioususes. Under these patents he licensed several factories to use theprocess in the manufacture of rubber goods, but required them tostamp all goods with the words "Goodyear patent. " Scores ofcompanies have since used the name Goodyear, but the onlyfactories that he licensed which are now in existence are parts ofthe United States Rubber Company. Goodyear often had to defend his patents in court. In the mostfamous of these suits, he was defended by Daniel Webster andopposed by Rufus Choate, so that we see interwoven in the story ofrubber the names of two of the greatest statesmen this country hasproduced. CHAPTER 3 THE HEVEA TREE For the very first of the rubber story we may thank a littlewood-boring beetle, and the way nature has of helping her children toprotect themselves. The thistle of the meadow is as safe from hungry cattle as thoughfenced in by barbed wire. A cow must be starving that would careto flavor her luncheon with the needles that the thistle bears. The common skunk cabbage would make a tempting meal for her aftera winter of dry feeding, had not Nature given it an odor thatdisgusts even a spring-time appetite. The milkweed welcomes thebees and flies that help to distribute her pollen where she wantsit spread, but she has her own way of punishing the uselessthieves that trespass up her stalk. Wherever the hooks of aninsect's feet pierce her tender skin, she pours out a milky juiceto entangle its feet and body, and it is a lucky bug that succeedsin escaping before this juice hardens, and holds him a prisonercondemned to die. All over the world there are plants with the same ability that themilkweed has, but it is especially true of certain trees and vinesof the tropics. As soon as the little beetle begins to bore intothe bark of one of these trees, there pours out a sticky, milkyfluid that kills the insect at once. If this were all, the woundwould remain open, ready for the next robber who came along. Inorder that the break may be healed, a cement is necessary, but nota hard, unyielding one, for that would crumble away with themotion of the tree in the wind. So with Mother Nature's perfection in doing things, the very plantjuice that has done duty as a poison is hardened into an elasticstopper, with the result that, no matter how far the tree may swayand tug at the wound, the filling gives and stretches, true to thetask it has to perform. This was the juice the crafty savage induced the tree to give up. Wherever the bark was cut, the fluid poured forth to heal thebreak and hardened like blood on a cut finger. The native caughtit while it was still soft and applied it to his simple needs. This juice is not the sap of the rubber tree. Sap, which is thelife-blood of the tree, flows through the wood, but the juice weare describing is contained in the inner bark, a thin layerdirectly below the outer bark. Scientific men call this juice latex. It is like milk in threeways: it is white, it contains tiny particles that rise to the toplike cream, and it spoils quickly. The particles in cow's milk are full of fats which make it goodfor us to drink. But a rubber tree's milk has tiny atoms of rubberand resin and other things, and it took time to discover which ofthe vines and trees was the prize milker of the tropics and gavethe largest amount of pure rubber. Finally, the Hevea, the verytree the Frenchman wrote about, proved to be the best, and, although by no means the only rubber tree of commercial value, itis acknowledged the greatest of rubber trees. The Hevea tree grows sixty feet tall, and when full grown is eightor ten feet around. It rises as straight as an elm, with highbranching limbs and long, smooth oval leaves. Sprays of paleflowers blossom upon it in August, followed in a few months bypods containing three speckled seeds which look like smooth, slightly flattened nutmegs. When the seeds are ready to drop theouter covering of the pod bursts with a loud report, the seedsshooting in all directions. This is Nature's clever scheme to spread the Hevea family. Thetree grows wild in the hot, damp forests of the Amazon valley andin other parts of South America that have a similar climate. Theideal climate for the rubber tree is one which is uniform all theyear round, from eighty-nine to ninety-four degrees at noon, andriot lower than seventy degrees at night. The Amazon country has arainy season which lasts half the year, though the other season isby no means a dry one, and so for half the time the jungles areflooded. These rubber storehouses had been growing for thousands of yearsin the Amazon jungle with their wealth securely sealed up in theirbark, the peck of a bird, the boring of a beetle, or the scratchof a climbing animal being the only draft upon their treasure. Thetrees around the mouth of the river supplied whatever was neededfor the little manufacturing that was at first done. But thediscovery that made a universal use for rubber changed all this. Brazil was surprised to find what great treasure her forestscontained. Large rubber areas were found a thousand miles up theriver and she began in a serious way to develop a large cruderubber business. Less than twenty years ago Brazil produced practically all therubber used in the world. But to-day she furnishes less thanone-tenth of the world's supply. How Brazil, possessing in her vastforests millions of rubber trees of the finest quality, has beenforced by unfavorable conditions to permit the Far East to sweepfrom her in this short time the crude rubber supremacy of theworld is one of the most unusual chapters in modern industrialhistory. CHAPTER 4 WICKHAM'S IDEA The story of the success of the East Indies in wresting the cruderubber supremacy from Brazil, begins with an Englishman namedWickham, who might be called the father of plantation rubber. Wickham, who had spent some years in South America, understood thedifficulties of gathering rubber in the jungles. He believed thatif rubber could be cultivated it might prove a good crop on thecoffee plantations in India which a blight had recently renderedvalueless for coffee. What a strange fact it is that this blightgave Brazil a chance to go into coffee growing, and that whileBrazil was losing the rubber supremacy to the Far East, the FarEast at about the same time was surrendering the leadership incoffee to Brazil. The latter now holds first place in coffeegrowing as firmly as does the Far East in rubber growing. Wickham saw that there were difficulties that would prevent thegathering of wild rubber from keeping pace with the growingdemand. Although millions of rubber trees still stood untouched inthe Brazilian forests, only those trees near the river banks couldbe tapped because of the impossibility of getting the rubber outof the dense vegetation. Life in the jungle was dangerous andlonely, and therefore rubber gatherers were not easy to find. Theywere compelled to work far from their families and friends, and inconstant danger from wild beasts, reptiles and death-bearingfevers. It is no wonder that rubber obtained in this way came tobe known as "wild rubber. " Moreover, transporting the crudeproduct through the jungles was hard and expensive and the rubberobtained under these conditions was not always so clean or high inquality as might be wished. "If rubber trees grow from the seeds which nature scatters in thejungle, " said Wickham to himself, "why should they not grow fromseeds put into the ground by hand?" "If rubber trees could be raised from seed, they could be plantedin the open in rows where they could easily be tended and tapped, and the rubber gathered quickly and safely. Instead of having tobrave the dangerous jungles, men could plant and cultivate rubberin spots of their own choosing so long as they chose places wherethe climate was right. " For many years people only laughed at Wickham's great idea, butlike Goodyear he had faith enough to persevere. While in Brazil heplanted some rubber seeds to see what would happen. The seeds DIDgrow, and the book which Wickham wrote about his idea and hisexperiments finally came into the hands of Sir Joseph Hooker, theDirector of the Botanical Gardens in Kew, near London. Sointerested did he become that he called Wickham's plan to theattention of the Government of India, and finally Wickham wascommissioned to take a cargo of rubber seeds to England, so thathis idea might be tried out. This commission was more difficult than one might think, and allof Wickham's faith and perseverance were needed to carry it out. Indeed for a time it seemed hopeless, principally because theseeds so quickly dry up and lose their vitality that they must beplanted very soon after being gathered. But Wickham watched his opportunity, and finally he was able tocharter a ship in the name of the Indian Government. About a thirdof the way up the Amazon River he placed in her hold severalthousand carefully packed seeds of the Hevea Braziliensis, orrubber tree. Let Wickham, himself, tell how he surmounted the nextdifficulty: "We were bound to call in at the city of Para as the port ofentry, in order to obtain clearance papers for the ship before wecould go to sea. Any delay would have rendered my precious freightquite valueless and useless. But again fortune favored. I had a'friend at court' in the person of Consul Green, who went himselfwith me to call on the proper official, and supported me as Ipresented to His Excellency 'my difficulty and anxiety, being incharge of, and having on board a ship anchored out in the stream, exceedingly delicate botanical specimens, especially designatedfor delivery to Her Britannic Majesty's own Royal Garden of Kew. Even while doing myself the honor of thus calling on HisExcellency, I had given orders to the captain of the ship to keepup steam, having ventured to trust His Excellency would see hisway clear to furnishing me with immediate dispatch. An interviewmost polite, full of mutual compliments in the best Portuguesemanner, enabled us to get under way as soon as the captain had gotthe dinghy hauled aboard. " Can you imagine Wickham's sigh of relief as his vessel, with itsfreight of perishable treasure, steamed out of port, and began thelong journey to England? CHAPTER 5 PLANTATION DEVELOPMENT The transporting of the rubber seeds from the Brazilian forests toEngland was only the first step in Wickham's project. The realtest was still to come. The seeds were planted in the famousBotanical Gardens of Kew, and on August 12, 1876, the severalthousand seedlings which had been raised from them were packed inspecial cases and shipped to Ceylon on the other side of the globefor the final and most important stage of the experiment. How long the next five years must have seemed to the anxiousWickham, for it was that long before the first rubber treeflowered in the gardens at Heneratgoda, sixteen miles fromColombo, where the trees had finally been planted. In this year, 1881, experiments in tapping began, and it was plain thatWickham's dream was to be realized. From these few trees, so carefully tended in their youth, hassprung the whole rubber industry of Ceylon and the Far East. Wickham must indeed have been proud to see the plantationsspreading from Ceylon to Malaya, where rubber was eagerly taken upby planters who were despairing of ever making a living out ofcoffee, and later to Sumatra and Java and Borneo. To-day rubberplantations cover an area of over 3, 000, 000 acres, with a yearlyoutput of almost 360, 000 tons, or about ten times the averageyearly output of "wild rubber. " There is a curious coincidence in the fact that Wickham got hisidea about planting rubber trees in India at about the same timethat men in America began to experiment with the horselesscarriage. You may never have stopped to think of it, butmechanical experts say that without rubber pneumatic tires, automobiles could never have become the fine, swift vehicles theyare. It was a wonderful thing that when in the early part of thiscentury the automobile industry suddenly burst forth with a demandfor rubber so great that Brazil could never have hoped to supplyit, there was found ready in the Far East, as a result of theplanting that had been done there, a supply that took care of thesudden emergency. A little more than ten years ago American business men began totake an interest in the rubber plantations. They have showncharacteristic energy in the field, and the greatest single rubberplantation in the world is owned by an American company, theUnited States Rubber Company. This plantation is on the island ofSumatra in the Dutch East Indies, one of the best governedcolonies in the East. On this island is an orchard of rubbertrees, as beautifully laid out and as well cared for as anyorchard of fruit trees in our own country. For seventy squaremiles, an area as large as the District of Columbia, the orderlyranks of trees fill the gently rolling landscape, every inch ofwhich is weeded as carefully as a garden. It takes twenty thousandemployees to care for the trees, which number more than 5, 000, 000. On this plantation the science of growing rubber trees has beenbrought to a perfection known nowhere else in the world. Groups ofbotanists, chemists and arboriculturists study constantly treediseases, methods of increasing the yield, and the other problemsof growing fine trees that will produce high grade rubber. Here, by experiment and inspection, the secrets of the rubber tree arebeing brought to light, so much so that growers look to thisplantation for leadership in methods of rubber culture. This greatproject so far from American soil and in a field so new gives athrill of pride to the Americans visiting Sumatra on their wayaround the world. CHAPTER 6 PLANTATION LIFE The moist but very hot climate which rubber trees require is foundonly in a zone around the world between the parallels of latitudethirty degrees north to thirty degrees south of the equator. Within this zone there have been found more than 350 rubberbearing trees, shrubs and vines. For this reason this zone iscalled the Rubber Belt. As most of the rubber used commercially isgathered from trees growing within a zone extending from tendegrees north to ten degrees south of the equator, this latterzone is sometimes called the Inner Rubber Belt. If you will trace this belt on a map of the world you will seethat it includes the Amazon region which produces more thanthree-quarters of the wild rubber used in manufacturing. Most of SouthAmerica's wild rubber is obtained from Brazil, the remainder fromBolivia, Peru and Venezuela. Now continue the belt across theAtlantic Ocean to Africa, where you will strike the Belgian Congowhich produces a small quantity of wild rubber. Partly owing tothe careless manner of gathering and partly to the fact that it isnot originally of as good quality as Brazilian rubber, Congorubber is not as valuable for manufacturing as Brazilian. Thencomplete the circle by following the belt across the Indian Oceanto Ceylon and the East Indies which contain the great rubberplantations where most of the rubber used to-day comes from. To establish a rubber plantation requires very careful planning. The choice of a site is of first importance, for the planter mustfind a locality having a moist climate with an evenly distributedrain-fall where the temperature throughout the year does not fallbelow seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and where there is protectionfrom the wind. There must also be, of course, access to a steadylabor supply and a convenient shipping port. As the proper climateis a tropical one, there is usually dense jungle to be clearedaway. Immense trees and thick bushes, rank straggling weeds andvines form an almost impenetrable jungle. To turn such a placeinto a garden spot means a genuine battle against jungleconditions. But gradually trees, shrubs and undergrowth are tornout and burned, laying bare the rich soil ready for the plow ofthe planter. Meantime the rubber seedlings have been sprouted in nurseries. When the ground is ready they are carefully taken up andtransplanted to the holes which have been made for them in thefield where they are to be permanently planted. Though the growth of the trees is very rapid, sometimes as much astwenty feet in the first year, there are five years of anxiouswaiting and guarding against winds and disease before they areready to be tapped and so begin to reward the planters. At firstthe yield of a tree is only about one-half pound of rubber a year, and this increases so slowly that it is many years before itamounts to as much as ten pounds a year. The highest yield everrecorded was given by one of the original trees set out in thegardens at Heneratgoda, which gave ninety-six and one-half poundsin one year. How different is life on the rubber plantations of to-day from thelife of the gatherer of wild rubber in the jungle. In Brazil, thesolitary workers have to plunge at dawn into the perilous forest, with its lurking wildcats and jaguars, its coiled and creepingserpents. The dwellings are flimsy huts, food is scarce andexpensive, and disease and fever cause many deaths. On the other hand, workers on a well-managed plantation live incomfortable houses in healthy surroundings and are supplied withplenty of good food. In fact the conditions are so much betterthan generally prevail among natives in the Orient that work on aplantation is considered more desirable than most other forms oflabor. The unmarried men live in barracks, but the men withfamilies have individual houses with garden plots adjoining. Bigkitchens prepare and cook the food in the best native style. Schools for the children, recreation centers for old and young, and hospitals to care for the sick, are all parts of theplantation organization. In erecting hospitals and caring for the health of its plantationworkers, as in other branches of the rubber industry, America hastaken the lead. So well is this recognized, that the DutchGovernment has awarded a medal to the United States Rubber Companyfor the efficiency and completeness of its plantation hospital, which happens to be the largest private hospital in the EastIndies, having accommodations for nearly a thousand patients. CHAPTER 7 HARVESTING THE RUBBER It is a cheerful sight to see the workers, men and women, dressedin all the colors of the rainbow, trooping out from their quartersto begin the day's work. The tapping must be done early in theday, for the latex or rubber juice stops flowing a few hours aftersunrise. When the trees reach eighteen inches in girth at a point eighteeninches from the ground, they are ready for tapping. This growth isusually attained when the trees are about five years old. In tapping, a narrow strip of bark is cut away with a knife, thecut extending diagonally one-quarter of the way around the tree. At each succeeding day's tapping the tapper widens the cut bystripping off a sliver of bark one-twentieth of an inch in width. [2]He must be careful not to cut into the wood of the tree, as such cutsnot only injure the tree but permit the sap to run into the latexand spoil the rubber. When the tapper has made the proper gash inthe bark he inserts a little spout to carry the dripping latex toa glass cup beneath. [2] This method of tapping is shown on the front cover. Later in the morning the workers make the rounds of the trees withlarge milk cans, gathering the latex from the cups. When the cansare full they are carried to a collecting station, called aCoagulation Shed. It is as clean and well kept as a dairy. Herethe latex is weighed, and when each collector has been creditedwith the amount he has brought, it is dumped into huge vats. The next step is to extract the particles of rubber from the latexand to harden them. The jungle method of hardening rubber is todip a wooden paddle in the latex and smoke it over a fire of woodand palm nuts. [3] It is a back-breaking process to cover the paddlewith layer after layer, until a good-sized lump, usually called a"biscuit, " is formed. The plantation method is a quicker and cleanerone. Into the vats is poured a small quantity of acid, which causesthe rubber "cream" to coagulate and come to the surface. The"coagulum, " as it is called, is like snow-white dough. It is removedfrom the vats and run in sheets through machines which squeeze outthe moisture and imprint on them a criss-cross pattern to expose aslarge a surface as possible to the air. [3] See picture, page 12. These sheets of rubber are then hung in smoke houses and smokedfrom eight to fourteen days in much the same way that we smokehams and bacon. After being dried in this way they are pressedinto bales or packed in boxes ready for shipment. CHAPTER 8 A LAST WORD It would be an adventure to follow a bale of plantation rubber as, carefully boxed or wrapped in burlap, it starts on its long andpicturesque journey. Bullock carts, railroads, boats and steamersbring it at last to one of the world markets, Singapore, Colombo, London, Amsterdam or New York, where it is bought by dealers, andthen sold to factories which make rubber goods. An equally fascinating story might be told of its progress throughthe factory, how it is kneaded and rolled, mixed with chemicals, rubbed into fabrics, baked in ovens, and finally emerges as anyone of the tens of thousands of articles that are made wholly orpartly from rubber. Rubber manufacturing is peculiarly an American industry. SouthAmerica gave us the original rubber trees, and the one man who, more than any other, was responsible for making rubber useful wasthe American, Charles Goodyear. To-day, two-thirds of the entireoutput of rubber is sold to the United States, whose manufacturedrubber goods set the standard for the whole world. In spite of the wonders which rubber has already accomplished, andthe adventures, which have colored its history, only the beginningof the romance of rubber has been told. The plantation industry isstill in its infancy, and experiments are constantly being made todetermine the best methods of planting, the most fruitful numberof trees to the acre, the most advantageous way of tapping. In thelaboratories of the great rubber manufacturers, scientists are atwork improving old methods of using rubber and devising new ones. Rubber is a substance of so many important characteristics thatits uses are countless. It is used for certain purposes because itstretches, for others because it is airtight and watertight, forothers because it is a non-conductor of electricity, for othersbecause it is shock-absorbing, and for others because it isadhesive. It is on rubber that infants cut their teeth; after all the teethare gone old age makes use of rubber in plates for false teeth. Ten million motorists and other millions of cyclists in the UnitedStates ride on rubber tires that are durable, noiseless andairtight. Balloons of rubber float aloft, and huge submarines plowtheir routes beneath the ocean's surface propelled by electricitystored in great rubber cells. Sheathed in rubber, the lightningmakes a peaceful way through our homes, offices and factories, furnishing light and telephone service. Divers sink out of sightbeneath the waves in rubber suits. Rubber air-brake hose onrailroad trains makes safe the travel of a nation, air-drill hoserivets our ships, fire hose protects the properly in city and townand garden hose brings nourishment to our growing plants. Rubberclothing protects against storm and rubber footwear guards usagainst cold and wet. Tennis balls and golf balls and rubber-coredbaseballs give healthful sport to the millions. In hospitals andmedical work the uses of rubber are without number. To select the most important use to which rubber is put would bedifficult. One student of the subject says: "Of all the applications of rubber, that of packing for the steamengine and connecting machinery appears to have been the mostimportant, as it has been an essential condition of thedevelopment and extended use of steam as a motive power. " Even as you read this, rubber may be in the act of performing somenew magic, some fresh service to mankind. And who knows which oneof us will, in the years to come, write a chapter in the story ofrubber 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 findout 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 rubberindustry"? 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 atree. 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 theworld? 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 theplantation industry? 27. What is meant by the Rubber Belt around the world? 28. What countries are the principal producers of rubber? 29. Why is the worker on a plantation better off than one wholives in the jungle? 30. When are trees ready to be tapped? 31. How are trees tapped? 32. How is rubber "cured" in the jungle? 33. How is it "cured" on the plantation? 34. Why is rubber manufacturing peculiarly an American industry? RUBBER PRODUCTS There are so many different articles made in whole or part ofrubber that it would not be possible to list them all on thispage. The following list of just a few of the thousands of rubberproducts made by the United States Rubber Company, the oldest andlargest rubber organization in the world, will help you to thinkof many other articles made of rubber. TIRES "U. S. " Royal Cord Automobile Tires. "U. S. " Mono-Twin Truck Tires. "U. S. " Traxion Tread Motorcycle Tires. "U. S. " Bicycle Tires. "U. S. " Royal Tubes for Automobile Tires. CLOTHING Raynster Raincoats. Naugahyde Belts for Men, Women and Children. Bathing Caps and Suits. FOOTWEAR Keds, the Standard Canvas Rubber-Soled Shoes. "U. S. " Boots. "U. S. " Arctics and Gaiters. "U. S. " Rubbers. HARD RUBBER GOODS Battery Jars. Radio Parts. Dye Sticks. HOUSEHOLD Hot-water Bags. Rubber Gloves. Ice Caps. Tubing and Sheeting. Nursing Bottle Nipples. Toys. Fruit Jar Rubbers. MECHANICAL GOODS "U. S. " Rainbow Packing. "U. S. " Rainbow Transmission Belting. "U. S. " Elevator and Conveyor Belts. "U. S. " Hose for all purposes, including Garden, Steam, Suction, Water, Fire, Oil, Irrigation, etc. Paracore Insulated Wire and Cable. Moulded Goods in thousands of varieties, as, for example, Washers, Gaskets, Plumbers' Rubber Goods, Drainboard Mats, Bath Mats, etc. "U. S. " Tile and Sheet Flooring. SUNDRIES Naugahyde Traveling Bags. "U. S. " Royal Golf Balls. Balloons and Balloon Fabrics. NOTICE TO TEACHERS These booklets are intended for presentation to your pupils. Afull supply will be sent to you, free of charge, if you willindicate the number of students in your class. Please address Educational Department United States Rubber Company 1790 BROADWAY New York City