A USEFUL INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 17

A USEFUL INDUSTRY

ROMANCE OF RUBBER

WHERE AND HOW IT GROWS

COLUMBITS'S DISCOVERY

By Dr. Julius Klein.

(Copyright.)

Nothing is more romantic than tho rise of rubber in the modern economic scheme of things!" It was Columbus to whose astonished gaze there was first presented a spectacle of vast importance for the future progress of the world. It happened during his second voyage. On the island of Haiti he noticed tho inhabitants playing with balls that were ma.de from the gum of a tree. These balls bounded-" in a way that seemed almost miraculous in the eyes of the Spaniards. Thev-'d, never seen anything like it. .Tile.substance"of which these -Indian ; piirytiifogs •'"^remade acquired,, from another nativ'fc--source, a name that sounds'rathc-r like a sneeze—"caoutchous." This "game was not confined to Haiti. On a much more elaborate scale it-, seems to have formed the main sport of the Mayas, whose civilisation flowered with amazing vigour in southern Mexico and.. ia. Central America for . centuries .before' the advent of the'white man. "' ' """: Curiously enough,-the early riflveS 1-: turers—greedy for gold, and j>recip.u.s stones—made no .use whatever of the' enormous potentialities inherenvii'r this elastic, bouncing "caoutchous." Nothing much was done with it, in fact, till 1770—almost three centuries later— when tho English clergyman and chemist, Joseph Priestley, recommended that it be used for the purpose of erasing pencil-markings. It was from this first grubbing" use that the substance got its present English name of "rubber." But it was not until 50 years later than the modern rubber industry really had its small beginnings. In the 1820's a Scotsman named Mackintosh dissolved rubber in naptha, created the waterproofing trade, and achieved for himself a modest sort of immortality by thus making possible the garment that bears his name. In 1839 the American inventor, Charles Goodyear, after years of vain research, dropped on a hot stove some india_ rubber mixed with sulphur, and so discovered accidentally the means of vulcanising rubber—making it suitable for commercial use through its consequent capacity for retaining 'its shape and elasticity under extreme conditions of heat or cold. This great contribution formed the real basis for the huge modern industry of rubber manufacture. INDISPENSABLE COMMODITY. Our, modern civilisation could scarcely exist without 'rubber. It has become one of the most vital—one of the most nearly indispensable— of all the natural products that are employed in industry to-day. Its use during the past quarter-century has advanced with giant strides. .

What would happen to-day if we should be suddenly and permanently deprived of rubber? It's interesting to speculate on that impossible contingency. In the first place, of course, every motor-car would be headed for the scrap:heap as soon as 1 its. tires wore out. . ■ *

out every loud speaker wouli"! be silent because rubber insulation on electric wiring is essential to the operation of wireless seta. Without rubber, every telephone would "go doad;'; every e4ectric light, would go out. You

couldn't alleviate your aches and pains with hot water-bottles. The gloveless surgeon would be unable to perform his lire-saving operations with assurance against infection. ; The dentist would find it much less easy to carry out those drilling, excavating, and blasting processes which he so confidently assures us 'aren't going to hurt." Tilden's dazzling shots in tennis would bo a thing of memory only—as would Bobby Jones's beautiful pitches to the green. Contemporary men couldn't get along without' rubber—ho needs it from infancy to death—from the days of his rubber-tipped .milk bottle and teething-, ring to the time of that last ride which he takes in a slow-moving, rubber-tired vehicle. And his intervening life would be devoid of half of its conveniences and comforts if it were not for rubber.

Rubber originated in America, and for decades it came mainly from the valley of the Upper Amazon. But farseeing men in the British Empire had conceived the idea of planting rubber in the Middle East. Seeds from Brazil were, of course, a pre-requisite to such ai\ enterprise. Such seeds (despite a Brazilian export prohibition) were brought to England in IS7.G by Sir Henry Wickham, who had been a planter in Brazil.' Sir Henry, who has been callccV'tho father of the plantation rubber industry," died in 1928. Twenty-two plants were received in Singapore from. London, in good conditiffon. It was from these that threequarters of the cultivated rubber plants in the British Middle East have sprung. DEVELOPMENT ENORMOUS. The development in plantation rubber in Asia has been simply enormous. In 1905 the Eastern plantations produced only 174 tons, against about 60,000 tons of wild rubber from tropical America and Africa. To-day the wild rubber has descended to an almost negligible amount, while the cul"tivatcd trees iv the East are giving us more than half a million tons a year. This is surely one of tlio great romances of modern industry and trade. The success, of plantation rubber in the "Middle East" led to apparent over-production. Over-production led to low prices. And from this and other conditions sprang the- British Government's Stevenson Act of 1922, restricting the export of rubber in British possessions in tho East. For each estate a so-called "standard production" was fixed—though the true potential production was, originally, probably 20 per cent, in excess of the "standard." A certain percentage of the total standard production was allocated for exportation in each quarter-year, depending on the average price of rubber during the preceding, quarter. Prices soared to dizzy altitudes in consequence of this restriction. On Ist November, 1928, the Stevenson Eestriction Act was discontinued by the British Government. A variety of 'factors had combined to frustrate tho purpose of that Act. One of the principal factors was the vast increase of rubber production in the islands of the Netherlands East Indies, where production has been wholly unrestricted. The advocates of restriction in the British colonies had not foreseen this development. When tho Restriction Act became effective in 1922, the Dutch East Indies were sending to world markets only about 95,000 tons, against a figured capacity of 300,000 tons for the British plantations. But when the prices began to shoot skyward under the influence of British restriction, the Dutch— and especially the natives in the Dutch islands—"got busy" and started to build up their production, with extraordinary vigour. The Javanese natives, with their low standard of living, whose rubber gardens represented almost no capital, turned out steadily mounting quantities of rubber. Production in the Dutch Indies ran up to 100,000 tons the first year the British restriction Act was in operation. In 1927 the Dutch output was 225,000 tons, almost equal to that of British Malaya. And tho enterprising natives were producing

more than two-fifths of this Dutch rubber. 'Whereas in 1922 the British furnished about 67 per cent, of the world's supply, by 1928 they were producing only 55 per cent.; they had evidently legislated themselves out of supremacy in this industry. The Stevenson Act was rendered ineffective by the energetic competition from areas that were not shackled in any way by ill-advised restrictive measures. Dutch production had been stimulated in this case just as the earlier plantation industry in the British possessions had received a great impetus when Brazil tried to enforce a rubber price-control scheme in 1910. SYNTHETIC EUBESIV Extensive plantation rubber-growing is under way in Africa, and is contemplated for Brazil. Then, too, there are the substitutes for the true rubber trees. In the American Southwest we have the guayule shrub, which yields more than 10 per cent, of its weight in dry rubber. All the cells, of the guayulo except the wood of its trunk contain a rubber gum. Mechanical methods of handling and treatment have made it possible for guayule rub"ber to compete with rubber from the Tropics. One must not overlook such possible substitutes as those that may be derived from the bitumen' deposits beneath the waters of the Great- Salt Lake in Utah—2ooo'acres of a black, viscous, mollasses-like liquid. This material possesses great ductility. A compound made from this bitumen can be produced at about one-quarter of the price of standard crude rubber. It is claimed to be well adapted for the making of hard-rubber articles,' from battery boxes to combs. It is not as good as new rubber for motor-car tires, but is considered superior to any of the rubber substitutes. This utilisation of bitumen leads to tho question of synthetic rubber. During the World War the Germans, with their well-known ingenuity, in devising "Ersatz" or substitute materials, made certain quantities- of synthetic rubber, one kind in particular, that was used successfully for hard rubber articles, especially battery jars for the U-boats. Scientists throughout the world are working diligently to-day on the problem of synthetic rubber. Many observers are a bit dubious about their ability to turn out a product that. can compete in price and that will serve all the purposes of the natural rubber. But, as one recent writer says, one never knows from what test tube or from what catalytic bomb a revolutionary discovery may be brought forth along this line.