309 



The Discovery of Rubber. 



The history of the introduction of the potato and tobacco to 

 EuTOpe is known to every school boy ^ut how many of the thousands 

 interested in rubber know anytiliing of its ori<;-in ? Tlie following 

 extracts taken from the India Rubber World, March 1st, 1920, 

 should prove very interesting to Malaya. " How India Rubber was 

 made known to Europe by Charles Marie de La C'ondamine, of 

 the x\cQdeniv of Scienioes, and later of the Erench Academy is told 

 very entertainingly by AndreDubosc in his " Histoire du Caout- 

 chouc." La Condann'ne separated from a scientific, expedition with 

 which he v/as travelling to Ecuador and Peru, and made his way 

 alone across the Andes to Quito. "' He was a good botanist and 

 he kept his eyes open, and on reaching Quito the first thing he 

 did was to send to the Academy of Sciences " some Tolls of a 

 blackish, resinous material " which he had gathered in the forests, 



namely, caoutchouc. This was in 1736." '* La Condamine in 



Avriting home explained that this liquid flowed out of a tree, Ileve, 

 after a single incision, milk-white and gradually hardening and 

 blackening in the air. The jiatives made torches of it; they spread 

 the li(]uid on cloth and used it as we use waxed clotli. Along the 

 Amazon the Indians made boots of it which kept out the water; 

 they put it around molds shaped like bottles, and when the gum 

 had hardened they broke the mold, producing a light, unbreakable 

 bottle that would hold any liquid. He set to work himself and 

 made waterjiroof cloths, and also a splendid rubber case for his 

 quadrant. He noted too, that the natives made small bottles of the 

 rubber 'which they filled with hot water and used as syringes ; they 

 in consequence, called the tree, seringueira. 



"■ By Septeml)er, 1742, after he had made important discoveries 

 in pihystics and matliematics, he decided that his work Vas done 

 and that he would make his way down the Amazon to the French 

 settlement at Cayenne, a journey of 2,000 miles in nearly unex- 

 plored regions. He made the journey alone, with only native at- 

 tendiants and reached Cuiana in May, 1743. On his trip he had 

 plenty of opportunities of examining the manner in which the 

 rubber grew and tlu^ natives utilized the rubber. As France Was at 

 war with England he was obliged to wait two years at Cayenne be- 

 fore returning home, but he reached La Rochelle at last on March 

 7, 1745. He returned to his literary pursuits and told in the 

 sialons the story of his adventures and the wonderful qualities of 

 the rubber which he had found, specimens of which he exhibited. 

 Piaris of the eighteen ceptury, liowever, did not take the discovery 

 any more seriously than it did the beginnings of modem science, 

 and it was reserved to Hancock and Goodyear in the following 

 century to lireak the way for the modern uses of rubber. 



" In the five years following his return La Condamine wrote six 

 big volumes, and, despite his social activities and his literary quar- 

 rels, kept up his interest in rubber. His friend Fresneau found 

 the rubber tree in Guiana and wrote to him the description of the 

 native method of gathering it. smoking it and using it. He and 



