March i, 1907. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



173 



A Journey Through Guayule Land -I. 



A'v llii- Editor oi 'The India Riibbfi World." 



FOREWORD. 



Tlll-IkE IS so imicli of present interest to the rubber trade in 

 Guayule rubber and its production that I am going to break 

 away from all literary precedents and give the solid sum- 

 mary of my trip first and the tale of travel later, beginning with — 



DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT. 



That the so-called "guayule" shrub contains rubber doubtless 

 has been known to the Mexican Indians for centuries. By 

 chewing the bark they were and are accustomed to extract 

 enough rubber in the course of a couple of days to make a small 

 playing ball. Sometimes for this chewing process was substituted 

 the grinding of the bark on a stone matate, and the separation of 

 the fiber by washing it away in running water. The state of Du- 

 rango seems to have been where this was most frequently done, 



C.NRT I^O.\I)S fF fil'.\'il'l-F. SnRvns. 



although the process was known all through the uplands wherever 

 the shrub was found. The Aztecs and their descendants probably 

 knew of no other use for the rubber than that mentioned. It was 

 doubtless this process that was noted by the Jesuit fathers, early 

 in the eighteenth century, and mentioned by Dr. Rudolph Endlich 

 in his scholarly eassy in Der TropcuAanzcr in 1895. 



In 1876, among the Mexican exhibits at the Philadelphia Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition, was shown some rubber from Durango that 

 was undoubtedly guayule, although its source was not definitely 

 known botanically. 



I think it was in 1889 or 1890 that the late I\Ir. John IT. Cheever, 

 of the Xew York Belting .and Packing Co., told me of a shipment 



IjU.WULE BY THK IKMN Load, 



of a lot of "rubber vine" from Mexico from which he was able 

 to extract a fair percentage of good rubber. He said, however, 

 that so many low grade rubbers were appearing on the market, at 

 so low a price per pound, that it would not pay to work. He did 

 not preserve either samples of the rubber or the bark and knew 

 nothing of its botanical source. 



In 1896 Mr. E. Guillermo Vogel wrote me from the city of 

 Mexico to the effect that he had sent small samples of a new 



shrub rubber to Mr. H. O. Canfield, who had found that they 

 compounded and vulcanized very well. As he wished to intro- 

 duce the rubber on a large scale, and first of all learn its market 

 value, he had been referred by Mr. Canfield to me. He therefore 

 enclosed samples of rubber and of the bark from which it was 

 extracted. He spoke of the product not as rubber, but as a sub- 

 stitute for rubber, and said it was extracted by "pounding or 

 hammering the bark and then boiling it." The sample that he en- 

 closed he said was a year old and had not appreciably softened. 



I handed the sample to the late Mr. Robert Cowen, superintend- 

 ent of the Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co., and the labora- 

 tory report was as follows : "This rubber seems to heat very rap- 

 idly and would of course for this reason deteriorate in store. Its 

 value as closely as we can judge from the sample in the condi- 

 tion received is 22 cents a pound." Up-river fine Para was then 

 quoted at 84 cents. 



Reclaimed rubber, various substitutes, and low grade Africans 

 were at that time coming into the market so rapidly that none of 

 the American manufacturers were interested in the Mexican 

 product, and it dropped out of sight. 



In iSg" German traders in Mexico many times called attention 



P.lkU .---tit \ ILW rAl.ruK\ .\o. 1 — Cl-\. E\rLul.\UOKA Ut CAUt-UO 



Mexicana, Saltillo. 



to the rubber shrub in the uplands, but even then the trade was 

 not ready to take it up. 



In 1899 William F'rampolini, an Italian contractor, took out 

 patents for the extraction of rubber from guayule by means of 

 solvents. His apparatus was constructed by a large foundry com- 

 jiany in Monterey, and caused considerable newspaper talk, but 

 little else. In 1900 Senor Matias Hernandez Sobreron wrote The 

 IxniA Rubber World that he would soon start up a factory at 

 San Luis Potosi for the extraction of rubber from the shrub 

 growing in that vicinity, the company to be capitalized at $100,000. 



In 1901 came the first of the Bergner patents. In 1902 there 

 w-ere issued a variety of patents, some of which are said to be of 

 value, but most of them worthless. In 1903 came a Fritz patent, 

 and closely following the first of the Lawrence patents. In this 

 year was established a small factory in San Luis Potosi by Dr. 

 .\dolpho Marx for the extraction of rubber from the shrub. 



In 1904 came a Delafond patent, together with nineteen others 

 issued to different investigators. It was in this year that the 

 first serious work was done, it getting down to a real extraction 

 of the rubber on a commercial scale. The leaders in this investi- 

 gation were Dr. Adolpho Marx. Juan Fritz, E. Delafond. C. E., 

 W. A. Lawrence, and many others. All of those named were 

 b.ickcd by capital — German, French. Mexican, or American. 



