RUBBER 403 



and within the past five years the demand has increased over 250 per 

 cent. 



The history of india rubber dates from Columbus' second voyage 

 to the Western Hemisphere. One of his recorders, Herrera, described 

 the use of rubber balls made of the latex of certain trees by the natives 

 of Haiti. They were used entirely for amusement purposes. A book 

 published in Madrid in 1615 refers to certain trees in Mexico which 

 produced a crude form of rubber. It is said, however, that india rubber 

 wr.s first studied scientifically by a French scientist named Le Con- 

 damine, who sent samples of the crude rubber product to the French 

 Academy in Paris in 1736. The name india rubber was suggested by a 

 chemist named Priestley about the year 1770. At that time the only 

 use developed for rubber, which was in an exceedingly crude state, was 

 for the purposes of erasure. 



The first rubber is said to have been brought to this country about 

 1 800. In that year Charles Goodyear, the man whose inventions and 

 experiments made possible the extensive use of this product, was born. 



The manufacture of some crude forms of rubber began in 1820 in 

 this country, when a few establishments were created in New England 

 to import and make rubber for erasing purposes. At that time it was 

 an exceedingly coarse and hard material, full of foreign matter and very 

 expensive. It remained for Charles Macintosh, a Scotch chemist, 

 to develop a method for waterproofing cloth in the year 1823 and the 

 name still obtains for certain forms of waterproof garments. In 1852 an 

 American sea captain brought to Boston 500 pairs of rubber boots which 

 he had secured in Brazil. These sold readily and brought from $3.00 to 

 $5.00 or more per pair. 



The rubber industry in this country, however, in its broader sense, 

 really dates from the work of Charles Goodyear, who first succeeded in 

 making rubber less susceptible to the influence of changing conditions of 

 heat and cold. It had been determined that the admixture of sulphur 

 rendered the rubber less sticky, but it is said that the art of vulcanizing 

 was learned purely through accident, Goodyear having dropped some of 

 the rubber admixture by accident on a hot stove without the usual 

 melting result. He first patented his process in 1844, which really marks 

 the beginning of the great industry in this country. 



Generally speaking, vulcanizing consists in mixing sulphur with rub- 

 ber and then submitting the admixture to heat up to about 250 to 320 F 

 for from one to three hours depending on the thickness of the goods. 

 This renders it elastic, impervious and unchangeable in various ordinary. 



