THE HISTORY OF RUBBER 15 



rubber clothes as a present to the King of Portugal. 

 In the early part of the eighteenth century, too, France 

 began to take an interest in rubber, and it was not long 

 before other countries, including England, began to 

 experiment with the new material. 



Until well on in the nineteenth century, rubber 

 goods were made in Brazil only. The chief market 

 for them was North America, which imported a varied 

 assortment of such things as rubber shoes, tobacco- 

 pouches, travelling bags, powder-flasks, and water- 

 bottles. Amongst all these articles, the waterproof 

 shoes did most to popularize the new material ; the 

 first shipment was sent to Boston in 1820, and these 

 found such favour with the Americans that a couple 

 of years later the United States imported another 

 500 pairs. So quickly was this second stock sold out 

 that the States began to think an opportunity had 

 arisen for them to make a new outlet for their manu- 

 facturing energy and enterprise, and very soon they 

 decided to import raw rubber and manufacture rubber 

 goods. About the same time, some pioneer rubber - 

 goods factories were erected on the Continent. 



The factory soon began to rival the forest workshop 

 in the variety of goods turned out, and in such details 

 of craftsmanship as style and finish. But the new 

 enterprise did not prove very satisfactory, because it 

 was found that these goods did not wear well. Evi- 

 dently they suffered from exposure to the air, being 

 damaged by changes of temperature. 



This great drawback to manufactured rubber goods 

 was removed by the discovery of a method of treating 

 rubber with sulphur. The process, called " vulcaniza- 

 tion," was discovered by an American named Charles 



