46 



KNOWLEDGE. 



February, 1913. 



the thought that "Nature" has in some mysterious 

 way a special interest, possibly of a financial 

 kind, in enabling plants to produce a material 

 good for making motor-car tyres, and that, there- 

 fore, the chemical compound caoutchouc, prepared 

 from the juices of certain tropical trees, must 

 necessarily be superior to the same chemical 

 compound prepared from petroleum or starch or 

 any other material of like nature. As a matter 

 of fact scientific botanists have unanimously come 

 to the conclusion that " Nature " did not have 

 motor-car tvres in view when she evolved these 



ing material has obviously a great advantage over 

 Dame Nature, who has entirely different objects in 

 view, and there can be little doubt who will in the 

 long run produce the superior product for the uses 

 of industry. 



Indeed, the prejudice against "artificial" rubber, 

 as such, is about as reasonable as a prejudice against 

 " artificial iron " or " artificial copper." The pro- 

 duction of iron or copper from the earthy matters 

 known as their ores by chemical processes is per- 

 fectly analogous to the production of rubber from 

 substances like starch or petroleum by chemical 



Figure 46. 

 A corner in Messrs. Strange & Graham's Laboratory showing tubes of isoprene polymerising to rubber. 



rubber-producing juices. She was probably trying 

 to perfect a means of protecting such trees against 

 boring insects. When a puncture was made by 

 an insect in the bark of a tree the sap was 

 exuded and the insect was overwhelmed, and so 

 by natural selection the highly developed rubber 

 trees of to-day were gradually evolved in the 

 forests of Brazil and of Africa. Other views of 

 latex formation are that the rubber is a reserve food 

 material for the plant, or is an excretory material 

 of the plant's metabolism. 



The fact that the coagulated parts of the juice can 

 also serve to make motor-car tyres is a perfectly 

 accidental circumstance, which so far from being 

 beneficial to rubber trees may probably lead to their 

 extinction — of the wild varieties at any rate — if the 

 destruction of the rubber forests continues at its 

 present rate. 



In fact, the synthetic chemist, who is solely 

 directing his energies to producing a substance suit- 

 able for making good motor-car tyres or waterproof- 



processes ; and in the same way that the " artificial " 

 iron or copper of to-day is far superior to the 

 " natural " iron and copper, still to be found in 

 various parts of the world, for the purpose of making 

 engines or tools, so also will the " artificial " rubber 

 of fifty years hence be superior to the " natural " 

 rubber of that day for industrial purposes. Special 

 artificial rubbers will no doubt made be for special 

 purposes, just as special kinds of steel are made 

 to-day for special kinds of work. 



That " artificial " rubber will at a blow displace 

 natural rubber is highly unlikely — even if the process 

 of manufacture is perfected. The substitution of 

 the one for the other will probably be a slow process, 

 and may never reach completion — so vast is the 

 demand for raw rubber and so limited are the 

 supplies of raw material. All that can be said 

 at present is that chemists have succeeded in 

 producing synthetic rubber, and that no scientific 

 reason stands in the way of them putting it on 

 the market. 



