GASOLENE 37 



found that it contained vanadium, a metal that Ameri- 

 can steel makers did not know how to use. Special 

 furnaces had to be made for it since vanadium melts at 

 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and the ordinary steel furnace 

 could not run above 2,700 degrees. But vanadium steel 

 is two and a half times as strong for equal weight as 

 common steel and was therefore peculiarly fitted for a 

 car that was to be light and tough, as well as cheap and 

 simple. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RUBBER. The boom in rubber 

 had begun before, in the Bicycle Age, when an Irish 

 horse doctor named Dunlop tied a rubber tube around 

 the rim of his boy's velocipede, and blew it full of air. 

 Brazilian forests could not supply the caoutchouc 

 needed for pneumatic tires and electrical apparatus, so 

 attention was turned to the Congo, where a reporter for 

 the New York Herald named Stanley had established 

 a Free State under the patronage of the leading Euro- 

 pean nations and the United States. The protecting 

 powers, anxious to make the natives safe and happy and 

 fearing that they might be exploited if put under one of 

 the greater powers, picked out a benevolent looking old 

 king with a long white beard and gave him a man- 

 date for the Congo. King Leopold of Belgium was a 

 high liver and a free spender in the promotion of the 

 fine arts, especially drama and dancing, and was not 

 content with the 300 to 800 per cent, income on the capi- 

 tal invested. So the Belgian officials in the Congo, to 

 get their tale of rubber, drove the negroes deeper into 

 the jungle. Men were murdered, women were flogged, 

 children had their hands cut off. Finally the Congo 



