RUBBER 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



Historical. — Rubber, Indiarubber, or Caoutchouc is 

 the elastic substance obtained by coagulating the latex 

 of certain plants which occur throughout the tropics and 

 are especially abundant in Central and South America 

 and in Central Africa. The latex is a milk-like fluid 

 which is usually obtained from the plants by making 

 incisions in the bark. 



On the discovery of the New World it was foimd that 

 the natives of Central and South America were already 

 famihar with the elastic nature of rubber and its property 

 of rendering articles waterproof, and the records of the 

 early voyages to that continent contain the first references 

 to the product. 



The first systematic study of the rubber plants of 

 South America was made by Charles-Marie de La Con- 

 damine, the leader of the French expedition which went 

 out to Ecuador in 1735 for the purpose of measuring a 

 degree of the meridian. In 1 736 La Condamine forwarded 

 specimens of rubber to the French Academy of Sciences 

 with a note stating that the product was obtained in the 

 province of Esmeraldas (Ecuador) from a tree loiown by 

 the natives as " hheve." The Indians in Ecuador and 

 Peru called the elastic substance " cahuchu " or " caucho,'* 

 and from these names the word "caoutchouc " was derived. 

 Fifteen years later La Condamine contributed a detailed 



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