Project Gutenberg's The Romance of Rubber, by United States Rubber Company

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Title: The Romance of Rubber

Author: United States Rubber Company

Editor: John Martin

Posting Date: September 4, 2009 [EBook #4759]
Release Date: December, 2003
First Posted: March 13, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE ROMANCE OF RUBBER

EDITED BY JOHN MARTIN

EDITOR OF JOHN MARTIN'S BOOK THE CHILD'S MAGAZINE

PUBLISHED BY UNITED STATES RUBBER COMPANY

CONTENTS

1 THE DISCOVERY
2 CHARLES GOODYEAR
3 THE HEVEA TREE
4 WICKHAM'S IDEA
5 PLANTATION DEVELOPMENT
6 PLANTATION LIFE
7 HARVESTING THE RUBBER
8 A LAST WORD

AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE

We have undertaken to print this booklet, telling you how rubber
is grown, gathered, and then made useful, for this reason:

The United States Rubber Company, as the largest rubber
manufacturer in the world, wants the coming generations of our
country to have some understanding of the importance of rubber in
our every day life.

We hope to interest and inform you. We believe the rubber industry
will be better off if the future citizens of our country know more
about it.

CHAPTER 1

THE DISCOVERY

If you were asked, "What did Columbus discover in 1492?" you would
have but one answer. But what he discovered on his second voyage
is not quite so easy to say. He was looking for gold when he
landed on the island of Hayti on that second trip. So his eyes
were blind to the importance of a simple game which he saw being
played with a ball that bounced by some half-naked Indian boys on
the sand between the palm trees and the sea. Instead of the
coveted gold, he took back to Europe, just as curiosities, some of
the strange black balls given him by these Indian boys. He learned
that the balls were made from the hardened juice of a tree.

The little boys and girls of Spain were used to playing with balls
made of rags or wool, so you may imagine how these bouncing ball