By: Chris Hapke

1. RUBBER By: Chris Hapke

2. Origins Indigenous rainforest inhabitants have been using rubber for hundreds of years, but the industrial world didn’t discover rubber until 1839.

3. Hevea Tree Heveabrasiliensis, the Pará rubber tree, often simply called rubber tree, is a tree belonging to the familyEuphorbiaceae and the most economically important member of the genus Hevea. It is of major economic importance because its sap-like extract (known as latex) can be collected and is the primary source of natural rubber. (Wikipedia)

4. Vulcanization Vulcanization binds together the strands of molecules in regular rubber and creates much stronger polymers as seen below VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV Also in 1839, Chaz (Charles) Goodyear accidentally spilled rubber and sulfur onto a hot stovetop, and discovered the process of vulcanization. Vulcanized rubber has sulfur added to it which increases its strength and elasticity. This is why rubber is strong enough to be used for car tires and shoe soles.

5. Booming industry As automobiles became more readily available, the demand for rubber obviously grew exponentially. This caused previously insignificant river towns in areas that could produce rubber to become overnight boomtowns. A different kind of gold rush. To quote Wade Davis, “Flaunting wealth became sport. Rubber barons lit cigars with $100 bank notes and slaked the thirst of their horses with silver buckets of chilled French champagne. Their wives, disdainful of the muddy waters of the Amazon, sent linens to Portugal to be laundered...They ate food imported from Europe...[and] in the wake of opulent dinners, some costing as much as $100,000, men retired to any one of a dozen elegant bordellos."

6. Br00tality • “Wild Hevea trees, like all primary rainforest trees are widely dispersed, an adaptation that protects species from the South American leaf blight which easily spreads through and decimates plantations. Thus to make a profit, barons had to acquire control over huge tracts of land.” (www.mongabay.com) As the industry grew, rubber barons became increasingly brutal. To meet production needs, they hired private armies to defend their plantations and capture new land, and they enslaved indigenous populations to use for slave labor. Tens of thousands of indigenous rainforest dwellers were slaughtered in the early years of this horrific trade.

7. Saving grace Lucky for the Brazilians, the modernized and highly efficient Asian rubber trade decimated the Brazilian market entirely. By 1940, brazil was only producing 1.3% of the worlds rubber.

8. WORKS CITED http://www.immune.com/rubber/nr1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hevea_brasiliensis http://www.mongabay.com/10rubber.htm Your Text Here