Rubber Trees

Now days most rubber is synthesized from petroleum but there is still 20%+ produced from natural sources. This natural source is the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and it is native to the tropical Americas.

Rubber in its natural form was used by South American natives and was noticed with great curiosity by Europeans in the early 1700�s. In 1736 it was treated with great curiosity when several rolls of it were sent to France, along with a number of other rubber products.

In 1791 rubber manufacturing, albeit on a small scale, became commercial when the Englishman Samuel Peal discovered a method of waterproofing cloth by treating it with a solution of rubber in turpentine.

Note: Orginially collected from wild trees in South America, now 90% of rubber production comes from plantations of rubber trees in Southeast Asia.

By the 1830's, rubber was popular in the United States, but its drawbacks included becoming brittle in cold weather, and soft and bad smelling in warm weather. These negative properties could be removed by a processs known as vulcanisation.

First developed in 1839 by the inventor Charles Goodyear, it involved cooking rubber with sulphur, which increased its strength, elasticity, and decreased its sensitivity to temperature change.

Natural rubber is made from the sap of the wild rubber tree. The bark of the tree is 'tapped', this means cutting small slits into the bark, so that the white sap, known as latex, drips out and is caught in collecting cups. Tapping of rubber trees is done by hand.