The Glogalization of Rubber

The Globalization of Rubber

        The history of rubber started with pre-Columbian peoples of South and Central America

centering in Brazil. They used rubber for many things including balls, containers, and shoes.

Europeans became interested in rubber after Charles de la Condamine and Francois Fresneau

wrote reports between 1736 and 1751 for the French Academy of Sciences (Rubber, History).

Before 1800, pioneer research in finding solvents in waterproofing fabrics was done, which led

to the creation of elastic bands and erasers. “Joseph Priestly is credited with the discovery of

using rubber as an eraser, coining the phrase “rubber”” (Rubber, History). In 1803, the world

saw its first rubber factory near Paris, while in England, Thomas Hancock opened a factory

around 1820. Hancock is credited with devising the forerunner to the masticator (Rubber,

History). In 1823 Charles Macintosh found a practical process for waterproofing fabrics, and

Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization, which revolutionized the rubber industry, this

occurred around 1839.

        Later in the 19th century, the demand for rubber increased. The electrical industry was

booming and needed rubber insulation, while the pneumatic tire was being invented and this

extended the demand for rubber. While the rubber tree was known to be in South America and

Africa, Brazil was a major producer of rubber, and in an attempt to control the product, had

many legal restrictions about exporting (mainly rubber tree seeds). Despite that the seeds of the

rubber tree were smuggled to England around 1876. The seedlings were sent to global regions of

the time, beginning in what is now an enormous East Asian rubber industry.  During World

Page 1

War I,synthetic rubber was made. Like all initial products, it was expensive to produce and that

resulted in a less costly variety being produced in 1927. In 1931 neoprene was made. Many

countries produced synthetic rubber beginning during World War II and  are continuing through

today. Today synthetic rubber accounts for about sixty percent of the world’s rubber production.

        As noted above, synthetic rubber is the most common type of rubber produced and is

made by various chemical manufacturing processes, and is similar to natural rubber. While

natural rubber is a substance obtained from milky fluid, called latex, produced by a number of

different kinds of plants. Natural rubber production begins with the tapping of the matured

rubber trees of South East Asia and Africa. Workers tap the trees by making an incision which

cause the slow flow of the milky fluid, after enough of the latex is collected in pails

the water is then removed from it and the latex is then turned into raw rubber. There are

approximately twenty different types of synthetic rubber used today including silicone rubber,