Editing Natural rubber (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Rubber boom}}
The first use of rubber was by the indigenous cultures of [[Mesoamerica]]. The earliest archeological evidence of the use of natural latex from the [[Hevea tree|''Hevea'' tree]] comes from the [[Olmec]] culture, in which rubber was first used for making balls for the [[Mesoamerican ballgame]]. Rubber was later used by the [[Maya civilization|Maya]] and [[Aztec]] cultures: in addition to making balls, Aztecs used rubber for other purposes, such as making containers and making textiles waterproof by impregnating them with the latex sap.<ref>Emory Dean Keoke, Kay Marie Porterfield. 2009. Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and Innovations. Infobase Publishing</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Tully |date=2011 |title=The Devil's Milk: A Social History of Rubber |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-1-58367-260-0}}</ref>

[[Charles Marie de La Condamine]] is credited with introducing samples of rubber to the ''[[Académie Royale des Sciences]]'' of France in 1736, which he wrote as ''caoutchouc'', from ''cahuchu'' in the language of the Manina people in [[Real Audiencia of Quito|Quito]].<ref name="AoR">{{cite book |last=Loadman |first=M. J. |year=2012 |title=Analysis of Rubber and Rubber-like Polymers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjD7CAAAQBAJ&dq=caa+ochu+rubber&pg=PA7 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |pages=6–7 |isbn=978-94-010-5905-3 }}</ref><ref name="b">{{cite web |title=Charles Marie de la Condamine |website=bouncing-balls.com |url=http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_condamine.htm}}</ref> In 1751, he presented a paper by [[François Fresneau]] to the Académie (published in 1755) that described many of rubber's properties. This has been referred to as the first scientific paper on rubber.<ref name="b" /> In England, [[Joseph Priestley]], in 1770, observed that a piece of the material was extremely good for rubbing off [[pencil]] marks on paper, hence the name "rubber".<ref name="AoR"/> It slowly made its way around England. In 1764, François Fresnau discovered that [[turpentine]] was a rubber [[solvent]]. [[Giovanni Fabbroni]] is credited with the discovery of [[naphtha]] as a rubber solvent in 1779.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oops There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant: the History of Natural Rubber |url=https://petroleumservicecompany.com/blog/natural-rubber-history/ |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=Petroleum Service Company |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.metallurgyfordummies.com/rubber.html|title=Rubber  |website=Metallurgy for Dummies |access-date=2024-04-20 |language=en}}</ref> [[Charles Goodyear]] redeveloped [[sulfur vulcanization|vulcanization]] in 1839, although [[Mesoamerican]]s had used stabilized rubber for balls and other objects as early as 1600 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hosler |first1=D. |last2=Burkett |first2=S.L. |last3=Tarkanian |first3=M.J. |year=1999 |title=Prehistoric polymers: Rubber processing in ancient Mesoamerica |journal=Science |volume=284 |issue=5422 |pages =1988–1991 |doi=10.1126/science.284.5422.1988 |pmid=10373117}}</ref><ref name="Slack2002">{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Slack |title=Noble obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock, and the race to unlock the greatest industrial secret of the nineteenth century |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=CWzeAAAAMAAJ}} |year=2002 |publisher=Hyperion |isbn=978-0-7868-6789-9}}</ref>

South America remained the main source of latex rubber used during much of the 19th century. The rubber trade was heavily controlled by business interests but no laws expressly prohibited the export of seeds or plants. In 1876, [[Henry Wickham (explorer)|Henry Wickham]] smuggled 70,000 Amazonian rubber tree seeds from Brazil and delivered them to [[Kew Gardens]], England. Only 2,400 of these germinated. Seedlings were then sent to [[India]], [[British Ceylon]] ([[Sri Lanka]]), [[Dutch East Indies]] ([[Indonesia]]), [[Singapore]], and [[British Malaya]]. Malaya (now [[Peninsular Malaysia]]) was later to become the biggest producer of rubber.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Joe |title=The Thief at the End of the World |date=2008 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-01853-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/thiefatendofworl0000jack}}</ref>

In the early 1900s, the [[Congo Free State]] in Africa was also a significant source of natural rubber latex, mostly gathered by [[forced labor]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State |url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/belgian-king-establishes-congo-free-state |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=education.nationalgeographic.org |language=en}}</ref> King Leopold II's colonial state brutally enforced production quotas due to the high price of natural rubber at the time.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |date=2019-08-14 |title=King Leopold's ghost: The legacy of labour coercion in the DRC |url=https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/king-leopolds-ghost-legacy-labour-coercion-drc |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=CEPR |language=en}}</ref> Tactics to enforce the rubber quotas included removing the hands of victims to prove they had been killed. Soldiers often came back from raids with baskets full of chopped-off hands. Villages that resisted were razed to encourage better compliance locally.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Young Boy Forced to Collect Rubber · Antislavery Usable Past |url=https://antislavery.ac.uk/items/show/2059 |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=antislavery.ac.uk}}</ref> {{Crossreference|(See [[Atrocities in the Congo Free State]] for more information on the rubber trade in the Congo Free State in the late 1800s and early 1900s.)}}

The rubber boom in the Amazon also similarly affected indigenous populations to varying degrees. Correrias, or slave raids were frequent in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia where many were either captured or killed. The best-known case of atrocities generated from rubber extraction in South America came from the [[Putumayo genocide]]. Between the 1880s and 1913, [[Julio César Arana]] and his company, which would become the Peruvian Amazon Company, controlled the Putumayo river. W. E. Hardenburg, [[Benjamin Saldaña Rocca]] and [[Roger Casement]] were influential figures in exposing these atrocities. Roger Casement was also prominent in revealing the Congo atrocities to the world. Days before entering Iquitos by boat Casement wrote "'Caoutchouc was first called 'india rubber,' because it came from the Indies, and the earliest European use of it was to rub out or erase. It is now called India rubber because it rubs out or erases the Indians."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodman |first1=Jordan |title=The Devil and Mr Casement |date=2009 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-84467-334-6 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fhsXAQAAMAAJ&q=Uttermost |access-date=13 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Casement |first1=Roger |title=The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement |date= 1997 |publisher=Anaconda Editions |isbn=1-901990-00-1 |page=85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjwM99dulz4C |access-date=13 August 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Enslaved natives with a load of rubber weighing 75 kilos, they have journeyed 100 kilometers with no food given.jpg|thumb|"Enslaved natives with a load of rubber weighing 75 kilos; they have journeyed 100 kilometers with no food given"]]

In [[India]], commercial cultivation was introduced by British planters, although the experimental efforts to grow rubber on a commercial scale were initiated as early as 1873 at the [[Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden|Calcutta Botanical Garden]]. The first commercial ''Hevea'' plantations were established at Thattekadu in [[Kerala]] in 1902. In later years the plantation expanded to [[Karnataka]], [[Tamil Nadu]] and the [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]] of India. Today, India is the world's third-largest producer and fourth-largest consumer of rubber.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dsir.gov.in/reports/ExpTechTNKL/Abs%20new/Rubber.htm |title=Natural rubber in India  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001100758/http://www.dsir.gov.in/reports/ExpTechTNKL/Abs%20new/Rubber.htm |archive-date=1 October 2016}}</ref>

In Singapore and Malaya, commercial production was heavily promoted by [[Henry Nicholas Ridley|Sir Henry Nicholas Ridley]], who served as the first Scientific Director of the [[Singapore Botanic Gardens]] from 1888 to 1911. He distributed rubber seeds to many planters and developed the first technique for tapping trees for latex without causing serious harm to the tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_518_2004-12-28.html |title=Sir Henry Nicholas Ridley |last=Cornelius-Takahama |first=Vernon |date=2001 |work=Singapore Infopedia |access-date=9 February 2013  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504095356/http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_518_2004-12-28.html |archive-date=4 May 2013}}</ref> Because of his fervent promotion of this crop, he is popularly remembered by the nickname "Mad Ridley".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.malaysiahistory.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56:mad-ridley-and-the-rubber-boom&catid=47:economic-history |title=Mad Ridley and the rubber boom |first1=Dr Loh Wei |last1=Leng |first2=Khor Jin |last2=Keong |date=19 September 2011 |work=Malaysia History |access-date=9 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727152654/http://www.malaysiahistory.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56:mad-ridley-and-the-rubber-boom&catid=47:economic-history |archive-date=27 July 2013 }}</ref>

=== Pre–World War II ===
Before World War II significant uses included door and window profiles, hoses, belts, gaskets, [[rubber mat|matting]], flooring, and dampeners (antivibration mounts) for the [[automotive]] industry. The use of rubber in car [[tire]]s (initially solid rather than pneumatic) in particular consumed a significant amount of rubber. [[Gloves]] (medical, household, and industrial) and toy [[balloon]]s were large consumers of rubber, although the type of rubber used is concentrated latex. Significant tonnage of rubber was used as [[adhesive]]s in many manufacturing industries and products, although the two most noticeable were the paper and the carpet industries. Rubber was commonly used to make [[rubber band]]s and pencil [[eraser]]s.

Rubber produced as a fiber, sometimes called 'elastic', had significant value to the textile industry because of its excellent elongation and recovery properties. For these purposes, manufactured rubber fiber was made as either an extruded round fiber or rectangular fibers cut into strips from extruded film. Because of its low dye acceptance, feel and appearance, the rubber fiber was either covered by yarn of another fiber or directly woven with other yarns into the fabric. Rubber yarns were used in foundation garments. While rubber is still used in textile manufacturing, its low tenacity limits its use in lightweight garments because latex lacks resistance to oxidizing agents and is damaged by aging, sunlight, oil and perspiration. The textile industry turned to [[neoprene]] (polymer of [[chloroprene]]), a type of synthetic rubber, as well as another more commonly used elastomer fiber, [[spandex]] (also known as elastane), because of their superiority to rubber in both strength and durability.