The Story of Rubber

One day in 1852, in Trenton, New Jersey, two lawyers appeared in the circuit court of the United States.

These two men were the legal giants of their day.

They were there to argue the case of Goodyear versus day for

infringement of patent. This was the patent for turning raw rubber into vulcanized rubber,

which led to its widespread commercial success.

Daniel Webster was the lawyer who represented Charles Goodyear,

and Rufus Chote represented Horace Day.

Goodyear and Day were in dispute as to who was the inventor of the process which put rubber into the service of the world.

I'll return to this court case later in this episode, but first I must tell you about the

other party important to this historical case.

That other party is the rubber plant itself, or rather rubber gum plants,

which may be trees or vines that produce the raw gum, which can be converted into the substance we call rubber.

These rubber gum plants grow in areas of North America, South America, Africa, and other places.

Many believe, though, that the best wild rubber was sourced from trees near the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil.

The methods for acquiring raw rubber gum in Brazil

didn't really change much for 500 years.

The natives used canoes on watercourses

to reach the trees deep in the jungle.

They cut V-shaped or spiral incisions in the trunks of 60-foot trees.

At the base of the incisions, they affixed small clay cups like swallow's nests.

They would return later with large gourds to collect the fluid from the clay cups.

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