PEEPS AT
INDUSTRIES
RUBBER
PEEPS AT INDUSTRIES
EACH VOLUME CONTAINING 24 PAGES
OF ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
Large Crown 8vo., Cloth, Picture Cover
SUGAR
“Miss Browne ... gives a singularly full and an exceedingly interesting
account of the cultivation of the sugar-cane and the sugar-beet in
various countries of the world. This is followed by a lucid account of
the making, the exporting, and the refining of sugar.... Twenty-six
instructive photographs, excellently reproduced, embellish and add
value to the book.”--_Educational News._
“This first volume is certainly a happy beginning. Miss Browne writes
from first-hand knowledge, and she describes the life of the sugar from
the Demerara plantations to the tea-table. The illustrations add to the
charm of the work.”--_Manchester Courier._
RUBBER
“It is interestingly written, free from technicalities, and excellently
illustrated. Those who wish for a 'peep’ at this all-important
industry--which, in spite of ever-recurring discoveries of 'artificial
rubber,’ is likely to continue all-important--cannot do better than
read this little book.”--_Morning Post._
“The twenty-four excellent illustrations add considerably to the
value of the book, which is heartily recommended to anyone desiring a
non-technical account of rubber production”--_Nature._
TEA
“It would be difficult to produce a more comprehensive or more
charmingly interesting story of a world’s great commodity. The work
is a result of experience, observation, information, and illustration
obtained on the spot, and, as such, is remarkable value at the
price.”--_Schoolmaster._
“An interesting little book ... the author has introduced the minimum
of technicalities, and gives the maximum of information.”--_Educational
News._
COCOA
(IN PREPARATION)
PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1.
AGENTS
America THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK
Australasia OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
205 Flinders Lane, MELBOURNE
Canada THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA. LTD
St. Martin’s House, 70 Bond Street, TORONTO
India MACMILLAN AND COMPANY, LTD
Macmillan Building, BOMBAY
309 Bow Bazaar Street, CALCUTTA
[Illustration: SMOKING WILD RUBBER ON A PADDLE IN THE BRAZILIAN FOREST.
_Page 26_
_By permission of the Director of the Museum, Para_]
[Illustration]
PEEPS AT INDUSTRIES
RUBBER
BY
EDITH A. BROWNE, F.R.G.S.
CONTAINING
SIXTEEN PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
SECOND EDITION
A. & C. BLACK, LTD.
4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 1
1920
_First Edition published May, 1912_
_Printed in Great Britain._
NOTE
It is astonishing how ignorant is the world as a whole of the great
industries which maintain our oft-boasted civilization, and it is
ignorance of this character which this series of books aims to dispel.
Produced on the same lines as the “Peeps at Many Lands” series, which
has met with such remarkable success, these books will bring the reader
into a complete understanding of all the great industries of the
British Empire and the world at large. Technicalities being avoided,
there are no impedimenta in the way of easy assimilation of the story
and the romance of great manufactures. The reader is taken into the
atmosphere and confronted with the stern realities of each industry,
and when he has laid down the book he will find he has another window
in his house to let in the sunshine of knowledge.
Each of the three volumes already issued, concerned respectively with
tea, sugar, and rubber, has been promoted to a second edition. Such
a reception has encouraged the belief that there is a wide sphere
of usefulness, and power of pleasure-giving, for a series of Peeps
at Industries written from first-hand knowledge. The next book in
the series, now in course of preparation, will deal with cocoa, and
similarly will be a collection of experience, observation, information,
and pictures harvested “on the spot.”
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE ROMANCE OF RUBBER 1
II. THE ROMANCE OF RUBBER (_continued_) 6
III. THE HISTORY OF RUBBER 10
IV. WE VISIT A SERINGAL 17
V. WE GO WITH A SERINGUEIRO ON HIS ROUND 21
VI. MAKING PARA RUBBER IN THE FOREST 26
VII. DIFFERENT KINDS OF WILD RUBBER 29
VIII. DIFFERENT KINDS OF WILD RUBBER (_continued_) 33
IX. DIFFERENT KINDS OF WILD RUBBER (_continued_) 37
X. KINDRED PRODUCTS TO RUBBER 41
XI. THE STORY OF PLANTATION RUBBER 49
XII. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENTS 56
XIII. THE RUBBER BOOM 60
XIV. WILD RUBBER _v._ PLANTATION RUBBER 64
XV. MAKING A RUBBER PLANTATION 69
XVI. LIFE ON A RUBBER PLANTATION 74
XVII. WE VISIT A RAW-RUBBER FACTORY 80
XVIII. RUBBER GOODS 84
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. SMOKING WILD RUBBER ON A PADDLE IN THE BRAZILIAN FOREST
_Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. TAPPING THE WILD RUBBER-TREES IN THE FOREST NEAR PARA,
BRAZIL 17
3. A BALATA BLEEDERS’ CAMP 24
4. NATIVE COAGULATING JELUTONG 33
5. TAPPING A RUBBER-VINE, BELGIAN CONGO 40
6. (1) TAPPING RUBBER-VINE; (2) EXTRACTING GUTTA-PERCHA, NEW
GUINEA 43
7. BALATA BLEEDERS LEAVING SPROSTONS’ STELLING AT ROCKSTONE,
BRITISH GUIANA 46
8. (1) CEARA RUBBER-TREE IN CEYLON; (2) PARA RUBBER-TREES,
TWENTY-SEVEN MONTHS OLD, CEYLON 57
9. (1) WEEDING YOUNG RUBBER IN MALAYA; (2) LOADING RUBBER IN
MALAYA 64
10. (1) PARA RUBBER SEEDS AND PODS; (2) TAMIL COOLIE PLANTING
RUBBER 67
11. CARRYING LATEX TO FACTORY, IN MALAYA 70
12. TAMIL WOMAN TAPPING RUBBER-TREE UNDER SUPERVISION OF A
KANGANY, ON A CEYLON ESTATE 81
13. MAKING RUBBER BISCUITS 83
14. MAKING CRÊPE RUBBER ON A CEYLON ESTATE 86
15. SAMPLING BOLIVIAN RUBBER AT BULL WHARF, LONDON 88
16. TAKING LATEX TO THE FACTORY BY BULLOCK-CART IN MALAYA 76
RUBBER
CHAPTER I
THE ROMANCE OF RUBBER
There is a wish that has so taken possession of us that it is
beginning to make our hearts ache. Happily, we are living in the
everything-is-possible days of Once Upon a Time. Directly that wish
begins seriously to worry us, Mother Witch realizes that here is a case
in which her services are needed, and forthwith she hurries to our
midst to see what she can do to make us happy and content.
“Carry us away on your broomstick,” we beg, “to some new land, where
we can see people using something which we know nothing whatever about
at present, but which will one day bring to pass a great revolution
throughout the whole wide world.”
Says Mother Witch:
“You civilized mortals have yet so many lands to discover, so much
to learn from the folk who dwell therein. I could take you to many
a strange country where you would see the mere savage turning the
simplest of Nature’s gifts to marvellous account. Some day more
extraordinary uses will be found for these same things by the only kind
of people you think clever. But when that day dawns, such things will
soon become common, and their power of usefulness will quickly come
to be taken as a matter of course. In this way is all wonder being
banished from the earth by the civilization you’re so pleased to call
wise. But I’m not here to preach to you. Come, I will take you to a
country where everything is yet as Dame Nature made it. It is a country
full of possibilities, abounding in natural wonders whose discovery may
create many and many a mighty change in the everyday life of the world
at large. More than this, I will promise you nothing. You shall see
what you see. Let us away.”
We are whisked across the sea. At length we are hovering over a
seemingly boundless forest, which appears to defy even a single ray
of light to pry into its secrets. As we get nearer to the treetops,
we notice that parts of the country beneath us are open to the sky.
A river, inset with islands and sandbanks, completely severs the
forest; a goodly number of streams fight their way into it on either
side, now boiling with rage as their passage is interfered with by a
stubborn array of rocks, now dashing headlong over a sheer precipice,
now corkscrewing a long way round to avoid impenetrable barriers;
and, in addition to the breaches made in the forest fortress by these
waters, there are patches of grassland openly rejoicing in the sun.
Mother Witch assures us that in parts of its course the chief river is
five, ten, or even as much as fifteen miles wide; that the sandbanks
and islands we see in it are of enormous size; that the patches of
grassland cover acres and acres of ground. Of course, she knows what
she is talking about, so, in accepting her word about the size of the
openings, we are better able to realize the immensity of the mass.
For, in a bird’s-eye view, all the features of a landscape are seen in
proportion; and as we look from aloft at this country we have come to
visit, the outstanding feature is a wilderness which Nature designed as
a citadel wherein she could reign supreme, and which, since the days of
the Great Beginning of all things, she has fortified against any human
desire to interfere with her own imagination and power of achievement.
We drop to earth in this country, landing in the heart of the
forest. Now there is no trace of an outlet to be seen. Surely we are
prisoners--but which of us, at this moment, would care to escape,
even were we shown a way? In the wildest revels of dreamland we
have never beheld anything so luxuriously beautiful as the scene of
reality which now surrounds us. Multitudes of giant trees burst the
bonds of thickly tangled undergrowth, only to be fettered again up to
their very summits, a hundred feet or more above our heads, by the
endless twistings and turnings of gnarled vines and stout-stemmed
creepers. Clinging to the trees are choice orchids, weird in form
and fantastic of colour; the dense undergrowth of browns and greens
is thickly patterned with brilliant blooms; from the rich overgrowth
hang vivid-hued floral streamers and festoons; gaily plumed birds are
roosting amidst deepest shadows; bright blue butterflies are holding
carnival in odd spots, whither stray rays of the blazing sun have been
able to penetrate through chinks in the leaf-thatched, flower-strewn
vault.
Evidently there are people living within these forest confines; for
see, a tawny form is breaking through the bush. Come, let us hide
quickly.
“This naked savage might be a cannibal!”
Possibly, but not for that reason alone have we slipped into a nook
where we can watch him without risk of being discovered. Primitive man
is frequently more shy than dangerous; if this aboriginal caught sight
of us, perchance he would quickly plunge out of sight.
“Why does he go about with a parrot perched on his right forefinger?”
The bird is his favourite pet, and master and parrot like to be
together as much as do you and your dog.
“Why does he carry that very long bit of cane? And he doesn’t seem to
have a bow with him, so of what use are those arrows in that pouch
which is strung round his waist?”
The long cane is a very simple weapon called a “blowpipe”; the arrows
are the missiles for it. Whenever yon savage sees anything he wants to
kill, he loads his pipe, puts it to his lips, blows, and out flies an
arrow with terrific force and deadly aim.
Maybe this son of the wilds is out on a hunting jaunt on behalf of
his tribe. Just as likely he is taking a walk; for quite possibly he
has been suffering of late from an attack of wander-thirst--a common
complaint among barbarians, to whom freedom is one of the most blessed
possessions in life--so he has left the camp to roam it off. Weeks,
months even, may elapse before he returns to his fellows. Meanwhile, he
can easily supply all his wants, for he can shoot his meat, trap his
fish, and gather an abundance of tasty and nutritious nuts and roots.
Also, he can amuse himself by making a fine collection of pretty seeds
and gay feathers, wherewith to adorn himself on the next festival
occasion at the camp.
Like all his fellows, he is an enterprising savage in that he is
constantly on the lookout for forest products which can be turned to
account in everyday life. See him now stopping to try the sap of a
certain tree. With a flint axehead he probes the bark, when out oozes
a thick white fluid, some of which drops on his hand. He rubs thumb
against fingers to get it off, whereupon it gets thicker and thicker,
and finally breaks loose as a bit of something solid. He experiments
with this strange gift of the forest, and finds that it will stretch
and rebound. He collects more of the sap, catching it this time in the
palm of one hand. Into this liquid he drops the first little pellet he
made, and proceeds to roll it round and round therein with his free
hand. Soon the freshly collected sap begins to solidify on the pellet,
and his treasure grows appreciably bigger. We watch this interesting
experiment repeated time after time. The pellet has grown into a
fair-sized ball; suddenly that ball slips from the grasp of the man
who is so intelligently playing at work. Surely it is bewitched; for
the moment it touches the ground, it tries to jump into the air. Why,
if only he had known what was going to happen, if only he had stooped
down a second earlier, he might have caught it before it again fell
to earth. No wonder he looks pleased; he has discovered a new product
that can be made into a plaything. He notes the kind of tree which has
supplied him with the material for his highly amusing toy; then he
picks up his blowpipe, calls his parrot back to its travelling perch,
and goes his way.
Yes, certainly we will follow this interesting discoverer, but first we
must ask Mother Witch to borrow for us some of those magic cloaks which
render the wearer invisible; for, as I have told you, were yon son of
the wilds to see us, one way or another our adventures might be brought
to an untimely end.