While Amazon explorers failed to find the fabled El Dorado
(City of Gold), the jungle contained a treasure far more valuable, that was
hidden in plain view. Latex, the dried sap from the Hevea (Rubber tree) , is
the raw material of rubber – a critical component of the industrial revolution.
For centuries, the indigenous people of the Amazon had tapped the Hevea and
collected its sap for use in making balls, water sacks and for water-proofing
clothing, footwear and shelters. This is done by scoring the bark of the tree
with a knife and collecting the white sap in gourds, much the way New England
natives collected Maple sap.
This remarkable material was overlooked by explorers until
botanist Charles LaCondamine brought some samples back to France. He was also
the fellow who discovered that the bark of the cinchona tree contained quinine
– a curative for malaria. As the latex samples moved around Europe, it was
found to be quite useful, as it could be used to lift pencil marks off the page
by “rubbing” them out. Thus, the common name for latex – rubber. Latex erasers
became ubiquitous in every home and office. The material also found limited use
in rubber shoes and children’s balls.
But, the natural latex is unstable and breaks down over
time, especially when exposed to sun. That all changed when American Charles
Goodyear developed the process of vulcanization in the 1830’s. He found that
when exposed to heat and elemental sulphur, latex became stronger, more elastic
and durable. And the rubber game was on. The new material, now universally
called rubber, found use in footwear, washers, conveyor belts and as insulation
for the new electrical wires. The industry exploded with the advent of the
bicycle, which became a world-wide craze at the turn of the century and required
rubber for tires. That fad gave way to an even bigger market – automobile tires,
belts and hoses.
 |
| Still one of the world's great opera houses Teatro Amazonas in Manau, Brazil |
All this demand created a “white gold rush” in the Amazon.
As rubber trees grew only in their native Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, a flood of
Europeans moved in to scoop up the profits. Those who succeeded, became rich
beyond the imagination. Their collective plantations, using slave labor, gave
instant birth to the Amazon cities of Belem, Manaus and Iquitos. Their homes,
opera houses and public buildings rivaled any European grandeur. Rubber Barons
lit their Cuban cigars with money and their pets lived in opulence. The
Amazonian monopoly was carefully guarded and the punishment for exporting
rubber trees or seeds was death.
It was a clever and enterprising young Brit, Henry Wickham,
who smuggled some 20,000 Hevea seeds out of Brazil, carefully hidden inside
hollowed-out fruit lined with (what else?) latex. These were taken to the
renowned Kew Gardens and selected for vitality and disease resistance, then transported
to Southeast Asia for plantation planting. Sounding the first death knell for
the Rubber Barons. Wickham’s piracy was rewarded with a knighthood and a
generous annuity from the British rubber plantations in Asia.
As the Brazilian collection of latex from wild trees could
not compete with the cost of Asian plantations, the Amazon rubber industry
began a steady decline. When Allied supplies of latex were cut off by the
Japanese in WWII, it was the BF Goodrich scientists who came to the rescue with
the first practical petroleum -based synthetic rubber (Ameripol), further
exacerbating the decline of the natural product. Efforts by Ford and Firestone
to institute plantation style production in Brazil were unsuccessful, as the
wild trees withered and fell victim to disease when planted as a monoculture.
While the natural rubber industry is a small fraction of its
peak production, the demand is still large and growing. The vulcanized natural
latex is more elastic than its synthetic cousin and has uses in gloves and
other products that can’t be replaced by synthetics. Indeed, 15% to 40% of the
rubber in tires is still natural, as 100% synthetic rubber would degrade and
stiffen too quickly.
So, natural latex collection in the Amazon continues, much
as it has since the 1830’s, albeit at a much lower level, with new protections
for workers and production quotas. The “Amazon White Gold” continues to flow
from the world’s greatest river.
There was more treasure to be plundered from the Amazon –
timber, cattle, gold, oil and minerals. Details in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment