Rubber and Its Uses
None can under estimate the use and value of rubber in the modern times. It is so much wanted by everybody and everywhere. From school children to big industrialists are in need of rubber. Hence the making of rubber will be an interesting topic.
Unlike other industrial products, rubber is made from a kind of gum from certain trees that grow in hot and moist climates.
Rubber trees were found in the hot regions of America and in the west and central Africa. They were found growing in wild forests.
Later on they were grown in plantations in the East Indies, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Rubber was so much in demand and if was found profitable to grow rubber trees in big plantations.
Barks of the rubber trees are cut and a cup is left hanging under them. The liquid gum drips and trickles down slowly through the cuts into the cup. As and when the cup is full, it is emptied of its contents and put back to collect further liquid trickling down from the trees.
Then the liquid gum is dried in the sun till it becomes thick and hard. Then it is cleaned and chemically treated until it becomes the rubber which is used for the various purposes.
In the olden days African people were forced into the dark jungle to collect the liquid gum. They were severely beaten and treated very badly by the white men. African jungles were very dangerous infested with poisonous snakes, mosquitoes and flies with deadly stings. The black people were forced, to risk their lives for the profits of the white men.
But now, it is no longer required to go into such wild forests in search of rubber trees.
For in the modern times rubber trees were developed in plantations and farms and so it is no longer a dangerous job for the workers.
Rubber is tough, elastic and water proof. Motor car and bicycle tyres and tubes are made of rubber. Balls, soles and heels for shoes, gum boots, hot water bags, air pillows, elastic belts, cushions, mattresses, toys and many other useful things are made from rubber.
Rubber is one of the indispensable products of the modern world.
