We owe the first description of the rubber tree to the explorers of the Brazilian forests. It would seem that it was Pietro Martyre d'Anghiera who first mentioned in Europe the existence of rubber, pointing out that the natives of Mexico used in their games a ball of hardened resin extracted from a tree growing in the country. It does, however, seem probable that the use of latex by the natives dates back to a much earlier period, since Dr. Gann and his collaborators, who in the course of recent years have proved the existence in British Honduras of an ancient civilisation dating back to the 11th century, have discovered the remains of the playing grounds where the Indians of this civilisation foregathered: their game depended on the use of a ball of rubber, about the size of that used to-day for basket-ball, which was thrown through a stone ring fixed vertically to the wall of the enclosure.
Similarly, the description of an analogous material occurs in A General History of the Products of New Spain published in 1529 by Salahan. This author, in the account of his voyage, states that the natives of this period prepared balls from a black resin extracted from trees called " Ulakuhuil." Similar descriptions may be found in the numerous works published by the travellers of this period; to quote only one, Histoire de l'Isle Espagnole on de Saint-Domingue published by Xavier de Charlevoix, in which the author relates that the natives of this country played games with balls which, although appearing to be solid, were nevertheless light and porous. There is every reason to believe that these balls were of rubber.
It is, however, to two French scientists - Charles Marie de la Condamine and Fresneau - that European scientists owed the first accounts of the principal characteristics and properties of this product.
In 1735, the Academie des Sciences of Paris financed an expedition, under the command of Charles Marie de la Condamine, for geographical exploration in South America. During this expedition, la Condamine had occasion to make a study of the preparation and use of rubber by the natives and in 1736 he presented a very complete report on this question to the Academie des Sciences, accompanying it with samples of the product. In particular, he stated that in the provinces of Quito and Esmeralda grew certain trees called by the natives " Heve " : these yielded a milky liquid which turned brown and blackened on exposure to the air. This is the first mention in scientific literature of the milky liquid that was destined to become of such great industrial importance and which, from this period, had received the Spanish name of latex.
In this same report, Charles de la Condamine showed that similar trees were found in the Amazon region and that the natives there called them " Cahutschu." With the latex obtained from these trees the natives succeeded in obtaining objects such as shoes and bottles, by the use of the following method: a clay former was made and given a coat of latex which was allowed to dry; a second coat was then given and dried and the operation repeated until the desired thickness was attained. The form was finally broken and the pieces .removed from the interior of the object, giving a shoe or bottle of rubber. Similarly, the natives used impregnation with latex to waterproof cloth. In this description may be found two of the principal modern applications of latex, viz. the manufacture of objects by dipping appropriate moulds in the latex, a technique which was rapidly perfected ; and the impregnation of textiles, an operation which was found to be much more difficult and which is only to-day extending in the rubber-proofing industry.
Some years later, in 1746, Francois Fresneau sent to the French Government a number of objects which he had succeeded in preparing from rubber latex, in the hope of securing official interest in the possible applications of this new product. Then this scientist discovered in French Guiana a tree which also produced latex and which, in 1762, was described by Fuser-Haublet under the name of Hevea guianensis.
If de la Condamine retains the honour of being the first to describe the applications of latex and the preparation from it of rubber, becoming thus the father of the modern rubber industry, it was Fresneau who first undertook the scientific study of this product and, in particular, showed the way it behaves in the presence of chemical reagents. Bongrand has published in the Revue Generale du Caoutchouc numerous articles on this illustrious Frenchman: readers who are interested in the historical side of latex can refer to these publications 1 and to the book on latex by Hauser...
At the time when Fresneau published his important papers (these occur at intervals between 1746 and 1770) many persons had already foreseen the industrial and economic interest of rubber. Nevertheless, it was not until much later that this raw material took on the importance which it possesses to-day.
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