The first practical use that was made of it gave it the name that has
stuck to it in English ever since. Magellan announced in 1772 that it
was good to remove pencil marks. A lump of it was sent over from France
to Priestley, the clergyman chemist who discovered oxygen and was mobbed
out of Manchester for being a republican and took refuge in
Pennsylvania. He cut the lump into little cubes and gave them to his
friends to eradicate their mistakes in writing or figuring. Then they
asked him what the queer things were and he said that they were "India
rubbers."
[Illustration: FOREST RUBBER
Compare this tropical tangle and gnarled trunk with the straight tree
and cleared ground of the plantation. At the foot of the trunk are cups
collecting rubber juice.]
[Illustration: PLANTATION RUBBER
This spiral cut draws off the milk as completely and quickly as possible
without harming the tree. The man is pulling off a strip of coagulated
rubber that clogs it.]
[Illustration: IN MAKING GARDEN HOSE THE RUBBER IS FORMED INTO A TUBE
BY THE MACHINE ON THE RIGHT AND COILED ON THE TABLE TO THE LEFT]
The Peruvian natives had used caoutchouc for water-proof clothing,
shoes, bottles and syringes, but Europe was slow to take it up, for the
stuff was too sticky and smelled too bad in hot weather to become
fashionable in fastidious circles.
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