How is rubber made?

Search: how is rubber made

Why: In The Darling, they talk about a lot of rubber trees in Monrovia.

Answer: I'm just gonna copy and paste this, "Rubber from trees":

Natural rubber is made from the sap of the wild rubber tree. The bark of the tree is 'tapped', this means cutting small slits into the bark, so that the white sap, known as latex, drips out and is caught in collecting cups.

In the past, an acid was added to the latex to make the sap set like a jelly. The latex jelly was then flattened and rolled into sheets and hung out to dry by workers.

A way of making rubber stronger and more elastic was invented by and Charles Goodyear in 1839. His method was called vulcanising and it stopped rubber from perishing.

Liquid latex is now shipped to factories where the rubber is made by machines. It can be cloured and made into car tyres, gloves, hoses, balloons and many other things.

For some good pics of the Rubber Tapping Process, click here.

Source: KidCyber, Sarawak Rubber Tapper

The More You Know: Rubber trees are native to tropical parts of South America. Until the 1870s, most rubber came from Brazil. Then Sir Henry Wickham took some seeds to England and grew seedlings. These were later moved into plantations in parts of Southeast Asia.

Rubber can also be made from chemicals found in petroleum. This is called synthetic rubber, obvi.