The first tires

The Indians of Central America were using rubber almost 1000 years ago. They used it to make balls for playing games.

The Indians collected their rubber from a tree. They called it hevea, the weeping tree. It weeps tears of latex, rubber, when its bark is cut.The early methods for making rubber from latex were simple: they used fire and smoke for it.

The Indians probably got two or three pounds of latex from a tree each year. The first sample of rubber arrived in Europe about 1774. It was brought there by a French explorer named Charles de la Condamine.

For a time it was considered an interesting novelty. It would bounce higher and stretch more easily than any substance known.

An English scientist named Joseph Priestley discovered that it could be used to erase pencil marks. It has been called Indian rubber, from about 1770.

Everyone was fascinated with rubber from the New World. But no one could think of any important use for it.

In 1823 Charles Mackintosh took a patent for making raincoats from cloth and rubber. That’s why raincoats were called mackintoshes.

Early things made of rubber were sticky and hard to handle. Real success didn’t come until 1839, through the efforts of Charles Goodyear, a smith of Connecticut. He became so interested in making rubber easy to handle that he neglected his business. He was jailed for debt. But nevertheless he solved his problem. Goodyear discovered the process called vulcanizing. By this process, heat, sulphur and other things turn soft rubber into material tough enough to make automobile tires and conveyor belts.

The hevea tree has been cultivated in many parts of the world. It grows in hot damp climates. A tree begins to yield at the age of six and goes yielding for another 25 years. The latex oozes from slanting cuts in the bark and gathers in a bucket below. Modern rubber plantations often yield 30 lb of latex from a tree each year. Three pounds of liquid latex are used to make a pound of soft rubber.

II. Look through the text again and answer the following questions:

How did the Indians get latex?
What were the early methods for making rubber?
When did the first sample of rubber arrive in Europe?
Who took a patent for making raincoats from rubber?
What did Goodyear discover?
When does the hevea tree grow?

III. Match the words with their definitions and make up your own sentences with these words:

rubber	a) a thick white liquid produced by certain plants and trees;
latex	b) a standard measure of weight, equal to 0.454 of a kilo;
pound	c) a strong elastic substance which keeps out water;
explorer	d) that sticks to anything which touches it;
to bounce	e) a person who travels into or around in a place in order to learn about it;
vulcanize	f) a coat made of material that keeps one dry in the rain;
mackintosh	g) to treat with a sulphur, at great heat to make it stronger and more elastic
sticky	h) to make smth move quickly up, back or away after hitting;
to ooze	i) to produce or provide smth as a natural product, as profit;
to yield	j) to come or flow out slowly

IV. Find the information about different manufactures of tires. While looking for information you are free to use the internet sites given below as well as any other online resources.

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