The Rubber Industry

Abstract

O UR AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE depends very largely on the use of rubber and rubber products. This is an era of swift and comfortable transportation, and tires and other rubber products are one of the important factors contributing to the needs of a Nation that literally rolls on rubber. Last year, in addition to 66 million passenger-car tires, the rubber industry made 17 million truck tires, 5 million farm implement and tractor tires and considerable quantities of giant excavator and earth-mover tires. Literally every field of operation requires the use of pneumatic tires, not only for highway transportation, but also for use in raising our crops, building roads and airports, flying our airplanes, and a host of other uses. In addition, it must be realized that every new car has some 200 rubber products that add to our convenience, safety, and comfort. When it is also realized that we sleep on rubber mattresses, use rubber-soled shoes and use rubber in a myriad of miscellaneous and useful products, we know how dependent we are on rubber and the rubber industry. Furthermore, wars are conducted largely on rubber-tired equipment, because present-day warfare is mobile and conducted largely by the use of vehicles. In addition to tires, rubber is required for tanks, boats, bullet-proof gas tanks, oxygen masks, gun mechanisms, and in many other places where flexibility, strength, and resistance to abrasion is required. All of our present-day rubber products are taken pretty much for granted, but an analysis of the development of rubber and rubber products indicates that they have closely paralleled the development of the United States, with the result that it has by far the best transportation and the highest standard of living in the world. Like any other historic development, the greatest progress has been made in times of disaster and catastrophe, and this has certainly been true of the rubber industry where more development and progress came out of the war years than during other periods.