When Westerners first landed in America they saw the native Americans playing with a strange white ball taken from a tree. The ball bounces and this made them amused. They later found it also capable of erasing pencil marks. There are two types of rubbers namely the 1) Natural Rubber and the 2) Synthetic Rubber. The second one is made by natural rubber + petroliem products and this is used as the automobile tires. Once upon a time in America, there was a law that restricts the cars, cycles and bikes to drive less than 35 miles per hour. This was to control the damage done to the tires.
A nice and very welcome contribution, thank you Dan:
And you might like to know more about the rubber tree (it is not the same as the widely appreciated, decorative rubber fig (diverse varieties and hybrids), as a houseplant):
Discovery of Rubber
When Westerners first landed in America they saw the native Americans playing with a strange white ball taken from a tree. The ball bounces and this made them amused. They later found it also capable of erasing pencil marks. There are two types of rubbers namely the 1) Natural Rubber and the 2) Synthetic Rubber. The second one is made by natural rubber + petroliem products and this is used as the automobile tires. Once upon a time in America, there was a law that restricts the cars, cycles and bikes to drive less than 35 miles per hour. This was to control the damage done to the tires.A nice and very welcome contribution, thank you Dan:
And you might like to know more about the rubber tree (it is not the same as the widely appreciated, decorative rubber fig (diverse varieties and hybrids), as a houseplant):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hevea_brasiliensis (the rubber tree)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_elastica (one of the house plant species of the rubber fig)
I hope that some friends here will contribute more, as many amazing plants were discovered in the Americas - just to cite a few:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum_annuum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobroma_cacao - see picture above
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_planifolia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psidium_guajava
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita_maxima
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlia
etc., etc.