All about rubber

Where would the world be without rubber?

Without rubber, cars would have to find another durable material that would withstand the pressure and hardships of the road (or dirt trails, as they were at the time). (Where would Detroit be without rubber? Probably in the same place, but it's history would be completely different.)

Without rubber erasers, writing and art would be a slower, more tedious process.

Without rubber, prophylaxis technology would not have advanced as quickly.

Without rubber, it would have been much more difficult to secure the sterility of medical situations without latex gloves.

The list goes on and on. But the fact remains that rubber is one of those materials that launched and helped maintain the industrial world.


And, at first, it all came from the Amazon basin.


Outside of Manaus is the Museu do Serengal Vila Paraiso that tells the story of the rubber tappers in 19th century Amazonia. Housed in a replica of a rubber baron's mansion that was constructed for a movie in 2001 (Ao Selva), the museum gives visitors a sense of the miserable lives the tappers faced and the luxury the barons lived in.

A rubber baron could rule over hundreds of hectares, working his army of rubber tappers in slave-like fashion. While the rubber baron and his wife would live in a fancy house with all the amenities of a European nobility, their employees would toil away in miserable conditions.

The conditions were similar to those faced by slaved in antebellum South but with a different commodity.  "Employees" had to produce 50 kg of rubber per week. If they couldn't meet their quota, the baron would lower their food rations, further indebting their servitude.

Rubber in its pure form is the sap from rubber trees. Tappers extract it by making incisions into the bark and allowing the goo to drip into cups. This work had to be done at night because the goo would congeal during the day. 

At night, the tappers would be exposed to the jungle's malaria-carrying mosquitos, venomous snakes, and natives defending their territory with blow dart gun.

Once they finished collecting the sap, they would build a fire to solidify the rubber. If you ever wondered why most rubber is black, we assume that it is because of the black smoke. (The tour was in Portuguese. There were probably some bits of information that we missed, but I think I did a fine job translating.)

Logistics


To get to the rubber museum, take the 120 bus from the Praca Matriz in Manaus to Ponte Negra. Get off at the end of the line and walk down the street to the Marina David, where you take a boat to the museum. The boat ride costs R$7 each way, and museum entrance costs R$5.