Why was rubber a military priority?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 1, 2002
The
machinery of the early Twentieth Century--trucks, motorcycles, tanks, airplanes--changed
how the world went to war. Engines and machines were possible because of
rubber, the modified latex of Hevea brasiliensis (Willdenow ex A. Jussieu) Müller Aargau. The military would find another wartime use for latex.
Fire
has been a tactical weapon since some outraged tribe first lobbed a torch
into another tribe's village. World War I introduced the German flammenwerfer, a portable flamethrower operated by a single man. For a few seconds, the flammenwerfer shot a stream of burning oil at opposing troops, just long enough to create panic and break lines of defense before an assault.
Militarily,
the flamethrower was not considered that important; the single operator needed
defending and the flames had to directly injure troops or divert them to
fighting fires instead of defending their positions. But inventors continued
working on flamethrower improvements.
After
World War I, the rubber plantations of India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Malaysia
became vitally important to the industrial world. Rubber made transportation
of goods and services possible. Wild-tapped latex from South America became
negligible in the intervening years.
At the
start of World War II, U.S. Army chemists discovered a better incendiary
than simple burning oil: gasoline mixed with latex. The jelled gasoline shot
greater distances and burned longer after hitting its target. Whether fired
from a flamethrower or dropped from an airplane, it burned away covering
vegetation, created suffocating fumes, and destroyed an enemy's supplies.
The
attack on Pearl Harbor (December 1941) fully involved the U.S. in the war
and placed Japan in control of the Pacific. North America found itself in
the same position as Germany 25 years earlier, cut off from a steady supply
of latex. Chemistry became a national priority. All major universities and
chemical companies sought a useful synthetic rubber and a substitute for
jelled gasoline.
Steve
Schoenherr with the Department of History at the University of San Diego
has posted an excellent timeline of the World Wars. To learn more, click
on the link:
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html
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