History

The history of natural latex

  • 1493 Columbus brings rubber balls back from his journeys from the Aztecs
  • 1736 French researchers discover on the Amazon that the natives gain a milky juice from “cahutchou”, the weeping tree. Today’s term ‘latex’ comes from the Spanish word for milk.
  • um 1830 the vulcanization process is developed, helping rubber make a decisive breakthrough.
  • 1876 Henry Wickham smuggles the strictly protected seeds of "hevea brasiliensis" – the botanical name of the rubber tree – to Europe, from where they are introduced to Sri Lanka and Singapore. The Brazilian rubber industry collapses. Until today, Asia remains the world’s largest natural latex producer.
  • 1918 Rubber plantations assert themselves as the only economic production method.
  • 1928 Development of the Dunlop process enables the production of latex foam mattresses.
  • 40er Jahre A. Talalay develops an alternative process for the production of latex foam mattresses (Talalay method).
  • 1997 Project EOPPSL is started in Sri Lanka. The main idea is to produce natural products from naturally re-growing raw materials in order to maintain the ecological and economic balance.

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