pre-Columbian
Olmec balls
Latex mixed with morning-glory juices.
Natural rubber did not arrive as a finished commodity. Mesoamerican use / Goodyear 1839 / Wickham 1876 around Amazonia → Malaysia still explains who makes it and which tests it sits in.
Ten dated points, five eras and three milestones below are the spine — not a complete industrial history.
Where it began
Mesoamerican use / Goodyear 1839 / Wickham 1876Amazonia → Malaysia
Timeline
pre-ColumbianOlmec balls
Latex mixed with morning-glory juices.
1736La Condamine
European scientific samples from Amazonia.
1839Goodyear vulcanisation
Sulfur heat made a stable elastomer.
1843Hancock patent
British parallel to Goodyear.
1876Wickham seeds
Hevea smuggled to Kew then Ceylon and Malaya — colonial plantation age.
1888Dunlop pneumatic
Bicycles then cars.
1910sFordlandia
Failed industrial jungle; Asia kept the trees.
WWIISBR crash programme
Synthetic styrene-butadiene when Asia was cut off.
1990sAIDS-era gloves
NR latex protein allergy became a clinical topic.
2020sEUDR deforestation
Due-diligence rules hit Hevea maps.
The eras
1839
Goodyear vulcanisation
Sulfur heat made a stable elastomer.
1876
Wickham seeds
Hevea smuggled to Kew then Ceylon and Malaya — colonial plantation age.
1910s
Fordlandia
Failed industrial jungle; Asia kept the trees.
1990s
AIDS-era gloves
NR latex protein allergy became a clinical topic.
Milestones
Hancock patent
1843British parallel to Goodyear.
Fordlandia
1910sFailed industrial jungle; Asia kept the trees.
EUDR deforestation
2020sDue-diligence rules hit Hevea maps.
Knowing this timeline is how to read a mill certificate without treating Natural rubber as timeless.
Keep exploring
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