The Grantville Gazette - Volume 6 Part 24

(E) When guayule is harvested, the plant is usually consumed. Therefore, the annual yield is the nominal yield-the yield in the year of harvest-divided by the harvesting age. Some sources appeared to be reporting the nominal yield, rather than the true annual yield. There has been some experimentation with clipping: harvesting only the part above ground, so the roots can regenerate a new crop. See PH232-3.

References General Rubber References cited encyclopedias, see Appendix 1 Brown, Rubber: Its Sources, Cultivation and Preparation (1914) Schidrowitz and Dawson, History of the Rubber Industry (1952) Coates, The Commerce in Rubber: The First 250 Years (Oxford Univ. Press: 1987).

Dean, Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber: A Study in Environmental History (1987).

Maclaren, Rubber Tree Book (1913) Jos.h.i.+, "Jungle Rubber"

Mongabay, "A Brief History of Rubber (based on Wade Davis, One River 1996) Polhamus, Rubber: Botany, Production and Utilization (Interscience: 1962) Polhamus, "Rubber Content of Miscellaneous Plants," USDA/ARS Production Research Report No. 10 (Aug. 1957)(S21.Z2382 no. 10)(USDA 1957) (specific gravity) Hildebrand, "Our Most Versatile Vegetable Product," National Geographic (February 1940).

Rubber Reclaiming Reschner, "Sc.r.a.p Tire Recycling,"

Para Rubber Listing of Hevea species and varieties

International Rubber Research and Development Board (IRRDB), "South American Leaf Blight,"

Villard, "Rubber-Cus.h.i.+oned Liberia," National Geographic (February 1948).

Akers, Rubber Industry in Brazil and Orient Loadman, "Sir Henry Alexander Wickham,"

Treadwell, Possibilities for Para Rubber Production in Northern Tropical America (1926) Guayule Rubber References Ford, "Desert Plant May Put Spring in Natural Rubber Production" (Jan. 2, 2002), Perry, Growing Rubber in California (1946) Hammond and Polhamus, Research on Guayule Vietmeyer, "Rediscovering America's Forgotten Crops," National Geographic (May 1981).

See also Vanderbilt (under Goldenrod)

Castilla Rubber References c.o.keley, et al., "Fruit Dispersal of Castilla elastica in secondary forest and a developed area of the La Selva Biological Preserve, Costa Rica"

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/esi/2000/cr2000/Group_1/Research_Project/Ca stilla.htm Treadwell, supra.

Pernambuco Rubber References IPGRI, "Hancornia speciosa Gomes," in "FRUITS FROM AMERICA: An ethn.o.botanical inventory"

http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/ipgri/fruits_from_americas/frutales/Ficha%20Hancornia %20speciosa.htm

Goldenrod Rubber References TrekEarth, "Edison's Lab"

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo52079.htm IEEE Virtual Museum, "High Hopes: Edison's Search for a Rubber Alternative,"

http://www.ieee-virtual- museum.org/collection/event.php?taid=&id=3456957&lid=1 National Park Service, "Goldenrod to Rubber,"

http://www.nps.gov/edis/edisonia/virtual%20tour/chemlab/goldenrod.htm MSN Encarta, "Thomas Alva Edison,"

Handel, "Thomas Edison Home and Laboratory" (1998) MSN Encarta, "Edison, Thomas Alva"

see Vanderbilt, Thomas Edison, Chemist Baldwin, Edison, Inventing the Century Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention

Milkweed Rubber References Whiting, "A Summary of the Literature on Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) And Their Utilization," USDA Biblio. Bull. 2 (Oct. 15, 1943)(SB 618 M5 W5) Volaric, Lisa; Hagen, John P., "The Isolation of Rubber from Milkweed Leaves.

An Introductory Organic Chemistry Lab," J. Chem. Educ. 2002 79 91 Beckett, "Rubber Content and Habits of a Second Desert Milkweed (Asclepias Erosa) of Southern California and Arizona"

Witt, M.D. and H.D. Knudsen. "Milkweed cultivation for floss production," in: J.

Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.), New Crops 428-31 (Wiley, New York. 1993) Duke, James A.. "Asclepias syriaca," Handbook of Energy Crops (online, 1983) http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Asclepias_syriaca.html "Chemistry for Kids Summer Camp 2001"

(Ohioan fifth to seventh graders in John Carroll University's "Chemistry for Kids"

program studied latex from milkweed and dandelions.) "Project Science--Ooze b.a.l.l.s Kit"

(includes instructions for extracting latex from Australian dandelions, milkweed (Asclepias cura.s.savica), Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), and Rubber bush (Calotropis procera)) Schuster, "Plant Study of Milkweed"

DeMarce, Virginia, posting to "Dead Horse: Rubber," 1632 Tech Manual (Nov. 5, 2004).

Boatright, Rick, posting to "Dead Horse: Rubber," 1632 Tech Manual DeGooyer http://www.agron.iastate.edu/~weeds/weedbiollibrary/u4milkw1.html http://www.ars.usda.gov/sites/monarch/sect2_5.html

Dandelion Rubber Kolachov, "Kok-Saghyz, family 'Compositae,' as a Practical Source of Natural Rubber for the United States," National Farm Chemurgic Council Bulletin (1942).

Whaley, "Russian Dandelion (Kok-Saghyz): An Emergency Source of Natural Rubber," USDA Misc. Pub. 618 (June 1947). Suomela, On the possibilities of growing Taraxac.u.m kok-saghyz in Finland on basis of the investigations conducted in the years 1943-1948 (1950).

IPNI entry for Taraxac.u.m kok-saghyz, available through quotes Acta Inst.i.tuti Botanici Academicae Scientiarum URSS 1: 137 (1933), "Hab. In montibus Tian- schan, in valle flum. Kegen, 19.X.1931, leg. L. Rodin." Remark 99288.

Plants for a Future Database entry for Taraxac.u.m kok-sahgyz, available through See also Vanderbilt (under Goldenrod)

Miscellaneous References USDA Plant Profiles

Schwarcz, That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life (2002) "Signal Telegraph of the Civil War and the Wire Used,"

Finnish Defense Forces, Quartermaster Depot,

Boschert, Nancy, "Thermoplastic Vulcanizates in Medical Applications," Medical Plastics and Biomaterials (January 1997), online at Gabriel and Metz, Chap. 6, "Lethality and Casualties," A Short History of War, (RSR) "Rubber in Steam Railways,"

Rubber consumption figures are from Schidrowitz 332-36, U.S. population from the World Almanac, British population from , car owners.h.i.+p in the US from .

Geopolitics of Rubber Braudel, Wheels of Commerce, Vol. 2 of Civilization and Capitalism, 15th- 18th Century (U. California Press: 1992).

Perez-Brignoli, A Brief History of Central America (U. California Press: 1989) Smith, Explorers of the Amazon (U. Chicago Press: 1994) Hemming, The Search for El Dorado (Phoenix: 2001) Solana, "Dutch Trade with the Spanish West Indies and the Flemish Community in Cadiz in the Eighteenth Century: A Community of Shared Interests?"

Ramerini, '"Dutch Portuguese Colonial History"

and many satellite web pages.

"Colonial Expansion: the V.O.C. ((Dutch) United East India Company) 1602- 1798".

"Routes of the Silk Road"

Burns, Alan, History of the British West Indies (George Allen & Unwin: rev. 2d ed., 1965).

"International Commerce and Colonial Spanish America,"

Van der Kraan, "The Dutch in Siam: Jeremias van Vliet and the 1636 Incident at Ayutthaya,"

and "At the Court of King Prasat-Thong: An Early seventeenth Century Account by Jeremias Van Vliet,"

Polenghi, "The j.a.panese in Ayudhya in the First Half of the Seventeenth Century,"

Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "The Beginning of Relations with European Nations and j.a.pan,"

"Dutch Portuguese Colonial History,"

Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (19 ) Naipaul, The Loss of El Dorado (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: 1969) Bannon, Bolton and the Spanish Borderlands (Univ. Olahoma Press: 1964)

Appendix 1: Grantville Resources

Public and School Library Holdings "Composites," "Plant," "Rubber," "Dandelion," "Guayule," "Castilla Rubber Tree," "Rubber Plant," Encyclopedia Americana [in Public Library, per search of Mannington Public Library catalog]

"Industries, Chemical Process-Rubber" and "Angiosperms," Encyclopedia Britannica [in Public Library]

"Rubber," "Amazon," "Ceara," "Fortaleza," "Para," "Para (Belem)," Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911), online at [two copies in Grantville, one donated post-RoF to Public Library, per email from Virginia DeMarce]

"India Rubber," Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th ed. (1875-1889) [in Round Barn]

"Rubber," Collier's Encyclopedia [in Junior High School library, per Rick Boatright]

"Rubber," World Book Encyclopedia [in Senior High School library, per Rick Boatright]

Probable Personal Library Holdings Hammond Citation Atlas (and other atlases) "Rubber," Microsoft Encarta CD [per Rick Boatright]

National Geographic magazines, back to the 1950s at least. [ditto]

Personal Knowledge While there are no botanists in Grantville, the Up-timer Grid version 6r reports that Susan Lisa Beattie was a horticulture major in college. We don't know where she went to school, but the West Virginia University horticulture program requires 45 hours of agriculture courses. Since she only attended for three years, I would expect that she has taken perhaps two-thirds of that course requirement.

Alden Williams, Sr., Gene Caldwell, Linda Jane Colburn, Fran Genucci, Delia Higgins, Rose Harris (d. 1635), Dora Mobley, Jessica Booth, Deann Whitney, and Vera Hudson are either already master gardeners, or are in the apprentices.h.i.+p program for that honor. West Virginia Master Gardeners "receive a minimum of 30 hours of instruction. Along with an orientation, volunteers are given core training in plant science, plant propagation, soil science, plant pathology, entomology, communication skills, and integrated pest management." See And then there are the members of the Garden Club, and, of course, farmers.

While their knowledge is not going to help you find rubber trees or tap them, these people do know how to test soils, plant seeds, use twentieth-century garden and farm equipment, control plant pests, and so forth.

Down-Time Knowledge The up-time texts are not our only source of information as to where these rubber trees may be found. Down-time scholars may well be aware of texts such as Pietro Martire d'Anghiera's De Orbo Novo Petri Martyris Anglerii Decades Octo (1530; translated into English in 1612) which says that trees whose "milky juice . . . congeals to form a sort of pitch-like resin" can be found in the "Valley of Chirib.i.+.c.hi."

On the Design, Construction and Maintenance of Wooden Aircraft.

by Jerry Hollombe, Private Pilot (ASEL), Airframe & Powerplant Mechanic

Introduction.

This essay started out to be about what it takes to build an airplane using wood, wire, dope and fabric. It's still about that, but it's also about why there shouldn't be a down-time aeros.p.a.ce industry, nor much of an air force, in the first decade or so post Ring of Fire. I say "shouldn't"

because what actually happens is up to the fiction authors and, in my experience, when works of fiction are created, plot and drama trump the details of reality every time. Still, if you're going to break the rules, you should at least know what they are.