Origins of An Early English Rubber Manufactory

Abstract

America's indebtedness to Europe in the nineteenth century as a source of industrial ideas and technique is well-known. Our purpose, however, is to show that the transfer of technological knowledge was by no means one way, from Europe to America. In fact at least one important exception exists in the rubber manufacturing industry, the foundations of which were laid in the first half of the nineteenth century. The origins of this industry in the United Kingdom and throughout the Continent of Europe, including European Russia, show a marked dependence of the Old World on the New, not only in terms of technique but in the establishment of American business houses in Europe.