accidental metamorphosis. It was tantalizing, for the world was willing
to pay $2,000,000,000 a year for rubber and the forests of the Amazon
and Congo were failing to meet the demand. A large share of these
millions would have gone to any chemist who could find out how to make
synthetic rubber and make it cheaply enough. With such a reward of fame
and fortune the competition among chemists was intense. It took the form
of an international contest in which England and Germany were neck and
neck.

[Illustration: Courtesy of the "India Rubber World."

What goes into rubber and what is made out of it]

The English, who had been beaten by the Germans in the dye business
where they had the start, were determined not to lose in this. Prof.
W.H. Perkin, of Manchester University, was one of the most eager, for he
was inspired by a personal grudge against the Germans as well as by
patriotism and scientific zeal. It was his father who had, fifty years
before, discovered mauve, the first of the anilin dyes, but England
could not hold the business and its rich rewards went over to Germany.
So in 1909 a corps of chemists set to work under Professor Perkin in the
Manchester laboratories to solve the problem of synthetic rubber. What
reagent could be found that would reverse the reaction and convert the
liquid isoprene into the solid rubber? It was discovered, by accident,
we may say, but it should be understood that such advantageous accidents
happen only to those who are working for them and know how to utilize
them. In July, 1910, Dr. Matthews, who had charge of the research, set
some isoprene to drying over metallic sodium, a common laboratory method
of freeing a liquid from the last traces of water. In September he found
that the flask was filled with a solid mass of real rubber instead of