This black & white educational film is about Goodyear’s rubber trees in Sumatra and how that rubber is used to make our tires here in America. This film was made in 1939 by Goodyear.

Opening titles: Conquering The Jungle, presented by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co, Akron, OH (:08-:34). The island of Sumatra. Sumatra is a large Indonesian island west of Java and south of the Malay Peninsula. It’s known for its rugged tropical terrain, wildlife and smoldering volcanoes. Lots of rubber trees grow there. In 1916 Goodyear started rubber plantations. The inhabitants like to fish. People who live there bathe and wander (:35-2:27). A child smokes a cigarette and adults laugh. Jungle shots. Oxen pulls carts and lumber. People remove a large snake. Better places to live were set up for the locals so they could assist with Goodyears intentions on this land. The natives received running water and took good showers. Laundry and bath can be done together. Engineers looked to conquer the jungle and clear parts of it. Underbrush was cleared. Trees were then cut down. This way rubber trees could be planted (2:28-4:32). Work progressed slowly as the men learned their jobs. Trees were cut and burned as was underbrush. Tree stumps were removed. All of this land had to be cleared so rubber trees could be planted (4:33-5:31). In 1498, Christopher Columbus found the natives of South America playing with a crude rubber ball. 94,000 of acreage could supply the plant in Akron for 25 days. Just the right amount of bark can be cut off so latex can be collected. Shots of the tree bark being cut by natives (5:32-6:48). Each tree gives between 4 and 6 pounds of rubber. Lots of footage of the workers working. The explanation about the coagulation of latex is shown and explained. Machines break down the crude rubber. Rubber is packaged and shipped to Ohio (6:49-8:16). Shipments leave on a train. Workers leave and return home, they get rice. A storyteller tells a story about Sumatra with puppets. There is a horse fair. Shots of horse racing. The men play a game of chance (8:17-9:44). A native dance group. Ships are loaded by the workers (9:45-10:16). A shot of a tire wrapped around the globe (10:17-10:24). End credit (10:25-10:33).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com