Alexander’s acquisition of rubber might seem strange to many as the former had no access to rubber trees.
But Alexander did know of an alternative source.
And he was here to inspect the growth of that product.
“My lord, we are honored,” The head of the workshop, another peasant named Piash, was at the gates ready to welcome Alexander, who after the pleasantries led Alexander inside.
“So how are the flowers?” Alexander asked as he moved along the path, turning his head to look at the vast swathes of dandelions planted on both sides of the track.
Yes, Alexander indented to make rubber from dandelions.
Or more specifically, the roots of dandelions.
“My lord, these weed flowers can grow anywhere, anytime. So, you don’t have to worry about them growing properly,” Piash promised Alexander.
Dandelions were considered to be weeds and in Alexander’s previous life, millions of dollars were spent on weed killers every year to remove this menace.
And thus, as Piash assured, it took little to no effort to grow these wildflowers.
“That’s good,” Alexander nodded pleased, and then asked, “Show me the trial products.”
Like the sugar plant, Alexander had asked Piash to use some of the leftover dandelions he bought from Adhan as test pieces to see how much latex could be extracted from them and then try out the new refining process to make them into rubber.
“This way then my lord,” Piash urged Alexander and was led to a large warehouse which Alexander entered to see that it was filled with sheets of white rubber that were hung on thick wooden sticks like drying clothes.
“We have hung them to dry,” Piash commented and then strode over to get Alexander a sample.
“Here, please look,” Piash then handed over a sheet of rubber he had pulled down to Alexander to inspect, and as Alexander took it using both his hands, he found it to be soft, elastic, and wobbly.
Alexander then spent a bit more time twisting, bending, and pinching the product, and it was just like rubber.
To get this product, Alexander had asked Piash to collect the dandelion roots, clean and dry them over the fire and then shred them into tiny chunks, followed by dissolving them in water and then gently heating the whole product for a couple of hours until the rubber floats to the top as a sort of sticky gum.
This suspension would be skimmed off the surface and then again heated over the fire to further evaporate the remaining water vapor, finally obtaining latex.
This end product was the one Piash had handed Alexander, which looked like giant sheets of thick paper.
‘Mmmm, not bad,’ Alexander said to himself.
He had read about this alternative source of natural rubber in an article, which touted it as the next big thing in tire manufacturing, and so decided to try it now for himself.
And though he was a bit skeptical at first about getting rubber from the milk of the dandelion flowers, the product in his hand managed to erase much of his doubt.
“You have done well. Good job,” Alexander praised Piash, who let out a large smile and silently bowed, though internally he asked himself, ‘But what is this thing? I have known dandelions all my life and I have never seen anything like that.’
But he did not have the guts to question Alexander and simply vowed to follow whatever his lord instructed him to.
And further instructions were soon given to him, as Alexander said, “Next, you will take these rubber and mix it with 2% sulfur and heat them for a few hours. And then, you will roll them into thin sheets like this again.”
“Yes, my lord,” Piash immediately nodded and agreed.
And though he was curious, Piash did not ask why.
Because that was not his job.
But the person issuing the instruction did know, for this process was called vulcanization and it was something Alexander was taught in his A-level Chemistry.
Vulcanization helped rearrange the polymer molecules of rubber in such a way that it made them stronger and more elastic, in addition to making them more abrasion resistant, meaning they will last longer.
And the extent of his process could be controlled by varying the percentage of sulfur added,
For example, 2% to 3% of sulfur made soft elastic rubber, perfect more making rubber bands, erasers, and the thing Alexander was most interested in, elastic bands to be used in men’s and women’s underwear.
And for now, that was what he had commanded Piash to make.
But if one were to move up a bit, up to 4% to 6% of sulfur, that produced mid-rubber, which was stronger and harder than the previous iteration but also less elastic.
This type of rubber was primarily used in making corks, gaskets, sports balls, shoes, and various types of rubber padding.
For now, Alexander planned to use them to make gaskets for storing gas in cylinders, make badminton feather corks, and make balls such as footballs, tennis balls, and basketballs.
And lastly up to 10% of sulfur produced hard rubber, the most wildly produced of the three types, almost entirely used in making tires. ｂ𝚍ｏｖ𝚕．𝚝
Alexander was still ambivalent about using this type of rubber, as he was still not sure if he wanted to introduce tires to his carriages.
‘I can decide on that after knowing my output,’ Alexander decided, remembering that particular article itself had also said that the new discovery of natural rubber would not move the needle of global rubber demand.
Because if the entire world were to switch to dandelion rubber, it would have to be grown over a land the size of Australia to meet all the demand.
Hence, though not skeptical of the product, Alexander was still skeptical of the volume of the product.
And he decided to ask Piash exactly that, “So, how much rubber is there? And how much dandelion did you need to make it?”
“My lord, we had around a ton of dried dandelion roots. And from that, we got 150 kg of rubber,” Piash gave an exact number.
‘A 15% of dried weight,’ Alexander remarked, as he found the yield reasonable.
Later he would find that a hectare of dandelion would net him 200 kgs of rubber, which meant that he could get a ton of the stuff from the five hectares he had planted.
This was quite adequate for the time being as there was very limited use of the stuff for the time being, for the primary use of rubber was in making tires, or more accurately about 70% of all rubber was used in that endeavor.
And as Alexander did not intend to coat his wooden wheels with this, thus his demand for rubber would be only limited to elastic bands to be used for clothes, and some other niche uses like sealants and rubber balls.
‘Hmmm, I should also remember to tell Gelene to use it on her panties,’ While Alexander was thinking of the rubber uses, he added that thought as a side note.
He also reminded himself to order the manufacturing of football, as he intended to introduce the game soon to the populace.
And with that thought, Alexander also remembered about another product, ‘Ohh, I will need to invent an air pump to fill up the ball too.’
As Alexander noted these thoughts down, he then turned his attention to the security clearance of this workshop.
And he had decided to give it the highest grade possible, Level -5.
The reason for this was not because rubber was precious, or because it was rare, but because no one knew about it.
In fact, even in his previous life, this esoteric knowledge was not known until the late twentieth century.
Before that people believed that rubber trees were the only source of natural rubber and because of that, people once upon a time believed that Great Britain had almost a 100% monopoly on the stuff due to all its overseas colonies, and this had allowed the island nation to dictate the policies of many European nations.
So it could be seen that it was unlikely for others to figure this out on their own.
And as for deriving it from looking at Alexander, well the raw material, dandelion was a flower and a weed growing everywhere.
Alexander could easily hide its acquisition by claiming he liked the look and smell of it.
And even if someone was clever enough to make the connection, how would he know for what purpose this flower was being used?
Or which part of the flower was useful?
After all, Alexander produced so many products in his workshops.
And last of all, there was the addition of sulfur in the correct quantity, and the heating temperature and time.
All of these were critical to getting rubber with the desired qualities.
Figuring all these out by mere guesswork would be pretty much impossible for a single person, and even a group of people would require thousands of iterations to get it right.
And this difficulty in obtaining this knowledge was what made rubber so valuable and hence Alexander’s decision to give it the level 5 clearance, despite its impact on the economy being not as much as the other two current level – 5 products, glass, and sugar.
And with these thoughts, Alexander bid Piash goodbye, finally ending his workshop tour.
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