THIOLLET M. R. -MareMagnum
PROCESS OF RUBBER-MAKING IN VIETNAM: A Suite of Twelve Black & White Photographs
24045601Malaya n.d. ca 1945-50 . A suite of 12 b.w. photographs 14 x 9 cm. each numbered 1-12 showing the manual rubber- making process very good. An interesting suite of real photographs. Each are numbered with English captions. While there is no place cited the Binh-Duong area was planted in rubber trees by the French in the mid-19th century. This suite likely comes from this area and shows the whole process done by manual methods and all by hand labor. Using machines that rolled the raw material by turning handles. The process begins: 1. Rubber tapping at dawn: it shows two workers using the knife to start the flow from the rubber tree. 2. Rubber tapping at dawn: shows two workers emptying the small trays of white latex into a buck- et right off the tree. 3. Sieving the latex: shows latex being poured into the larger collecting bucked trough a sieve. 4. dilution of latex: shows the Chinese numbered trays with latex being poured. 5. Addition of formic acid: shows the woman adding this to the trays to cause the latex to jell. 6. Mixing latex with acid and removing foam: shows the scouping of foam off into a tray. 7. The flattening of the coagulum with the palm: shows two women patting the large cake of latex down by hand. 8. Flattening the coagula- ted latex with a smooth roller: the woman feeds the latex sheet into a roller press while a man turns the wheel by hand. 9. Passing the rubber sheet throuogh a ribbed roller: she continues to run the sheet again and again until its large & thin. 10. Soaking the rubber sheet in a water tank: the large sheet is placed in a large tank of water. 11. Soa- ked sheets hung to dry on bamboo poles left is the smoke house: shows a man hanging the sheets like laundry. 12. She- ets hung in the smokehouse: like smoked fish the latex sheets hang on bamboo poles to cure. This hand-crafted latex method has long since been replaced by modern machinery. A rare insight to the effective but low-tech approach to a highly useful product and the method employed in South East Asia for many decades. At this small factory the entire pro- cess seems to be done by three Vietnamese workers 2 women & a man. They are dressed in shorts or light clothing the women wear the traditional Vietnamese "Baba" jacket all are working barefoot their bicycles parked near by while tele- phone or power poles are visible in the background however this factory runs on human labor without any electrical equipment whatsoever. There is a sheet-metal trough to col- lect rain-water into the washing and soaking bats as eviden- ce of a very rural and primitive setting with matching meth- odology. unknown
