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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Making rubber: Dumping and scraping pans

About this recording

Creator
Kristin Post
Date created
September 24, 2000
Duration
1:31
Location
Koh Sukorn, Thailand
File
MP3
License
This recording copyright ©2000. Terms of use

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The island of Koh Sukorn, Thailand, has many rubber trees. This one man I encountered owned his own trees, collected the rubber, and processed it by squeezing it into bath-mat sized rectangular slabs. Here you can hear the recording of that process.

The rubber started out in metal pans, that looked like large rectangular baking pans. Mud would stand inside the pan and squish the rubber with his feet. The water from the rubber would be somewhat removed. Then he transferred the rubber mat to a metal roller, where he cranked the handle, and the roller expelled more water (kind of like an old fashioned clothes dryer.) He then peeled the mats away from the pan and hung them in the sun to dry. Finally, he dumped the water from the pan and scraped off residual water.

This is a recording of the last stage of the rubber process, when he is emptying the metal pans and scraping rubber off the bottom.

From my journal:

Lucky me. I want to record sounds of making rubber. Wake up early and take out bike- first see man collecting rubber, but he didn’t want to be recorded. Then I see old man I danced with last night (at karaoke party at resort.) He is actually making the rubber. So I go back to the hotel, get batteries, and record him. When he’s finished with his six mats, he takes me to his house for naam and papaya. Dam, who works on the resort, shows up, and we exchange crucial info- his name is Mud, and he is 54 (looks much older.) Dam is 21. Then Dam leaves, and since it is impossible for me to say much more, I leave.