Tin, Rubber and Tourists
 Have
been the major he economic forces that have shaped the development and
history of Phuket. The following pages are a brief look at the past and
present of these dynamic forces and what future impact they are likely
to have.
Tin ranks 49th in abundance of the elements in the earth's
crust. The principal ore of tin is the mineral cassiterite (or tinstone),
SnO2, found abundantly on Phuket Island. Tin is a widely sought metal
and is used in hundreds of industrial processes throughout the world.
Tin is important in the production of the common alloys bronze (tin and
copper), solder (tin and lead), and type metal (for printing presses,
tin, lead, and antimony), and pewter (tin and lead). In the form of tinplate,
it is used in the manufacture of tin cans, and similar articles, it is
used as a protective coating for steel, copper, and other metals. It is
also used as an alloy with titanium in the aerospace industry and as an
ingredient in toothpaste and some insecticides.
On Phuket tin is often found in placers, or deposits
of sand and gravel containing particles of the mineral. At first tin was
mined by waiting for nature to wash away the soil layer and expose the
veins of tin bearing gravel. Open-shaft mining was the next innovation
the tin ore was removed from deposits that cropped out near the surface.
A narrow shaft would be dug 20 to 40 feet deep through the soil into a
vein of tin that was usually oblong or bell shaped. The tin ore bearing
gravel could then be hand-carried to the surface for processing. In spite
of the back-breaking labor and danger of this type of mining the landscape
was dotted with hundreds of open-shaft mine entrances.
By the mid-eighteenth century Phuket had large state-of-the-art,
tin strip mining operations. Mining technology evolved to allow surface
excavation by power shovels, bucket-wheel excavators, and high-speed conveyors,
that could deliver huge amounts sand and gravel bearing ore to a mechanical
system of screens, jigs, and sluices used to recover the tin ore. During
the rainy season ample water was available to feed huge high-pressure
hydraulic nozzles that could break down and sluice away the gravel bank
from entire an hillside.
The introduction of the first tin dredger in 1907 allowed
the tin mining industry on Phuket to expand into a vast new area that
had previously been untouched. Several types of dredges were used locally.
Hydraulic dredges sucked the ocean floor for the alluvial deposits of
tin through a pipe, separated the tin and discharged the spoil on the
shore through a floating pipeline. Elevator dredges employed an endless
chain of small buckets to scrape the ocean floor and separate the tin
ore from the rest of the spoil, which was discarded back into the ocean.
The coastline of Phuket and the surrounding ocean floor have been dramatically
altered by the dredging for tin.
In the extraction of tin, the ore is first ground and
washed to remove all impurities and then roasted to oxidize the sulfides
of iron and copper. After a second washing, the ore is reduced in a furnace;
the molten tin that collects on the bottom is drawn off and molded into
blocks known as block tin. Tin melts at 232°C (about 450° F) , boils at
about 2260° C (about 4100° F). Ordinary bar tin, when bent, issues a crackling
sound called ‘tin cry’, caused by the friction of the tin crystals.
Smelting tin ore produces small amounts of other valuable minerals usually
tantalum (used in the aerospace industry), niobium and wolfram.
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Tin was discovered a couple of millennia ago in the Kathu
district of Phuket (central area) and has been mined with varying degrees
seriousness and success until 1992 when the last mine on Phuket closed
Mining for metals like tin is one of the oldest human
activities. Since ancient times mining has had a fundamental political
impact on society. The institution of slavery received much of its legitimacy
from the need to compel some members of a society into the onerous and
often life-threatening work of mining. The value of minerals like tin
was enough to initiate wars and invasions. Tin mining at Cornwall, England
predates history. It was conquered by the ancient Romans who exported
the tin ore by ship to Rome. Control of the tin mines passed to the Saxons,
the Celts and finally the Normans. Since 1337 the heir to the British
crown has held the title of ‘Duke of Cornwall’. The colonization
of many areas of Asia was in part due to the need of Europe to acquire
the metals to feed the factories of the Industrial Revolution.
The primary use of tin in the ancient world was to smelt
with copper to form the alloy of bronze. Throughout the development of
mankind the discovery and use of tin to form the alloy of bronze heralds
the passage of a society from the Stone Age. Early bronze was mainly used
for weapons and cutting tools, bronze is stronger and harder and holds
an edge better than any other common alloy except steel. Bronze weapons,
swords, spears, arrowheads, shields, adzes, and axes, offered a huge technological
advantage over weapons made from stone, bone, wood or copper. Harder iron
weapons appeared at later times, but bronze remained in use to make cannons
until fairly recent times, when steel making was perfected. Long after
bronze was superseded by iron and steel for weapons, it remained in use
in Thailand for temple bells and other religious items, for bowls, caldrons
as an artist's medium.
Tin is rarely used by itself, though blocks of pure tin
were used as currency and were considered as legal tender to pay taxes
with in Phuket until the democratic revolution in 1932. The Industrial
Revolution of the early eighteenth century saw the primary use of tin
shift to that of a protective coating to prevent corrosion on metals like
iron and steel. It has only been in the last twenty years that many new
high-tech composite materials, and resins have been developed to replace
the use of tin. Although many of the traditional uses for tin have been
replaced with more modern materials, words like ‘tin can’, ‘tin
shack’, and ‘tin roof’ will long evoke memories of a bygone
era.
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Rubber
 Rubber,
an ubiquitous material that comes in so many shapes, sizes, textures,
and has so many uses that modern life would be literally impossible without
it. ‘Where the Rubber Meets the Road’, an advertising slogan
from major tire company may sum up best how vital rubber products have
been to the transportation revolution of the last century. Rubber, natural
or synthetic is a substance characterized by elasticity, water repellence,
and electrical resistance. Natural rubber is obtained from the milky white
fluid called latex, found in many plants; commercially the most important
is the Hevea Brasiliensis tree a native of the Amazon jungle of South
America. Synthetic rubbers are produced mostly from petroleum and petroleum
by-products.
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The Hevea Brasiliensis tree is most productive within
a narrow belt extending about 1100 km (about 700 MI) on either side of
the equator. About 250 trees are planted per hectare(100/acre), and the
annual yield for ordinary trees is about 450 kg hectare(400 LB/acre) of
dry crude rubber. In specially selected high-yield trees, the annual yield
may range as high as 2225 kg hectare(2000 LB/acre), and experimental trees
that yield 3335 kg hectare(3000 LB/acre) have been developed. Planted
in straight rows rubber trees dot the landscape of southern Thailand and
Malaysia.
Today the method of collecting the latex from the trees
is basically the same as when devised by Nicholas Ridley over a century
ago. The tapers begin work about 2AM and continue until sunrise. A cut
is made through the bark of the tree; this cut extends one-third to one-half
of the circumference of the trunk and is made in the shape of a chevron.
The latex exudes from the cut and is collected in a small cup, the amount
of latex obtained on each tapping is about 30 ml (about 1 fl oz). Thereafter,
a thin strip of bark is shaved from the bottom of the original cut to
retap the tree, usually every other day. When the cuttings reach the ground,
the bark is permitted to renew itself and a new tapping panel is started.
The gathered latex is strained, diluted with water, and treated with acid
to coagulate the particles of rubber then poured into a pan to harden.
Once the latex turns solid, the sheets are turned through one mangle (roller)
to stretch them and then another mangle which scores them with deep lines
to squeeze out the liquid and make them pliable. A common sight on Phuket
are what appear to be dirty white sheets about the size of large floor
mats hanging outside on a clothes line. These are raw sheets of rubber
being air dried for shipment.
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History of Rubber
The British scientist Joseph Priestley, observing its
ability to "rub out" pencil marks, gave rubber its English name.
Its name in French, caoutchouc, is more apt, however, coming from the
Indian-American word cachuchu, "the wood that weeps."
Some of the properties and uses of rubber were discovered
by the Indians of tropical South America long before the voyages of Columbus
made the knowledge available to the western world. For many years, the
Spaniards tried to duplicate the water-resistant products (shoes, coats,
and capes) of the Indians, but they were unsuccessful. Rubber became merely
a museum curiosity in Europe for the duration of the next two centuries.
In 1736 Charles Condamine in South America on a geographical expedition
sent back to France several rolls of crude rubber, together with a description
of the products fabricated from it by the Indians of the Amazon Valley.
General scientific interest in the substance and its properties was revived.
In 1791 the first commercial application of rubber was initiated when
an English manufacturer, Samuel Peal, patented a method of waterproofing
cloth by treating it with a solution of rubber in turpentine. In 1823,
a Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh began manufacturing waterproof cloth
and developed a line of rainproof garments that bears his name to this
day. Rubberized goods had become popular by the 1830s, and rubber bottles
and shoes made by the South American Indians were imported in substantial
quantities. The major drawback to these items were that they became brittle
in cold weather, and tacky and malodorous in summer. In 1839 the American
inventor Charles Goodyear patented a process of cooking rubber with sulfur
that removed these unfavorable properties from raw rubber, in a process
called vulcanization.
The wild rubber trees of the South American jungles continued
to be the main source of crude rubber for most of the 19th century. Attempts
to establish commercially viable rubber plantations in the western hemisphere
failed because of widespread tree loss as a result of a leaf blight. In
1876 as world demand for rubber far exceeded production, the British explorer
Sir Henry Wickham acquired some 70,000 seeds of Hevea Brasiliensis (known
to the world as rubber), and, despite a rigid embargo, smuggled them out
of Brazil. The seeds were successfully germinated in the hothouses of
the Royal Botanical Gardens in London, and were used to establish plantations
first in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and then in other tropical regions of
the eastern hemisphere. Eleven seedlings arrived at the Singapore Botanical
Garden in 1877 where Henry Nicholas Ridley developed a method to propagate
them rapidly and tap them for their lucrative white sap. In 1896, a Chinese
farmer in Malacca would change the face of, and the economic future of
not only Malaysia but the whole of Southeast Asia by becoming the first
to successfully grow rubber locally.
Phuket soon profited as well. The first rubber tree on
the island appeared in 1903 and steadily expanded to the point where rubber
plantations covered more than a third of the land area of Phuket Island.
Many large and profitable plantations were established and created another
wave of immigration to fill the needs of this labor intensive industry.
Thai Muslims make up the vast majority of people working the rubber tree
fields.
The developing automobile and aircraft industries helped
fuel a staggering demand for natural rubber. Synthetic rubbers had been
developed but they were expensive and were used only when special properties
were required. Rubber rode a continuous wave of prosperity that lasted
until the early 1940s. The political and economic significance of natural
rubber became evident when, during World War II, the supply from the Far
East was terminated. The acute rubber shortage accelerated the development
of synthetic rubber. With the outbreak of the war the United States embarked
on a scientific program that rivaled the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb)
in its scope and significance. Nearly a billion dollars was spent on research
and development of synthetic-rubber needed to keep the Allied war effort
in motion.
After the war the rubber industry spiraled through a
series of boom and bust cycles for the next forty years. The high production
levels achieved by the synthetic-rubber industry stabilized its price
at a time increased labor costs, environmental concerns, and political
instability, plagued the natural rubber industry. Periodically the price
and demand for natural rubber would gyrate erratically as the U.S. and
other world powers sought to accumulate natural-rubber stockpiles sufficient
to ensure their national security. The development of high-tech industries
like the space and computer fields created a continuous demand for new
and exotic products that lead to further advances in synthetic-rubber
technology and drove down the demand for natural rubber, and production
fell sharply. By the early 1980s the annual U.S. consumption of natural
rubber was about 280,000 metric tons, compared to well over 2,000,000
metric tons of synthetic rubber. The downward spiral continued into the
mid 1980s when the worldwide AIDS epidemic sent the demand for latex rubber
to manufacture condoms, surgical gloves and related products to near record
highs. Today most of the abandoned rubber fields have been brought back
into production and are being upgraded with higher yielding trees.
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Until 1972 and the prolonged recession in the metals
industry Phuket island had been rich in tin and rubber and tourism was
of no importance. Despite the fact that until recently Phuket regularly
contributed more than any other province to the national revenue, it remained
for many years an obscure and isolated southern province. Roads in southern
Thailand were scarce, infested with gangsters, and often impassable during
the rainy season. The only reliable way of getting to or from the island
was by boat. A major road building program, the opening of regular air
service, and most of all the opening of the Sarasin Bridge connecting
the island with the mainland dramatically changed this state of affairs.
In the mid-70s "Newsweek" magazine, in a special feature, listed
Phuket as a destination for travelers seeking something special and undiscovered.
Within a short time, people begun flocking to Phuket’s splendid west-coast
beaches and a significant new industry was born. Today, the island hosts
over one million visitors annually.
After a period of astonishing growth Phuket is now grappling
with the dilemma of how to sustain growth without destroying the environment
that makes Phuket so desirable. Without a master plan to channel the growth
and to develop the island into an integrated tourist destination much
of the recent growth has been haphazard and counterproductive. Traditionally,
it has been the awesome beauty of Phuket the white sandy beaches, the
balmy air, and warm sea that has been the principal attraction to the
island, but the current trend seems to favor the continued development
of glitzy and expensive tourist resorts that require massive environmental
changes to the island.
Some of the more bizarre encounters you may experience
here as a visitor are caused in part by the travel industry struggling
to maintain the profit margins of the high growth years. For example,
millions of dollars are spent yearly promoting Phuket as the ideal tropical
paradise but the first experience many have upon arrival is being locked
into a mini-van or bus with a driver with the mentality and driving skills
of a five-year old. It is difficult to relax after a long journey and
enjoy the beautiful scenery while hanging on for dear life, gasping for
breath, waiting to die at the hands of the maniac behind the wheel. To
the vehicle owner and driver it is simple the more people they deliver
the more profit. Untold millions are spent building hotels and resorts
for which they expect to charge a world class price, then you walk outside
and fall through the sidewalk.
A number of establishments on the island and throughout
Thailand charge a different price (higher) to farangs (foreigners) than
to Thais. To help the Thais understand how have offensive and obnoxious
this practice is we attempt the quote the different prices charged, and
you may choose to join the growing number of people who will not patronize
an offending establishment until the policy is changed.
For Phuket to enhance and maintain it’s status as
a world class travel destination it will need a greater level of cooperation
between the local government and the business community.
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