Amazon rubber boom the expansion of Iquitos in Peru. The rubber boom occurred largely between 1879 and 1912. There was heightened rubber production and associated activities from 1942 to 1945 during the Second World War. Natural rubber is an elastomer, also known as tree gum, India rubber, and "caoutchouc," which comes from the rubber tree in tropical regions. Christopher Columbus was the one of the first Europeans to bring news of this odd substance back to Europe, but he was not the only one to report it. Around 1736, a French astronomer recalled how Amerindians used rubber to waterproof shoes and cloaks. He
Corrosive substance or slowly over days or years, e.g. the rusting of iron in a bridge. Sometimes the word caustic is used as a synonym for "corrosive", but "caustic" refers only to strong bases, particularly alkalis, and not to acids, oxidizers, or other non-alkaline corrosives. At low concentrations, a corrosive substance is called an irritant, and its effect on living tissue is called irritation. At high concentrations, a corrosive substance causes a chemical burn, a distinct type of tissue damage. Corrosives are different from poisons in that corrosives are immediately dangerous to the tissues they contact, whereas poisons may have systemic toxic