Chapter 950 Rubber Resources

United States Washington.

"How's it going in Moscow?"

"We have lost all contact with Moscow since the massive shelling and bombing by the European coalition began. All we know is that the shelling and bombing continue."

"This is already the third day. With such fierce shelling and bombing, do the Germans want to flatten Moscow?!" Are the Germans too arrogant? Are these shells and bombs free of charge? ! If so many shells and bombs had fallen into Washington, Washington would have been razed to the ground. (Moscow covers an area of ​​2,511 square kilometers, and Washington covers an area of ​​177 square kilometers). It’s scary to think about it.

"With the intensity of their bombing, Moscow may have been leveled."

Everyone in the conference room sighed together. The Soviets wanted to rely on the city to fight street battles, but if the entire city was leveled, how could they fight?

"It seems that there is really no hope for Moscow." Vice President Truman murmured extremely depressedly. In fact, everyone knew a long time ago that the Soviet Union would be finished sooner or later, but now it seems that they may not even be able to severely damage the German army. The countdown to Stalin's doom has truly entered. "What happened to the 'Atlantic Line of Defense' and the 'Pacific Line of Defense'?" After Moscow was completely defeated, the Germans' next and final target would be the United States. Vice President Truman was extremely concerned about the progress of the construction of these two lines of defense.

Marshall replied. "The progress has been accelerated, but now there are more important issues."

"What's the problem?" Upon hearing the word "problem," Vice President Truman felt a dull pain in his temples, but he could only ask bravely.

"We are currently in dire need of natural rubber."

As a large country with vast territory and abundant resources, the United States is quite rich in mineral resources. The mineral reserves ranking first in the world are: coal, molybdenum, trona, boron, bromine, sodium sulfate; the second largest mineral reserves are: copper, gold, cadmium, silver, Yttrium, phosphorus, sulfur; the third place is: lead, zinc, rare earth, barite, iodine; the fourth place is: platinum group metals, tungsten; the fifth place is: iron ore; the sixth place is There are: natural gas, antimony, bismuth, potassium salt; the 8th place is: ilmenite, uranium; petroleum is the 11th place.

Of course, some resources are not abundant, and some strategic resources even need to be imported from abroad.

One of the most important strategic materials is rubber. Rubber is widely used in industry, agriculture, national defense, transportation, transportation, machinery manufacturing, medicine and health fields because of its strong elasticity, good insulation, plasticity, water and air barrier, tensile resistance and wear resistance. Daily life, etc.

It is a necessary material for manufacturing various equipment such as aircraft, warships, tanks, and automobiles. The most famous Sherman tank in the United States requires about half a ton of rubber each; each heavy bomber requires about one ton of rubber; each battleship requires 20,000 rubber parts; when World War II broke out, the United States had 3,000 Tens of thousands of passenger cars, buses and trucks need tires; every inch of wire in every factory, every home, every office, and every military installation needs to be wrapped in rubber. The United States remains the world's largest consumer of rubber. country.

But the problem is that the United States does not produce its own rubber. Before the war broke out, the United States could obtain natural rubber from South America and Asia, so it was naturally confident. As a result, when the war broke out, not to mention Asia, even South America, which was close at hand, was cut off. supply. , the rubber resources that could have been squandered have now become extremely scarce.

What’s interesting is that during World War II, Germany was also in a dilemma of lack of natural rubber and could only use synthetic rubber. As early as 1909, a German chemist obtained the first patent for synthetic rubber. In 1910, the German Continental Corporation began to produce this synthetic rubber. During World War I, in order to meet the needs of the war, Germany produced some small quantities. By World War II, synthetic rubber began to be used on a large scale. In 1944 alone, the output of synthetic rubber exceeded 100,000 tons.

On the other hand, in the United States, because of the "inexhaustible" natural rubber, they did not bother to research synthetic rubber. By 1939, the United States' synthetic rubber production capacity was only 4,000 tons per year. Moreover, the major rubber manufacturing companies in the United States are not united. They use the patents in their hands to undermine each other. If I can't eat the meat, you can't even think of eating soup. In the end, it's you who suffer the loss. Now even the strategic reserves of rubber are used up.

Although Vice President Truman was not an expert in this area, he also knew the importance of rubber when thinking about car tires. "Then what can be done?"

The best way is naturally to find other sources of rubber imports, but this is unlikely. The world's natural rubber is mainly distributed in Asia, Africa, Oceania, Latin America and other places. Today, it is impossible for the United States to purchase natural rubber from these places. Mexico, the neighbor of the United States, produces natural rubber, but the output is not large, which is a drop in the bucket for the United States.

"Develop the synthetic rubber industry as soon as possible. We need to let major companies sign patent and information sharing agreements, and industry, academia, research and other aspects must also work together to develop and produce synthetic rubber."

Vice President Truman nodded. "I will submit this proposal to Congress."

After the Pearl Harbor attack in the original time and space, the United States was also cut off from the Asian transportation line, and could only vigorously develop and produce synthetic rubber. In 1943, the output of synthetic rubber had exceeded that of imported rubber, and by 1945, it had produced more than 900,000 tons. By 1950, 90% of the world's synthetic rubber was produced by the United States alone. The United States produced things almost from scratch, and developed a huge synthetic rubber industry within three years. The United States produced 50,000 Sherman tanks during the war, and produced 1.4 million rubber aircraft tires in 1944 alone. Rubber shoes, rubber-soled shoes and rubber heel shoes were in the hundreds of millions. By the time of the counterattack in 1944 and 1945, there was never a shortage of rubber during the Allied campaigns, just because synthetic rubber kept up.

But at that time, the United States was not attacked, and major companies and factories in the country could carry out research and development and production safely. Now German bombers come to drop bombs every now and then, and all factory areas with a certain scale are bombed by the German army without exception. Only God knows whether the "rubber miracle" of the original time and space can be reproduced.

Marshall can only do his best. "We can also call on everyone to hand in all the waste rubber to the second-hand goods station. The government will purchase these waste rubbers for a fee and then refine them. The tire width of civilian and military vehicles can be reduced by one centimeter, and the soles of soldiers' military shoes can be reduced by one millimeter." And so on, Marshall said several plans in one breath.