European explorers discovered that natives in South America played with balls that stretched and bounced. When Mayans needed shoes, they dipped their feet in raw latex.
Brazil provided the world with the rubber tree, but that country no longer plays any significant part in the world natural rubber trade. Seeds were exported from the lower Amazon area of Brazil to London UK by Henry Wickham, a local planter acting for the British Government in 1876. The Europeans discovered that the substance, named 'rubber' after its ability to rub out pencil lead, had many interesting and useful properties. But the discovery of latex and its special properties belongs to the Mayans.
