In this film, Ambrose Flint talks about developing his own rubber from the guayule plants in New Mexico. The bushy shrub does contain latex that can be extracted. It grows in the desert areas of the SW U.S. and northern New Mexico. It was not fully developed by the end of the war and then abandoned because the traditional plant sources were much more productive and less expensive.
As alluded to in this movie, Tire Rationing Boards in WW II issued certificates for people to obtain tires or have old ones recapped. New tires could only be obtained for vehicles used in essential services such as public health and safety, food and fuel deliveries, and public transport.
Three-fourths of the rubber the U.S. used by the start of World War II went into tires. The other quarter went into boots, gloves, raincoats, baby pants, hot water bottles, hoses, toys and all other products.
Tires and rubber were the first things to be rationed during World War II, beginning in the U.S. on Jan. 5, 1942. By that spring, the Japanese had taken the South Pacific countries that provided 90 percent of the rubber supply.
Although synthetic rubber had been produced by the DuPont Company since 1931, it was just a portion of what was used and needed in rubber manufacturing by the 1940s.