Credited to Singapore. Singapore's National Library Board notes that a herringbone method already existed in Ceylon. Ridley's contribution in Singapore was refining it into a form of tapping that did not damage the tree.
How it began
Henry Nicholas Ridley, an English botanist, arrived in Singapore in 1888 at age 33 as the first director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a post he held until 1912. Rubber trees planted in the gardens in 1877 had matured by the time he came. Working with these trees in the 1890s, he refined a herringbone method of extracting latex that already existed in Ceylon into a technique that did not damage the tree.
Before it existed
Twenty-two rubber seedlings had reached Singapore from Sri Lanka in 1877. Twelve were planted at the Botanic Gardens and ten were sent to Perak in Malaya. No rubber plantation was formed in Singapore until 1898, and a rubber tree then took about ten years to mature. Tapping also had to avoid harming the tree if it was to keep producing.
How it works
The technique is known as herringbone tapping, after the pattern of the cuts made in the bark. Ridley's version let latex be harvested at regular intervals without damaging the tree, so that a tree could produce economically for more than 20 years without replanting. He also worked out growing practices that shortened the immature period of the tree from ten years to five.
Who pushed back
Planters were slow to accept rubber. Ridley promoted it tirelessly, publishing articles in the Agricultural Bulletin, mounting rubber displays at horticultural shows, and carrying seeds in his pockets to hand to anyone willing to try them. This earned him the nicknames Mad Ridley and Rubber Ridley. The first to act were Tan Chay Yan and his partners, who formed rubber plantations at Sembawang and Tampines in 1898.
What lasted
By 1906 there was massive demand for rubber for motor and cycle tires and for insulating electric wires, and in 1910 there was a rubber boom on the world's stock exchanges. Ridley is credited with laying the foundation of the rubber industry in Malaya and is known as the father of that industry. The Rubber Growers' Association gave him a gold medal in 1914, and the Institution of the Rubber Industry awarded him its Colwyn Medal in 1955.
