Rubber is a material which can stretch and shrink. It can be harvested in the form of the latex from the rubber tree or can be synthesized on a industrial scale.
Ancient Mesoamericans discovered how to produce rubber around 1600BC, more than 3000 years before Charles Goodyear invented vulcanization.
Natural latex from the Hevea tree comes from the Olmec culture, in which rubber was first used for making balls to play a game in ceremonial ballcourts.
Early Spanish conquistadors reported the utilization of rubber in combination with textiles for waterproofing purposes in the New World: "rubber-coated rain capes were worn by the Indians of Escuintla on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, a region of heavy rainfall".
Early records dating to the early 1520s describe "an attendant wearing a rubber-coated poncho" and Aztec soldiers "clad in garments woven from the fiber of the henequen coated with indiarubber gum".
In 1738 Frenchman Francois Fresneau, a botanist and scientist sent to Cayenne in French Guiana, discovered rubber trees and smeared latex on some old fabric to create a rainproof material.
Rubber was given its present English name by the British chemist Joseph Priestley in about 1770.
In 1770 Edward Nairne, an English engineer, inadvertently picked up a piece of rubber instead of bread and in doing so discovered rubber's erasing properties. Nairne sold natural rubber erasers for the high price of three shillings per half-inch cube.
In 1818 a British medical student named James Syme used rubber to waterproof cloth to make the first raincoats. Six years later, Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh (1766-1843) patented the process to produce waterproof cloth for raincoats, after experimenting with waste rubber products from Glasgow's new gas works.
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| Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree, Cameroon. By PRA |
HISTORY
Ancient Mesoamericans discovered how to produce rubber around 1600BC, more than 3000 years before Charles Goodyear invented vulcanization.
Natural latex from the Hevea tree comes from the Olmec culture, in which rubber was first used for making balls to play a game in ceremonial ballcourts.
Early Spanish conquistadors reported the utilization of rubber in combination with textiles for waterproofing purposes in the New World: "rubber-coated rain capes were worn by the Indians of Escuintla on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, a region of heavy rainfall".
Early records dating to the early 1520s describe "an attendant wearing a rubber-coated poncho" and Aztec soldiers "clad in garments woven from the fiber of the henequen coated with indiarubber gum".
In 1738 Frenchman Francois Fresneau, a botanist and scientist sent to Cayenne in French Guiana, discovered rubber trees and smeared latex on some old fabric to create a rainproof material.
Rubber was given its present English name by the British chemist Joseph Priestley in about 1770.
In 1770 Edward Nairne, an English engineer, inadvertently picked up a piece of rubber instead of bread and in doing so discovered rubber's erasing properties. Nairne sold natural rubber erasers for the high price of three shillings per half-inch cube.
In 1818 a British medical student named James Syme used rubber to waterproof cloth to make the first raincoats. Six years later, Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh (1766-1843) patented the process to produce waterproof cloth for raincoats, after experimenting with waste rubber products from Glasgow's new gas works.
American chemist Charles Goodyear received a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber on June 15, 1844. Goodyear is credited with inventing the modern chemical process to create and manufacture pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber, which was to be of great importance for vehicle tires.
Charles Goodyear died penniless trying in vain to protect his patents. Brothers Frank and Charles Seiberling started the Goodyear Tire company in 1898 and named it in honor of Goodyear.
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| Charles Goodyear |
Charles Goodyear died penniless trying in vain to protect his patents. Brothers Frank and Charles Seiberling started the Goodyear Tire company in 1898 and named it in honor of Goodyear.
Stephen Perry of the London-based rubber manufacturing company Messrs Perry & Company, patented the world's first elastic bands in 1845. Sleeves of vulcanised rubber chopped into bands, they were invented to hold papers or envelopes together.
In 1888, a Scottish vet called John Dunlop fitted his son's tricycle wheels with inflated rubber hoses instead of solid rubber tires in order to make it more comfortable to ride. The invention handily coincided with the new bicycle craze and his company, formed in 1889, became known as the Dunlop Rubber Co in 1900.
The natural color of rubber is white – tires were white for the first 25 years of their existence as a byproduct of Zinc Oxide being added to the rubber to add strength. Black tires only started being made after in the early 1900s when, Binney & Smith began selling their carbon black chemicals to Goodrich Tire Company. This was because they found that the use of carbon black in rubber manufacturing significantly increased certain desirable qualities for rubber intended to be turned into tires.
In 1890 William Halsted, the professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, introduced rubber surgical gloves for use in the operating theater. They were not for the patient's sake but to protect the operating-room nurse, his fiancée, whose hands were allergic to antiseptics.
In 1888, a Scottish vet called John Dunlop fitted his son's tricycle wheels with inflated rubber hoses instead of solid rubber tires in order to make it more comfortable to ride. The invention handily coincided with the new bicycle craze and his company, formed in 1889, became known as the Dunlop Rubber Co in 1900.
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| James Colquoun. Date(s) of creation: [ca. 1896- ca. 1904) |
The natural color of rubber is white – tires were white for the first 25 years of their existence as a byproduct of Zinc Oxide being added to the rubber to add strength. Black tires only started being made after in the early 1900s when, Binney & Smith began selling their carbon black chemicals to Goodrich Tire Company. This was because they found that the use of carbon black in rubber manufacturing significantly increased certain desirable qualities for rubber intended to be turned into tires.
In 1890 William Halsted, the professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, introduced rubber surgical gloves for use in the operating theater. They were not for the patient's sake but to protect the operating-room nurse, his fiancée, whose hands were allergic to antiseptics.
The Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company was founded on August 6, 1892, in Antwerp, Belgium. The company was established to exploit the natural rubber resources in the Congo Free State, which was a private colony controlled by King Leopold II of Belgium. The company's activities in the Congo led to significant human rights abuses and exploitation of the local population, and it played a part in the larger complex of colonization and exploitation in Africa during that time.
Humphrey O'Sullivan, an Irish printer in Lowell, Massachusetts, patented his invention of the rubber heel for shoes on January 24, 1899. It was his custom to stand on a rubber mat to ease his tired feet as he set type. It was inconvenient to carry the mat from place to place, so O'Sullivan nailed pieces of it to the heels of his shoes. To keep the nails from working loose, he molded washers into the rubber. O'Sullivan's invention of rubber heel for shoes outlasted the leather heel then in use.
Humphrey O'Sullivan, an Irish printer in Lowell, Massachusetts, patented his invention of the rubber heel for shoes on January 24, 1899. It was his custom to stand on a rubber mat to ease his tired feet as he set type. It was inconvenient to carry the mat from place to place, so O'Sullivan nailed pieces of it to the heels of his shoes. To keep the nails from working loose, he molded washers into the rubber. O'Sullivan's invention of rubber heel for shoes outlasted the leather heel then in use.
Sneakers Keds® were first mass-marketed as canvas-top "sneakers" in 1917. The word "sneaker" was coined by Henry Nelson McKinney, an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son, because the rubber sole made the shoe stealthy or quiet, all other shoes, with the exception of moccasins, made noise when you walked.
The primary source of natural rubber is the Pará rubber tree, which initially grew only in the Amazon rainforest.
By 1898, a rubber plantation had been established in Malaya, and today, most rubber tree plantations are in South and Southeast Asia.
PRODUCTION
The primary source of natural rubber is the Pará rubber tree, which initially grew only in the Amazon rainforest.
By 1898, a rubber plantation had been established in Malaya, and today, most rubber tree plantations are in South and Southeast Asia.
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| Rubber tree plantation in Thailand. By 松岡明芳 - Sukanya, |
Fritz Hofmann, a German chemist, is credited with creating the first synthetic rubber in 1909. He worked at the Bayer laboratory in Elberfeld, Germany, and he was able to polymerize isoprene, a natural compound found in rubber trees. The resulting product was called Buna S, and it was used to make tires and other rubber products.
Sergei Lebedev, a Russian chemist, is also credited with creating synthetic rubber. In 1910, he synthesized a rubber polymer from butadiene, another natural compound. Lebedev's rubber was called SK-1, and it was used for large-scale commercial production during World War I and World War II.
The first rubber plant in Europe SK-1 was established (Russia) by Sergei Lebedev in Yaroslavl under Joseph Stalin's First Five-Year Plan on July 7, 1932. The SK-1 plant was a major success, and it was soon followed by the establishment of other rubber plants in the Soviet Union. By the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union was one of the world's leading producers of synthetic rubber.
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| Sheet of synthetic rubber coming off the rolling mill at the plant of Goodrich (1941) |
Vulcanizing rubber joins all the rubber molecules into one single humongous molecule. In other words, the sole of a sneaker is made up of a single molecule.
During the 20th century world production of rubber increased a hundred-fold.
The top rubber producing countries in 2011 were Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.
About 15 billion kilograms (5.3×1011 oz) of rubbers are produced annually, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic.
FUN RUBBER FACTS
Lego makes more than 300 million rubber tires a year — making it the world's biggest manufacturer of tires.
A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber.
The game of squash gets its name from the sound that the rubber ball makes when it strikes a wall.
The little rubber thingy at the end of a toothbrush is called a "stimulator tip."
The tiny bits of rubber sticking out of tires are called "nubbins" and they formed in the holes used to pump rubber into the tire mold.
Bubble gum contains rubber.
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Source Comptons Enyclopedia
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