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Brief History of Rubber

An indispensable product to modern society as steel, wood and mortar is rubber. Rubber is of two types—natural and manmade. All of us use products made of rubber at home, at work, at play and even when we travel. Automobiles, trains, aircraft, industries rely on it for variety of purpose. That is why it is rightly said that rubber in the modern world is omnipotent.

What is rubber, exactly and where does it come from?
Rubber is a yellowish, elastic, amorphous material obtained fromthe latex or milky sap of various tropical plants like the rubbertree. This latex is vulcanized, pigmented, finished and modifiedinto various products like electric insulation, elastic bands,belts, tires, hoses, gaskets and containers. Rubber is also knownby its scientific name “caoutchouc” or Indiarubber.

Ancient Rubber
The exact origin of rubber is not known. The indigenous people ofthe Americas had known and used rubber long before the arrival ofEuropean explorers. Rubber makers in ancient Mesoamerica werealmost 3,500 years ahead of Charles Goodyear and his vulcanizedrubber. The ancient Mayan people used latex to make rubber ballswhich were used in an important ritual game. This game was calledTlachtlic, a cross between football and basketball, but hadreligious significance. This was recorded in the Popul Vuh, a Mayanreligious document.

In 1525, a person called Padre d'Anghieria reported that he hadseen Mexican tribespeople playing with elastic balls. An eraser wasconsidered to be the first use for rubber. This was suggested byMagellan, a descendent of the famous Portuguese navigator. It waspopularized in England by someone called Priestley and it becameknown as India Rubber. The Portuguese meaning of rubber is borrachaand this originated from making jars replacing the leatherborrachas that the Portuguese used to ship wine.

In 1735, the first scientific study of rubber was undertaken byCharles de la Condamine. According to him, rubber could be used toproduce flexible tubes. Since then, there were many craftsmen whobecome involved with rubber. In 1820, Nadier, a Britishindustrialist produced rubber threads and attempted to use them inclothing accessories. This was the time when America was seized byrubber fever, and there was the waterproof footwear used by theindigenous people which became a success. Snow boots and waterprooffabrics were produced in New England.

In 1832, the Rosburg factory was set up which unfortunately did notdo well as cold weather affected goods produced from non-vulcanizednatural rubber, leaving them brittle and thereby discouragingconsumers.

Vulcanized Rubber
After a long period trying to develop a process to upgrade rubberqualities that almost ruined him, Goodyear discoveredvulcanization, quite by accident in 1840. Till 1839, rubber wassubject to the change in weather conditions. The rubber was hot andsticky during hot weather. It became cold and brittle during coldweather. Goodyear discovered the process vulcanization when amixture of rubber, lead and sulfur were accidentally dropped onto ahot stove. This resulted in a product which wasn't affected byweather, and which came back to its original form if stretched. Theprocess was refined and thereby the uses for rubber materialsincreased. This new vulcanized rubber was resistant to water andchemical interactions and did not conduct electricity, and hencesuitable for a variety of products.

Modern rubber
Today more than 75% of rubber in production is a synthetic productmade from crude oil. During World War II, the United States couldnot supply rubber worldwide, and they stepped up production ofsynthetic rubber for use in the war effort. There are about 20grades of synthetic rubber and ultimately it is the intended enduse which determines selection. Natural rubber is just one kind.Because the rubber plant only thrives in hot, damp regions near theequator, the principal countries where there is 90% of true rubberproduction today is the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia andThailand and Indonesia. However, Indonesia's production has droppedin recent years and new rubber plantations were started in Africato take up the slack.

Today there is not just one substance or a product called rubber.Rubber belongs to a class, made up of a number of materials thathave the unique property of high elasticity.
Previous: Rubber Glossary
Next: Conventional rubber mixtures
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