How was rubber first made? Detailed answer

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How was rubber first made? Detailed answer

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How was rubber first made?

In 1737, the French astronomer, surveyor and traveler Charles Condamine (1701-1774) presented rubber samples he had brought from South America to the Paris Academy of Sciences. Over the next hundred years, rubber became widespread in Europe and the United States: galoshes, raincoats, life buoys and many other useful things were made from it.

However, the industrial use of this material was hampered by its main drawback: in the heat, the rubber became stretchy and sticky, and in the cold it hardened like a stone. Many tried to eliminate this shortcoming, one of them was the American Charles Goodyear (1800-1860). In his experiments, he mixed rubber with any substance that came to hand: salt, pepper, sugar, sand, castor oil, ink, magnesia, even soup. Goodyear followed the naive belief that sooner or later he would try everything on earth and finally find a successful combination.

One day (this was in 1839) Goodyear accidentally spilled a mixture of rubber and sulfur on a hot stove. Quickly dropping lumps of the mixture from the stove, he, to his surprise, found that they did not melt from the heat, as usual, but were charred. Goodyear noticed that an elastic strip several millimeters wide had formed along the edges of the charred areas. This was the material that today is called rubber. And the process of adding sulfur to rubber, followed by heat treatment, is called vulcanization (named after the Roman god of fire, Vulcan). The discovery of Goodyear marked the beginning of the industrial production of rubber.

Subsequently, Goodyear said: "I admit that my discovery is not the result of scientific chemical research, but at the same time I cannot agree that it was just a pure accident. I affirm that my discovery was the result of perseverance and observation."

Author: Kondrashov A.P.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Why does a person round his eyes and open his mouth in surprise?

Rounding the eyes in surprise or fear is a reflex action that allows you to expand the field of view and thereby better assess the situation and the degree of danger. A similar reaction is demonstrated by the great apes. Also, in unexpected situations, many animals involuntarily open their mouths, which is associated with the connection to the perception of the vomeronasal organ, which is part of the additional olfactory system. In humans, this organ is not associated with the oral cavity, but the reflex is preserved.

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