The History of Rubber Production
The various types of natural and synthetic rubbers constitute the materials of indispensable components in numerous fields of technology. Rubber as a raw material could gain such popularity due to its several advantageous properties, like being a good insulator, waterproof and elastic.
But how did it become so widespread?
The earliest evidence indicating the use of rubber is from Mesoamerica. The Olmecs – who lived here roughly from 1500 to 400 BC – are known to have made a ball used in their ballgame from the latex (not to be confused with plant sap) of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis), and they also waterproofed textiles by impregnating them with this milky white liquid. The Quechua word for this latex is ca-huchu, meaning “tears of trees.”
After the discovery of the Americas, Charles Marie de La Condamine presented the first rubber samples to the French Academy of Sciences in 1736, and in 1770 Joseph Priestley observed how efficiently rubber can rub writing in pencil off of paper, and this is how the material got its name, “rubber.”
The monopoly of the Amazonas area in terms of rubber export was ended by Henry Wickham in 1876, when he smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of Brazil, into England. 2,400-2,700 of these seeds germinated, which were then sent to tropical British colonies, such as India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Afterwards, Indonesia and Malaysia became the world’s most prominent rubber exporting countries.
Before World War II, rubber was used to manufacture not only erasers, but rubber gloves, toy balloons and dampeners (antivibration mounts).
The useful properties of rubber can be further improved by vulcanization – with heating and the addition of usually sulfur. The identity of who discovered this process is debatable, Englishman Thomas Hancock and American Charles Goodyear were the first to patent it in their respective countries.
By the end of the 19th century, the spread of bicycles caused a rise in demand for rubber – as their tires were made of natural rubber. This greater demand for rubber exceeded the rate at which it could be produced, thus necessitating a more mass producible substitute. Accordingly, in 1909, German chemist Fritz Hofmann polymerized isoprene, creating the first synthetic rubber.
The most popular synthetic rubbers are styrene-butadiene based; other types include polyisoprene, chloroprene, nitrile and silicone rubbers.
An advantage of synthetic rubbers compared to their natural counterpart is that their physical properties can be improved, fine-tuned based on their intended use not only via vulcanization, but by tweaking the ingredients of the compound used to make them.