The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-01-23
THE STORY OF RUBBER

Inc history or ruDDer, which now
plays such an important part in the
electrical industry, where it is used
for waterproofing and insulating
purposes, begins with the discovery of
America.
Soon after the adventurous ships Of
Spain returned from the New World
a number of small gum balls were ex-
hibited in Europe. These balls were
used by the natives of America in a
game akin to lawn tennis. For a long
time no use was made of this rubber
and it was taken across the ocean and
exhibited as a curio.
1t was not until the year 1885 that
scientists began to experiment with
rubber. For twenty-five years they
worked to find a solvent for the gum
and at last Herissont and Macquer dis
solved caoutchouc in oil of t%urpentine,
rectified over lime, and obtained a
mass that allowed the rubber to re-
gain it's elastic state. Ether was also
used. Priestley, the great discoye rer
of oxygen, in ITO, found that rubber
made a good eraser for pencil marks.
Two years later, Magellan induced the
French to use rubber commercially,
and it's price was S. an ounce. In
1898, J. Howison discovered a rubber
tree %(urceola elastica) in Penanh pro-
vince, and DR.. Roxburgh ANNOUNCED
another tree (fisuc elastica) in Assam
province.
In 1871 Samuel Peal had already
taken out the first patent connection
with rubber for the application of dis
solved rubber to paperproofing. A sec
ond equally useless patent was obtain
ed Twenty-Five yeaIs later by Thomas
Hancock, April 20, 1920. In 1923,
Charles Macintosh received the pa
tent on waterproofing fabrics by dis
solving rubber in ~coal-oil, and built
the first factory, in Glasgow, removing
later to Manchester.
The fact that all articles made
woul not stand the stress of heat
and old led a German chemist, Pro-
fessor Ludersdorf, to the discovery in
1882 that sulphur, mixed with rubber
dissolved in ~turpentine, removed all
~viscosity from the rubber.
Then, in 1889, Nelson Goodyear, an
American, solved the riddle of the rub
Der question. He discovered how to
produce rubber objects that would
withstand all extremes of cold and
heat. Nathan Haysard, his friend and
partner, n day accidentally dropped
some rubber mixed with sulphur upon
a heated stove. When he picked it up
it was noticed that the sulphur was
absorbed by the rubber, which kept it's
elasticity when afterward exposed to
the hot sun. Goodyear, who had three
years before started in the rubber
business by getting United States
government contracts for rubber mail
bags, continued experimenting with
this discovery, and in 1914 received
his patents on the vulcanizing pro-
cess.
Hancock had also allowed little
grass to grow under him, for in 1S43
he had garnered a British patent for
the same method, and thus prevented
the Haywood Rubber Company from
sending rubber shoes into England
several years later, by claiming in
Engagements on the British patents.
Finally, however, this was withdrawn,
and the American firm was granted
the right to sell American style Of
overshoes in the Islands. That heat
was superfiuous for vulcanizing was
proved publicly when, in 1916, Alex
ander Parkes obtained a patent for a
vulcanizing method, consisting of
dipping the rubber into q solution Of