Natural rubber from latex, which comes from the sap of tropical trees, made nifty balls that
you could bounce.
But it became hard and brittle when it got too cold,
a sticky mess when it got too warm. In 1839 Charles Goodyear discovered
that latex heated with sulfur—or “vulcanized”—would
remain elastic at a wide range of temperatures. Although Goodyear didn’t
know why his invention worked, we do today:
The sulfur made bridges between the
long chain polymers in rubber to keep them from sliding past one another or
contracting into knots. Carriages, cars, trucks, and buses have traveled billions
of miles on tires made from vulcanized rubber and synthetic substitutes.
But it became hard and brittle when it got too cold,
a sticky mess when it got too warm. In 1839 Charles Goodyear discovered
that latex heated with sulfur—or “vulcanized”—would
remain elastic at a wide range of temperatures. Although Goodyear didn’t
know why his invention worked, we do today:
