History of Rubber

Rubber history began when Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1476. that time, Columbus was amazed to see the Indians play ball with the use of a material that can rebound when dropped to the ground. The ball is made of a mixture of roots, wood, and grass mixed with a material (latex) and then heated above the bed and rounded like a ball.

In 1731, scientists got interested to investigate these materials. an expert from France named Fresnau reported that many plants that can produce latex or rubber, of a kind Havea brasilienss them growing in the Amazon jungle in Brazil. Currently these plants become the main rubber-producing plants, and has been cultivated in Southeast Asia which became the main rubber producer in the world today.

A chemist of Iggris in 1770 reported that, the rubber used to erase the pencil writing from. since 1775 began to be used as a rubber eraser pencil marks, and be chewing it in the UK is called by the name Rubber (from word to rub, which means deleting), previously used breadcrumbs to erase the pencil marks. Basically, given the scientific name for elastic objects (like rubber) is an elastomer, but the title was rubber-more popular among the general public.

Rubber goods that are produced when it has always been stiff in winter and sticky in the summer, until a man named Charles Goodyear who conducted research in 1838 found that, with sulfur and heated dicampurkannya keret then it becomes elastic and no longer affected by the weather. Most scientists agree to establish as an inventor Charles Goodyear vulcanization process. The discovery of the vulcanization process eventually be called the beginning of the development of the rubber industry.

At the time of the Japanese occupation in Southeast Asia in WWII, supplies of natural rubber in the country to be a critical ally and is expected to run out within a few months. The U.S. government encourages research and production to produce synthetic rubber to meet urgent needs. This huge effort to fruition in a short time and continues to grow after WWII ended in 1945. Within a period of 3 years after the end of WWII, a third of the world dikonsumsioleh yag rubber is synthetic rubber. In 1983, nearly 4 million tons of natural rubber is consumed by the world, by contrast, synthetic rubber used has exceeded 8 million tons and growing until now.