Early Ideas of Polymer Chain Shape

If one accepts the idea of the long chain macromolecule, the next obvious question relates to its conformation or shape in space. This is especially important since the spatial arrangement of the long chains was early thought to be important in determining the physical and mechanical properties of the material. Staudinger himself thought that most amorphous hi polymers, such as polystyrene, were rod-shaped, and when in solution, the rods lay parallel to each other. 

Rubbery materials were different, however. According to early workers (4), elastomers were coils or spirals in the sense of bedsprings, Staudinger himself (2) described the idea as follows  

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