Goodyear, Charles rubber

Enter Charles Goodyear. Charles had no background in science, wasn t well known, and he had a lot of debt from a failed hardware store. What Charles did have, though, was a powerful desire to invent things. Charles became fascinated with rubber and how to make it more stable and resistant to changes in temperature. 

In 1839, an American inventor, Charles Goodyear, discovered rubber vulcanization, a process in which natural rubber and sulfur are heated together. The... 

Goodyear, Charles (1800-1860). Discovered vulcanization of rubber (1844) by sulfur, inorganic accelerator, and heat. Hancock in England made a parallel discovery. 

Vulcanization of natural rubber latex by heating it with S diseovered by Charles Goodyear (USA). 

American inventor Charles Goodyear patents vulcanizing of rubber. 

In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered that sulfur could cross-link polymer chains and patented the process in 1844 [1]. Since then rubber became a widely usable material. By the year 1853, natural rubber (NR) was in short supply. So attempts were made to undo what Goodyear had accomplished. Goodyear himself was involved in trying to reclaim vulcanized rubber to overcome the shortage of NR. Later, as a consequence of World War I, Germany introduced synthetic rubbers, namely the Buna rubbers, which raised the curiosity of polymer chemists all over the world. Subsequently, synthetic rubbers with tailor-made properties were born. This was followed by the discovery of new methods and chemicals for vulcanization and processing. It is obvious... 

Natural rubber latex, obtained from rubber trees, is converted to its final form by a process known as vulcanization, first discovered by Charles Goodyear in 1839. Vulcaiuzation is basically a crosslinking reaction of double bonds in the latex structure with sulfur. The polymerization of butadiene with itself or with other vinyl monomers results in a material that like natural latex, still contains double bonds. Thus, synthetic rubber made from butadiene can be processed and vulcanized just like natural rubber. 

The long-chain molecules described so far do not have the durability and strength associated with rabber products such as rubber bands and automobile tires. To achieve these properties, rabber must be treated chemically to create chemical bonds between long-chain molecules. This process is called cross-linking because links are formed across the chains in addition to bonds along the chains. Vulcanization, the first way to form cross-links in rabber, was discovered in 1839 by Charles Goodyear, founder of the first U.S. rabber company. 

Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) is acknowledged by some as the discoverer of vulcanisation by the heating of a rubber-sulphur mixture. Many others including Ludersdorf and Hancock were also researching means to impart long term stability to rubber at around the same time. Goodyear did not patent his discovery until 1844, whereas Hancock obtained a British Patent for a process of vulcanisation in 1843. 

In 1839, vulcanisation process was discovered by Charles Goodyear. In this process, the milled rubber is mixed with sulphur and then introduced in a mould and heated to 150°C for a few hours. The time and temperature of vulcanisation can be decreased by adding certain catalysts called accelerators. They generally contain nitrogen, sulphur or both. 

It was well known at the turn of the century that rubber has the empirical composition, C5H9. Michael Faraday elucidated its composition in 1826 by careful elementary analysis. His work, an effort of extreme complexity, has been diminished by the years, but it regains its stature when you recall that over thirty years passed before the next major step was performed. In those thirty years rubber was blended, dissolved, and even vulcanized (by Charles Goodyear in 1839), but it was in 1860 that its major chemical component was discovered. This important finding was made by Greville Williams. He named the product of the destructive distillation of rubber, isoprene. 

The vulcanization of rubber is often called one of the great accidental discoveries. But really, it was because Charles persisted in his work despite setbacks, and because his mind was prepared to see the importance of the discovery.There are now over 21 million metric tons of natural and synthetic (manufactured) rubber produced each year. Over half of all manufactured rubber is used for tires the rest is used for hoses, gloves, and other products.The GoodyearTire Rubber Company was named after Charles Goodyear, although he died 30 years before it was founded. 

Information on Charles Goodyear, the discovery of rubber, and the history of the Goodyear Tire Company, http //www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history story.html... 

Charles Goodyear grew up in poverty. He was a Connecticut Yankee born in 1800. He began work in his father s farm implement business. Later he moved to Philadelphia, where he opened a retail hardware store that soon went bankrupt. Goodyear then turned to being an inventor. As a child he had noticed the magic material that formed a rubber bottle he had... 

Before 1800 Cotton, flax, wool, and silk fibers bitumens caulking materials glass and hydraulic cements leather and cellulose sheet (paper) natural rubber Hevea brasiliensis), gutta percha, balata, and shellac 1839 Vulcanization of rubber (Charles Goodyear)... 

Wolf, R. F. 1939. India Rubber Man The Story of Charles Goodyear. CaldweU, ID Caxton Printers. 

American inventor Charles Goodyear (1800-60) develops a process known as vulcanization that makes rubber more durable and elastic, which encourages the widespread usage of this material. 

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