To the question Who invented rubber? given by the author Yana Mashinskaya the best answer is The history of rubber began with the Great Geographical Discoveries. When Columbus returned to Spain, he brought many wonders from the New World. One of them was an elastic "wood resin" ball, which had amazing bouncing ability. The Indians made such balls from the white juice of the Hevea plant growing on the banks of the river. Amazons.
The Indians called the juice of hevea "kauchu" - the tears of the milky tree ("kau" - a tree, "I teach" - flow, cry). From this word was formed the modern name of the material - rubber. In addition to elastic balls, the Indians made waterproof fabrics, shoes, water vessels, brightly colored balls - children's toys - from rubber.
In Europe, they forgot about the South American curiosity until the 18th century. , when members of a French expedition in South America discovered a tree that emits an amazing, air-hardening resin, which was given the name "rubber" (in Latin resina - resin). In 1738, the French researcher Ch. Condamine presented samples of rubber, products made from it, and a description of methods of extraction in the countries of South America at the Paris Academy of Sciences.
If you mean car tires, then
The world's first rubber tire was made by Robert William Thomson. Patent No. 10990, dated June 10, 1846, says: “The essence of my invention consists in the use of elastic bearing surfaces around the rims of the wheels of carriages in order to reduce the force necessary to pull the carriages, thereby facilitating movement and reducing noise, which they create when they move.
In 1888, the idea of a pneumatic tire arose again. The new inventor was the Scotsman John Dunlop, whose name is known in the world as the author of the pneumatic tire. In 1887, J. B. Dunlop came up with the idea of putting wide hoops made from a garden hose on the wheel of his 10-year-old son's tricycle and inflating them with air. On July 23, 1888, J. B. Dunlop was granted patent No. 10607 for the invention, and the priority for the use of a "pneumatic hoop" for vehicles was confirmed by the following patent dated August 31 of the same year. The rubber chamber was attached to the rim of a metal spike with spokes by winding it together with the rim with a rubberized canvas forming the tire carcass, in the intervals between the spokes.
Answer from Abdula Rashidovich[guru]
comrade Goodyear. in England.
Answer from Sergey F[guru]
mine our scientists .. for industrial purposes .. and so rubber has existed for a very long time
even the natives received it by collecting the milky juice of the givea tree, which froze
on the body .. after which it was collected by removing itself like a second skin)
Answer from Cusco[newbie]
The first industrial synthetic rubber (rubber) was obtained in Russia in 1931. Professor S. V. Lebedev discovered an economical method for the production of butadiene from ethyl alcohol and carried out the polymerization of butadiene by a radical mechanism in the presence of metallic sodium
And natural rubber has long been obtained from trees 🙂
The story of the discovery of rubber vulcanization by Charles Goodyear is one of the most intricate and incomprehensible stories. He did not have the necessary knowledge and training. He faced difficulties that anyone else would have succumbed to. Often he didn't even know what he was looking for. Investigations brought Goodyear into the dense thicket of organic chemistry. Organic chemistry was still in diapers at that time. No one knew more about rubber or "rubber" chemistry than Goodyear, and he knew absolutely nothing. Goodyear simply believed in his lucky star. In 1735, an expedition of French astronomers found in Peru a tree that secreted a special juice, or resin, which was colorless in its natural state and had the property of hardening in the rays of the sun. The natives made various objects from resin: shoes, dishes, etc.
The French brought this substance home and introduced Europe to elastic rubber, which at first aroused interest only as a curiosity. Joseph Priestley wrote to a friend that he used it to erase errors in a manuscript. In its pure form, this substance had the following properties: when heated, it became soft and viscous, and at low temperatures it hardened like a stone. The first rubber factory was opened in Vienna in 1811. By 1820, the French had learned to make suspenders and garters from rubber threads woven with cotton. In England, Mackintosh came up with the idea of putting a thin layer of rubber between two pieces of cloth and making waterproof coats that became as hard as armor in the winter rain; in the summer they had to be stored in the basement. Around the same time, a sea captain brought five hundred pairs of hard Indian shoes to the United States. It began to be worn in rainy weather over ordinary shoes. These rubber shoes were very clumsy, but nonetheless were in great demand among the Americans. In America, they sold up to half a million pairs a year at a price of five dollars a pair, despite the fact that these "overshoes" were fragile.
Goodyear began experimenting with Brazilian elastic resin, making thin films at home using a rolling pin. He would mix raw resin with whatever he could get his hands on—salt, pepper, sugar, sand, castor oil, even soup—with the glorious logical conclusion that sooner or later he would try everything on earth and finally stumble upon a successful combination. . New Haven resident Ralph Steele lent Goodyear money, and he opened a shop for them. Hundreds of pairs of galoshes flaunted on the shelves. But on the very first hot day, they melted and turned into a foul-smelling mess.
So far, Goodyear has used Mackintosh's mixture as a base: elastic resin in turpentine. It occurred to him that the stickiness of this mixture was due to the presence of turpentine. He bought a batch of rubber resin and conceived a whole series of experiments. But before he had time to start them, one of his henchmen sealed a hole in his trousers with a piece of rubber. Waiting for the rubber to harden, he sat down. Gudiyr arrived in time and had to cut off a man from his trousers...
Goodyear closed his shop and began to experiment, mixing many substances with rubber resin: hazel, cheese, ink, and all this was no good, except for magnesia. When he mixed a pound of magnesia with a pound of rubber resin, the result was a material whiter than rubber resin and as flexible and strong as leather. He made book covers, piano covers from it, showed it to the public, received warm approval, laughed with joy - and a month later he was convinced that he again suffered a complete failure. Then he sold the house, took his wife and children to the village, and he went to New York in search of support and financial assistance. In New York he met two friends. One gave him a room on Gold Street as a laboratory.
At the next stage of the search, Goodyear abandoned magnesia. "Pure quicklime - that's the solution to the problem," he thought. But pure quicklime was not the solution - it destroyed the rubber resin.
Goodijr liked to paint with colored patterns products from the materials he received; once he tried bronze paint. But he did not like the bronze color and he removed the paint with aqua regia. A drop of acid on the rubber discolored the material so much that Goodyear immediately threw the sample away. The sight of a burnt spot did not go out of his head, and a few days later he found an abandoned galosh ... In the place where a drop of acid had fallen, the stickiness that had tormented Goodyear disappeared.
The aqua regia used by Goodyear was nothing more than nitric acid with a touch of sulfuric acid. Goodyear knew so little about chemistry that it seemed to him that he was dealing with pure nitric acid. He subjected several layers of rubber to the vapor treatment of the acid mixture. The result surpassed all his previous achievements, and he applied for a patent. He had rented an old rubber factory in Staten Island, set up a shop on Broadway, and was preparing to start mass production when a second economic crisis broke out, devastating Goodyear's patrons. After hard work, Goodyear decided to go on holiday with his family. During his two-week absence, the weather was hot. When Goodyear returned, he realized that fortune had abandoned him again: one hundred and fifty postal bags had melted in the heat. The surface of the bags survived, and this proved that the rubber on top had indeed been “cured”, but the inner layers of the fabric, which the acid vapor had not reached, became sticky. The contract with the government was liquidated; Customers began to return other goods. On the eve of this new failure, Goodyear took Nathaniel M. Hayward, a foreman from the Roxberry factory, as his assistant. Hayward also came up with his own method of "curing" rubber, which consisted of the following: elastic resin was mixed with crushed sulfur, then the mixture was dried in the sun. He called this method "solarization". The idea of solarization came to Hayward in a dream. To Goodyear's surprise, Hayward's rubber had the same qualities as the one he made himself. He had no idea that, in essence, it was the same rubber, since sulfur was used in both cases. Goodyear had a brother-in-law in Woburn, to whom he moved with his family as a poor relative. It was during that winter that Goodyear discovered what is now known as vulcanization.
“I was astounded to notice that a sample of rubber, accidentally left by the heated stove, was charred like leather. I tried to draw the attention of those present to this remarkable phenomenon ... since usually elastic resin melted at high temperatures, but no one except me saw anything remarkable in the fact that a piece of rubber was charred ... However, I ... concluded that if it were possible to stop the charring process at the right time, this would save the mixture from stickiness. After further experiments carried out at high temperature, I became convinced that my conclusion was correct ... and, which is extremely important, a strip of charring-free and completely “cured rubber” was formed along the edges of the charred area.
The car tire has come a long way from the first invention, which was patented back in 1846, to modern diversity and technological excellence. More than a century ago, one single person was involved in the production of tires, and the first manufactories, factories and conveyors began to appear decades later. It is now giant transcontinental corporations that have their own testing bases, huge production facilities and a staff of tens of thousands of people ...
And on June 10, 1846, a significant patent for the history of the automotive industry was issued in the United States under the number 10990, which secured the right for Robert W. Thompson to manufacture and install the world's first pneumatic tires, with an engineering solution primitive by modern standards, which was based on an air chamber made of canvas impregnated to retain air with a solution of rubber mass and gutta-percha.
The outer part consisted of riveted pieces of tanned leather. The first tests of the new invention took place in the same year, when Thompson installed tires on the carriage, and then checked the level of traction reduction. The results were great. Traction power was reduced by 38% when driving over rough terrain, and on not the best road surface in the world by almost 70. In addition, traveling in a carriage on these tires was more comfortable, softer and quieter. True, immediately after the death of the inventor, these tires were forgotten. The world began to wait for the emergence of a new guru in the production of pneumatic tires, trying to swear less while shaking in carriages.
The most powerful breakthrough in the field was a patent from 1888, which was issued to John Dunlop, whose name is known today, probably, by every schoolchild who played any game about racing. It is the Dunlop name that is associated with the appearance of the first pneumatic tire in the form that we are accustomed to seeing.
In 1887, after his son's numerous complaints about the inconvenience of a bicycle, John Dunlop glued together two hoops from a garden hose, pumped them up with air, and then pulled them over a bicycle wheel. Again, rubberized canvas appeared among the materials. The success of this Danlop tire was practically proven during the historic cycling race, in which the terrible cyclist William Hume on a bicycle with pneumatic tires easily won every race he ever ventured into. This success was the main reason for John Dunlop (other than, of course, money problems in the family) to organize his own small tire production in the city of Dublin. Pneumatic Tire & Booth Bicycle Agency became the first company in the world to study and produce pneumatic tires at an industrial level.
Just a year later, an unknown engineer working for Dunlop's company proposed to separate the tire from the chamber, as well as to reinforce the tire with wire rings. At the same time, the first method of mounting and demounting tires was invented, which became a breakthrough for all tire companies.
After that, it took the world only five years for the Frenchmen André and Edouard Michelin (Michelin) to produce the world's first car tire, which, with difficulty, but reached the finish line. It was a raw example of a pneumatic tire that did not take into account many external conditions, and the material had a huge amount of internal stress, which led to dozens of punctures on a 1200 km track.
Just a year later, in 1896, the Lanchester Car was equipped with tires from Dunlop, who tried to take into account the mistakes of competitors. The first car tires significantly increased the cross-country ability, comfort, smoothness and speed of the car, but were inconvenient in terms of installation. Installing tires sometimes took the whole working day. Competition between tire manufacturers, growing demand, and the rather rapid rise in prices for pneumatic tires led to a constant search for new engineering solutions, which led to standardization, improved tire mounting and demounting systems, as well as innovations that are still used today. For example, the introduction of a cord into a tire made of extra strong threads, new fastening systems, which became the main reason for the rampant growth of the tire industry at the beginning of the twentieth century.
It was during this period of time that the dynamics of the development of science that affects the production of tires, primarily chemistry, is most clearly traced. The very first tires were low-profile, thin and bicycle-like. This was due not so much to the peculiarities of the fashion of that time, but to the absence of carbon fillers to increase strength and reduce internal stresses, as well as to give a more rigid shape. It was the absence of carbon in the composition of rubber that led to the white and beige colors of tires in the early twentieth century.
However, already in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, carbon became an integral part of the rubber composition along with rubber, which led to a significant increase in the height and width of the tread. This increased the maximum load on the tire, allowing for an improvement in load carrying capacity, and also increased flotation by increasing the contact patch of the tread with the road. Tires made of soft rubber, which, due to the special chemical structure of the mixture with carbon, have only a radial direction of the carcass threads, and therefore very clearly transmit all the bumps in the road to the car. It's uncomfortable and tough.
A real breakthrough was the emergence of chemical polymers, which made it possible to increase the rigidity of the structure without losing comfort and maneuverability, as well as increasing the load on the tire. Bias tires are becoming ubiquitous.
Now science has stepped far forward, and the competition between companies between each other is so detailed that sometimes it is even difficult to assess them for an ordinary buyer. Fractions of a second, grams of load capacity, imperceptible percentages of increased traction, reduced rolling resistance. Numbers numbers...
The material was prepared by Pokryshka.ru
Publication date: 17.02.2011.
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Additionally
, modulus of elasticity at small deformations E=1–10 MPa, Poisson's ratio μ=0.4–0.5; modulus ratio E and shear modulus G : E=3G (\displaystyle E=3G).
It is used for the manufacture of tires for various vehicles, seals, hoses, conveyor belts, medical, household and hygiene products, etc.
Story
The history of rubber begins with the discovery of the American continent. Since ancient times, the indigenous population of Central and South America, collecting the milky juice of the so-called. rubber trees (hevea), received rubber. Columbus also noticed that the heavy monolithic balls made of black elastic mass used in the games of the Indians bounce much better than the leather balls known to Europeans. In addition to balls, rubber was used in everyday life: making dishes, sealing the bottoms of a pie, creating waterproof "stockings" (although the method was rather painful: the legs were smeared with rubber mass and kept above the fire, resulting in a waterproof coating); rubber was also used as glue: with the help of it, the Indians glued feathers to the body for decoration. But the message of Columbus about an unknown substance with unusual properties went unnoticed in Europe, although it is certain that the conquistadors and the first settlers of the New World widely used rubber.
Appearance in Europe
Europe really got acquainted with rubber in 1738, when the traveler S. Kodamine, who returned from America, presented samples of rubber to the French Academy of Sciences and demonstrated how to obtain it. At first, rubber did not receive practical use in Europe.
First application
The first and only use for about 80 years was the manufacture of erasers for erasing pencil marks on paper. The narrowness of the use of rubber was due to the drying and hardening of rubber.
Waterproof fabric
rubber fever
The developing mechanical and electrical engineering, and later the automotive industry, consumed more and more rubber. This required more and more raw materials. Due to the increase in demand in South America, huge plantations of rubber plants began to emerge and rapidly develop, growing these plants in monoculture. Later, the center of rubber growing moved to Indonesia and Ceylon.
Tire and rubber industry in pre-revolutionary Russia
The production of car tires, rubber products and rubber shoes in pre-revolutionary Russia was mainly concentrated in three cities: St. Petersburg - "Triangle" (now "Red Triangle"), in Riga - "Explorer" and "Russia" and in Moscow - " Bogatyr" (later "Red Bogatyr"), "Volcano" (now "Alphaplastic").
Manufacture of synthetic rubbers
After rubber began to be widely used and natural sources of rubber could not cover the increased demand, it became clear that it was necessary to find a replacement for the raw material base in the form of rubber plantations. The problem was aggravated by the fact that the plantations were monopoly owned by several countries (the main one was Great Britain), in addition, the raw materials were quite expensive due to the laboriousness of growing rubber plants and collecting rubber and high transportation costs.
The search for alternative raw materials went in two ways:
- Search for rubber plants that could be cultivated in subtropical and temperate climates. In the USA, the initiators of this trend were Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In Russia and the USSR, Nikolai Vavilov worked on this problem.
- Production of synthetic rubbers from non-vegetable raw materials. The beginning of this direction was given by the experiments of Michael Faraday on the study of the chemical composition and structure of rubber. In 1878, Gustave Bouchard discovered the transformation of isoprene into a rubbery mass. In 1910, Ivan Kondakov discovered the polymerization reaction of dimethylbutadiene.
The production of synthetic rubber began to develop intensively in the USSR, which became a pioneer in this field. This was due to the acute shortage of rubber for the intensively developing industry, the lack of effective natural rubber plants in the USSR, and the limited supply of rubber from abroad. The problem of establishing large-scale industrial production of synthetic rubber was successfully solved, despite the skepticism of some foreign experts [ ] (the most famous of them is Edison).
Application
Rubber is used in the production of automobile, motorcycle and bicycle tires, rubber products, - these are conveyor belts, drive belts, pressure and pressure-suction hoses, durite products, technical plates, rubber rings of various seals, vibration isolators and vibration dampers, as well as rubber floor coverings and rubber shoes eg boots, galoshes.
Production of rubber products
Rubberized fabrics are made from linen, cotton or synthetic fabric impregnated with rubber glue (special rubber compound dissolved in gasoline, benzene or other suitable volatile organic solvent.) After the solvent evaporates, a rubberized fabric is obtained.
To obtain rubber tubes and seals with various profiles, raw rubber is passed through a syringe machine, in which a heated (up to 100-110 °) mixture is forced through a profiling head. The result is a profile or tube which is then vulcanized either in a pressurized vulcanizing autoclave, or in a normal pressure vulcanizing "tube" in a circulating hot air environment, or in a molten salt.
The manufacture of durite sleeves - rubber hoses reinforced with fibrous or wire braid is as follows: strips are cut out of a calendered rubber mixture and applied to a metal mandrel, the outer diameter of which is equal to the inner diameter of the sleeve being manufactured. The edges of the strips are lubricated with rubber glue and rolled with a roller, then one or more paired layers of fabric are applied or braided with metal wire and smeared with rubber glue, and another layer of rubber is applied on top. Next, the assembled workpiece is bandaged with a moistened bandage and vulcanized in an autoclave.
Tire production
car cameras made of rubber pipes, extruded or glued along the chamber. There are two ways of making chambers: shaped and mandrel. The mandrel chambers are vulcanized on metal or curved mandrels. These chambers have one or two transverse joints. After docking, the chambers are subjected to vulcanization at the junction. In the mold method, the chambers are vulcanized in individual vulcanizers equipped with an automatic temperature controller. After manufacturing, in order to avoid gluing the walls, ground talc is introduced into the chamber.
Car tires assembled on special machines from several layers of a special fabric (cord), covered with a rubber layer. The fabric carcass, that is, the skeleton of the tire, is carefully rolled in, and the edges of the fabric layers are wrapped. Outside, the carcass is covered with two layers of a steel cord breaker, then in the running part it is covered with a thick layer of rubber, called a tread, and a thinner layer of rubber is applied to the sidewalls. The thus assembled tire (green tire) is subjected to vulcanization. Before vulcanization, an anti-adhesive special release lubricant is applied to the inside of the green tire (painted) to prevent sticking to the inflating diaphragm and to better slide the diaphragm in the inner cavity of the tire during molding.
Storage of rubber products
Cabinets for rubber products should have tight-closing doors, a smooth inner surface. Harnesses, probes are stored in a suspended state on removable hangers located under the cabinet cover. Rubber heating pads, overhead circles, ice packs are stored slightly inflated. Removable rubber parts of appliances must be stored separately. Elastic catheters, gloves, bougie, rubber bandages, fingertips are stored in tightly closed boxes, sprinkled with ground
Who Invented Winter Tires?
The calendar of a car enthusiast is different from the calendar of an ordinary person. The change of seasons for the owner of the car is marked by an important event for him: the change of tires. As it turned out, not everyone knows and understands why it is necessary to “change shoes” before and after the onset of cold weather. Many perceive it only as an occasion for carping of traffic cops. In fact, traffic safety directly depends on it, and changing tires is a vital matter!
1. Differences between summer and winter tires
The main differences between summer and winter tires are the composition of the rubber itself and the tread pattern.
Rubber, like any other material, tans at low temperatures. Accordingly, the tire in the cold loses its softness, becomes "plastic". This negatively affects the tire itself - it is rather, and the safety of the ride. It is recommended to change summer tires to winter ones when the air temperature drops to +7°C. At this temperature, and even more so at lower temperatures, summer tires become unsafe.
Winter tires, due to special additives, retain softness even in the cold. Knowing this, you will understand why you should not ride on winter tires in summer: in warm weather, and even more so in hot weather, a winter tire becomes too soft to ensure driving safety.
The tread of winter tires has a pattern made up of “checkers” of various configurations. Their purpose is to ensure tire grip on snowy roads. On summer asphalt, "checkers" are useless, and even dangerous, since such a tread reduces the car's handling.
2. When did winter tires appear?
The first attempts to create winter tires were made in Finland. The pioneer was Suomen Gummitehtas, later renamed and known today as Nokian.
Winter tires went on sale in the 1960s. They differed from summer tires only in the presence of metal parts, the prototype of modern spikes. The spikes improved the grip of the wheel with the road, but the rubber itself continued to crack and burst in the cold. 
The next step in the evolution of winter tires was taken by Metzeler. Its specialists, after a series of experiments, found an additive that allowed the rubber to maintain elasticity in the cold. Silicic acid became such an additive.
Meanwhile, a number of countries have banned the use of studded tires, due to the fact that they have a negative impact on the road surface. Manufacturers have focused their efforts on creating tires with a special, "winter" tread pattern. The first non-studded winter tires were offered to consumers by Bridgestone in 1982.
Thus, we owe the appearance of modern winter tires not to any one brilliant inventor, but to the joint efforts of engineers from the world's leading tire manufacturers.
3. Tire fitting
It is carried out according to the same rules as summer tires. Make sure that the direction of rotation of the tires is observed during installation. Have the workshop staff carefully balance the wheels. It will be useful after installing winter tires to check and adjust the alignment.
