The ancient Mayan people used latex in order to make hollow human figures, rubber balls, and as bindings used to secure the axe heads to their handles as well as for other functions. Latex is the result of various plants, the most important one being the rubber tree which when it is exposed to the air, it hardens into a springy mass. The Mayans learned to mix together the rubber sap with the juice coming from morning glory vines so that it became more elastic and durable.
Later on, in 1736, a few rolled sheets of rubber were sent to France and in 1791; Samuel Peal invented a new way of waterproofing cloth by mixing turpentine with rubber. Another British inventor by the name of Joseph Priestly discovered that the rubber could be used to erase pencil marks. Thomas Hancock is the person who invented the British rubber industry. He designed the masticator – a machine capable of shredding rubber scraps thus allowing the rubber to be recycled after being formed into blocks or rolled into sheets. In the 19th century, to be more specific in the 1820s, he patented elastic fastenings for shoes, suspenders, stockings and gloves.
In order to help preserve the rubber, Hancock invented the masticator. The first one was a wooden machine that used a hollow cylinder studded with teeth. In 1823, Charles Macintosh patented his method of making waterproof garments using rubber dissolved in coal-tar naphtha for cementing two pieces of cloth together. A few years later in 1837 he patented the masticator which was used on a large scale since then. The wooden masticator turned into a steam-driven metal machine which was used to supply Macintosh's factory with masticated rubber.
On March 17, 1845, a man by the name of Stephen Perry belonging to the rubber manufacturing company Messers Perry and Co., Rubber Manuf London patented the first rubber bands made of vulcanized rubber. He invented them in order to hold papers and envelopes together. 31 years later, Sir Henry Wickham collected about 70,000 rubber tree seeds from the Para rubber tree. Commercial rubber production now takes place in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka (but not significantly in South America). One year later, in 1877, Chapman Mitchell discovered that the rubber can be recycled into new products.
In the present, approximately ¾ of the rubber in production is made out of crude oil. There are 20 grades of synthetic rubber and intended end use determines the selection. Generally speaking, in order to make synthetic rubber, byproducts of petroleum refining called styrene and butadiene are mixed in a reactor containing soapsuds. From this, a milky looking liquid results and the latex is coagulated from the liquid, resulting in rubber "crumbs" which are purchased by numerous manufacturers and later on, melted in a variety of products.
In the world today, there is only one kind of natural rubber. Due to the reason that the rubber plants are located in hot, damp regions near the Equator, 90% of the rubber production takes place in the Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Because the production in Indonesia has dropped in the last few years, several plantations were built in Africa in order to fill in the gap.
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