History of the invention of rubber. History of rubber

The history of the discovery of rubber begins with the discovery of the American continent. For a long time, the indigenous people of Central and South America obtained rubber by collecting the milky sap from rubber trees.

Columbus once noticed that the balls the Indians played with were made of black rubber, and they bounced much better than the leather balls made by the Europeans. Not only balls were made from rubber, but also utensils, they used to seal the bottom of a pie, they created “stockings” that did not get wet (this was a rather painful technology: the legs were covered with a rubber mass, then they had to be held over the fire until a waterproof coating was formed) . Rubber was also used as glue; the Indians used it to decorate their bodies with feathers.

Columbus reported the existence of an extraordinary substance with numerous properties, but Europe did not pay due attention to this, although even the first settlers of the New World actively used rubber. Long time rubber was used to create soft toys, have also made attempts to create a waterproof coating for shoes.

It was only in 1839 that the American inventor Charles Goodyear made a discovery. He stabilized the elastic composition of rubber by mixing raw rubber and sulfur, with further heating. This method was called vulcanization, most likely it was the first polymerization process in industry.

The material that was obtained as a result of the vulcanization process was called rubber. Later, rubber began to be actively used in the engineering industry, creating various seals and hoses. And when electrical engineering was just beginning to develop, it needed durable and elastic material for cables. Today rubber is used everywhere. These rubber mats are in great demand http://www.ru.all.biz/kovriki-rezinovye-bgg1001384. They are used in corridors, vestibules, in front of the entrance to a room, on the porch. These mats prevent dirt and snow from entering your home.

The production of rubber from refined petroleum products and gases dates back to 1951. For a long time, artificially created rubber was superior to real rubber in all respects except one - elasticity. But this problem was also solved.

Thus, the Hevea tree, being a natural gift and random experiments, and long-term painstaking work Scientists have developed one of the most necessary and versatile materials to use - rubber. Rubber is in demand every day, different situations, absolutely in any field of human activity.

Rubber is a widely known material that is used in almost all areas. human life. Medicine, agriculture, and industry cannot do without this polymer. Rubber is also used in many manufacturing processes. What this material is made of and what its features are is described in the article.

What is rubber

Rubber is a highly elastic polymer. Its structure is represented by chaotically arranged carbon chains held together by sulfur atoms.

In their normal state, carbon chains have a twisted appearance. If the rubber is stretched, the carbon chains will unwind. The ability to stretch and quickly return to its previous shape has made material such as rubber indispensable in many areas.

What is it made of? Typically, rubber is made by mixing rubber with a vulcanizing agent. After heating to desired temperature the mixture thickens.

The difference between rubber and rubber

Rubber and rubber are high-molecular polymers obtained naturally or synthetically. These materials differ in physical and chemical properties and production methods. Natural rubber is a substance made from the juice tropical trees- latex. It flows out of the bark when it is damaged. Synthetic rubber is obtained by polymerization of styrene, neoprene, butadiene, isobutylene, chloroprene, nitrile. When synthetic rubber is vulcanized, rubber is formed.

What are they made of? different types rubbers? For individual species synthetic materials are used organic matter, allowing to obtain a material identical to natural rubber.

Rubber properties

Rubber is a universal material that has the following properties:

1. High elasticity - the ability to undergo large reverse deformations over a wide temperature range.
2. Elasticity and stability of shapes at small deformations.
3. Amorphous - easily deformed with slight pressure.
4. Relative softness.
5. Poorly absorbs water.
6. Strength and wear resistance.
7. Depending on the type of rubber, rubber can be characterized by water, oil, gasoline, heat and impact resistance chemical substances, ionizing and light radiation.

Over time, rubber loses its properties and loses its shape, which is manifested by destruction and a decrease in strength. The service life of rubber products depends on the conditions of use and can range from several days to several years. Even with long-term storage, rubber ages and becomes unusable.

Rubber production

Rubber is produced by vulcanization of rubber with the addition of mixtures. Typically 20-60% of the processed mass is rubber. Other components of the rubber mixture are fillers, vulcanizing agents, accelerators, plasticizers, antioxidants. Dyes, fragrances, modifiers, fire retardants and other components can also be added to the composition of the mass. The set of components is determined by the required properties, operating conditions, technology for using the finished rubber product and economic calculations. In this way, high-quality rubber is created.

What are semi-finished rubber products made from? For this purpose, production uses the technology of mixing rubber with other components in special mixers or rollers intended for the production of semi-finished products, followed by cutting and cutting. IN production cycle Presses, autoclaves, drum and tunnel vulcanizers are used. The rubber mixture is given high plasticity, thanks to which the future product takes on the required shape.

Rubber products

Today, rubber is used in sports, medicine, construction, agriculture, in production. The total number of products made from rubber exceeds more than 60 thousand varieties. The most popular of them are seals, shock absorbers, tubes, seals, sealants, rubberized coatings, and facing materials.

Rubber products are widely used in production processes. This material is also indispensable in the production of gloves, shoes, belts, waterproof fabric, and transport belts.

Most of the rubber produced is used to make tires.

Rubber in tire production

Rubber is the main material in production car tires. This process begins with the preparation of a rubber mixture of natural and synthetic rubber. Then silica, soot and others are added to the rubber mass. chemical components. After thorough mixing, the mixture is sent to the oven. The output is rubber bands of a certain length.

At the next stage, the cord is rubberized. Textile and metal cords are filled with hot rubber mass. This method produces the inner, textile and belt layers of the tire.

What is rubber for tires made from? All car tire manufacturers use different rubber formulations and technologies. To give the finished product strength and reliability, various plasticizers and reinforcing fillers can be added.

Natural rubber is used to produce tires. Its addition to the rubber mixture reduces the heating of the tire. The majority of the rubber mixture is synthetic rubber. This component gives tires elasticity and the ability to withstand heavy loads.

Rubber

Rubber

an elastic material formed by the vulcanization of natural and synthetic rubbers. Natural (natural) rubber (from the Indian “tears of a tree”: “kau” - “tree”, “uchu” - “cry”) - hardened milky sap (latex) tropical plant Hevea In con. 15th century rubber was brought to Europe. In 1839, the American inventor Charles Goodyear, by heating a mixture of raw rubber with sulfur and lead, obtained new material, which was called rubber (from the Greek rezinos - resin), and the process of its production - named after the god of fire Vulcan - vulcanization. Rubber is a mesh elastomer; being in an amorphous state, it retains its mechanical properties longer than natural rubber.

With the development of the automobile industry, rubber produced from the milky juice of the Hevea plant became scarce. The synthesis of the first artificial (synthetic) rubber was carried out in 1931 by the Russian chemist S.V. Lebedev. Rubber is obtained from rubber by vulcanization of complex compositions containing, in addition to rubber, vulcanizing agents, vulcanization activators, fillers, plasticizers, dyes, modifiers, blowing agents, antioxidants and other components. Rubber is mixed with ingredients in a mixer or on rollers, semi-finished products are produced, blanks are assembled and vulcanized at 130–200 °C. As a result of vulcanization, the shape of the product is fixed, it acquires the necessary strength, elasticity, and other valuable properties. The reversible tensile strain of rubber reaches 500-1000%. The properties of rubber change significantly when combining rubbers various types or their modification with active fillers (highly dispersed carbon black, silica gel). Rubber almost does not absorb water; With prolonged storage and use, it ages, its strength and elasticity decreases. The service life depends on operating conditions and ranges from several days to several tens.

Rubbers general purpose operate at temperatures from –50 to 150 °C; used for the manufacture of automobile tires, conveyor belts, drive belts, shock absorbers, and rubber shoes. Heat-resistant rubbers retain their properties at 150–200 °C. Frost-resistant rubber Suitable for use at temperatures (–50 to –150 °C). Oil- and petrol-resistant rubbers work for a long time in contact with fuels, oils, lubricants, etc.; They are used to make seals, rings, sleeves, and hoses. Rubbers that are resistant to aggressive environments (acids, alkalis, oxidizing agents) are used in the manufacture of seals, flanges, and hoses for chemical equipment. Dielectric rubbers with low dielectric losses and high electrical strength are used in the insulation of wires and cables, special shoes, gloves, carpets, etc. Electrically conductive rubbers are used for the manufacture of antistatic rubber products, high-voltage cables and long-distance communication cables. There are also vacuum, friction, food rubber, medical rubber, fire-resistant and radiation-resistant rubber, as well as transparent, colored and porous (spongy) rubber. More than half of the world's rubber production is used to make car tires.

Encyclopedia "Technology". - M.: Rosman. 2006 .

See what “rubber” is in other dictionaries:

Resinate... Russian word stress

rubber- y, w. RUBBER and, g. resine lat. resina resin. 1. Rubber, rubber. Common name Apterkarskoe of all mastic juices flowing through a notch in the bark of some trees, what are the resins of pine and spruce, treptin turpentine? And… … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- (lat. resina resin). The elastic resin of the rubber tree, the same as rubber. Dictionary foreign words, included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. RUBBER lat. resina. See RUBBER. Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that came into use in... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (from Latin resina resin) (vulcanizate) elastic material formed as a result of vulcanization of rubber. In practice, it is obtained from a rubber mixture containing, in addition to rubber and vulcanizing agents, fillers, plasticizers, stabilizers,... ...

RUBBER, elastic band for women, lat. (generally resin); dry, viscous, elastic resin of the rubber tree; rubber, eraser or string. Rubber, elastic bands, garters. Rubber galoshes. Rubber husband rock resin, elastic fossil. Dictionary Dalia... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

Vulcanizate, gum rubber, eformvar; tire; wire Dictionary of Russian synonyms. rubber noun, number of synonyms: 26 tires (1) ... Synonym dictionary

Rubber- (from the Latin resina), an elastic material formed as a result of the vulcanization of rubber. Also contains fillers, plasticizers, stabilizers and other components. The bulk of rubber is used in the production of tires (over 50%) and... Illustrated encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Rezina), city (since 1940) in Moldova, on the river. Dniester, 6 km from the railway station. d. st. Rybnitsa. 15.2 thousand inhabitants (1991). Food industry, production of building materials. Known since 15th century... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

RUBBER, rubber, many. no, female (lat. resina resin). A soft, elastic substance that is vulcanized rubber. Rubber products. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

RUBBER, s, female 1. Elastic material obtained by vulcanization of rubber. 2. Tire (in 2 digits) made of such material (simple). Pull the rubber (simple ind.) tighten what n. matter, decision n. | adj. rubber, oh, oh (to 1 value).... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

- – wheel tires. EdwART. Dictionary of automotive jargon, 2009 ... Automobile dictionary

Inventor: Charles Goodyear
A country: USA
Time of invention: 1839

The Spanish conquistadors also brought wonderful products from South America (elastic balls, waterproof shoes). The Indians made them from the frozen milky juice of the Hevea tree. It was done simply. For example, to make a ball, they coated a round object with juice layer by layer as it hardened. When a sufficiently thick layer was obtained, the mold was removed. Waterproof shoes were made in a similar way, with one's own feet serving as the last. The inhabitants of Brazil called this material “caucho” (“cau” - wood, “uchu” - cry), and now it is known as rubber.

Serious attention was paid to rubber only after the French engineer from Cayenne, Francois Freycinet, delivered rubber, products made from it and a description from South America to the Paris Academy of Sciences. ways of its extraction. His note and samples fell into the hands of the explorer Charles Marie de la Condamine, who used these samples to shelter instruments from the rain. In 1751, Condamine reported a note from F. Freycinet to the Paris Academy of Sciences.

For a long time Rubber was used mainly to make soft toys; they tried to cover shoes with it to make them waterproof. They tried to use rubber for cart tires, but the material was very soft and easily rubbed off on the road surface. In addition, in the heat it became sticky, and in the cold it became brittle.

English chemist and inventor Charles Mackintosh (1766-1843) found a new use for rubber. He made a raincoat from two layers of material, knitted with a solution of rubber in petroleum hydrocarbons, and began producing waterproof coats, which were later named after him. In 1823 C. Mackintosh received a patent for this invention. But macintoshes also deteriorated at high and low temperatures, so the rubber industry experienced a period of decline.

Many researchers have tried to eliminate the disadvantages of rubber while maintaining its advantages, but to no avail. Finally, the American inventor Charles Goodyear succeeded.

Charles Goodyear (12/29/1800 - 7/1/1860) was born in New Haven, Connecticut. As a young man, he divided his time between the store, factory and farm of his father, who sold his own inventions, among other tools. In 1826, Charles and his father organized the first American specialized hardware store in Philadelphia; the business was unsuccessful: in 1830 the company went bankrupt.

The energetic young man took up inventing. In 1834, in a New York store window, he became interested in rubber products. Having learned that it was necessary to improve the heat resistance of this promising material, Goodyear, after a series of experiments, proposed adding magnesium and calcium oxides to rubber. He began making shoes from the resulting “gum elastic”, but severe frost it behaved no better than ordinary rubber.

In 1836, the inventor learned to process rubber with nitric acid, bismuth and copper nitrates and received a patent on June 17, 1837, and then founded a factory in New York. However, things were not going well. Goodyear continued his experiments. In 1838, he acquired Hayward's patent, which consisted of mixing rubber with a sulfur solution.

But it was only in 1839 that Goodyear invented the method, which is now called vulcanization and became widespread throughout the world. This happened partly by accident when a sample of a mixture of rubber and sulfur left on a hot stove did not flow, but turned into the hard, charred material we know as rubber. The inventor devoted another five years to hard work on technological process, before Patent No. 3633 appeared on June 15, 1844. However, the author could not make a profit from the patent, because he did not have the means to obtain its legal registration.

In 1841, Goodyear gave several pieces of rubber to an Englishman. These samples, which fell into the hands of the English chemist T. Hancock, helped him repeat the vulcanization technology and receive a British patent in 1843. The name of the process after the god Vulcan was also proposed by the English inventor.

Charles Goodyear tried to widely disseminate his invention, first in the USA, then in Europe, and spent a lot of money on exhibitions in London and Paris, the exposition of which included rubber products, right down to the pages of Goodyear’s own book. The inventor contributed to the development of the rubber industry in the Old and New Worlds, but he himself could not get rich. He joked that he could be recognized as a man dressed in all rubber and carrying a rubber wallet without a single cent. Goodyear died in poverty, leaving big debts. Only his son, also Charles, who continued his father’s work, managed to achieve success in the rubber business.

In 1846, A. Parks proposed the process of cold vulcanization using sulfur chloride. Rubber products at room temperature are placed in sulfur chloride dissolved in carbon disulfide, or in a chamber filled with sulfur chloride vapor. The process lasts 1-2 minutes, after which the remaining reagent is removed from the product. This method is used in the manufacture of thin-walled products (gloves, children's toys, etc.). Products obtained by cold vulcanization have worse properties than hot vulcanization products.

The developing industry needed more and more rubber. Huge Hevea plantations grew in South America and Indonesia. Around the same time, one enterprising Englishman secretly took 70 thousand Hevea seeds from Brazil, but they took root only in one place - on the Ceylon Islands, which then belonged to England.

Two large monopolists appeared on the world rubber market, and it became clear: natural rubber is not economical or profitable; it is necessary to discover a method for producing artificial rubber. Further history the development of rubber is the history of chemical research, mainly of Russian chemical science.

In Russia, the rubber industry emerged in the first half of the 19th century. Before the revolution, rubber production was represented by four enterprises: “Triangle”, “Provodnik” and the relatively small plants “Bogatyr” and “Kauchuk”. In 1913, they employed 23 thousand people and produced mainly shoes.

Raw materials and equipment were foreign, technical management was carried out by foreigners. Few people know that the production of toilet sponge was the secret of the Triangle plant in the 19th century; Oddly enough, this simple item was the most competitive rubber product on the world market. After the October Revolution, the rubber industry was a fairly powerful industry. He was taken general course for industrialization, and therefore the need for components for rubber products has sharply increased.

But rubber production was exclusively dependent on the import of natural rubber. There were two possible solutions to the problem. The first is the search for rubber plants suitable for cultivation in areas with temperate climate. In the USSR, N.I. did this. Vavilov, in the USA the initiators of this work were T. Edison and G. Ford.

The second option is to create synthetic rubber. Chemical research The composition of rubber began with the experiments of M. Faraday in 1826. In 1879, A. Bouchard observed the transformation of isoprene into a rubber-like mass, and in 1910 - I. L. Kondakov similar transformation of dimethylbutadiene. In 1909, Sergei Vasilyevich Lebedev showed a substance close to rubber, prepared from divinyl, a colorless volatile gas. But after much work, he managed to get only 19 grams.

In Russia, I. I. Ostromyslensky worked in the same direction, conducting experiments at the Bogatyr plant, in Germany - K. Harries, in England - F. Matthews and E. Strakhedge. Thus, science followed in the footsteps of nature: first it was necessary to obtain a polymer of diene hydrocarbons, and then synthesize rubber from them.

In 1926, the Soviet government announced a worldwide competition for the production of artificial rubber, Moreover, 3 conditions were put forward: 1) raw materials must be cheap; 2) quality is no worse than natural; 3) the period before presentation of development results is 2 years. In May 1928, this competition was won by S.V. Lebedev. As a raw material, he used ordinary potatoes, from which he obtained alcohol, and from alcohol - divinyl. Moreover, at first he received 5 grams of divinyl from 1 liter of alcohol, and two years later - 50 grams, thereby reducing costs by 10 times.

But this absolute breakthrough did not solve the problem, since, for example, it took 500 kg of potatoes to make one. Then scientists, having improved the invention of S.V. Lebedev, began to extract divinyl from natural gases. And already in 1929, the government decided to build a pilot plant in Leningrad for producing synthetic rubber from alcohol using the Lebedev method and two more plants that were to be tested by others known methods: B.V. Byzova and a group of scientists under the leadership of A.L. Klebansky.

On February 15, 1931, newspapers around the world reported that the first large batch of artificial rubber was produced in the USSR. Neither Germany nor England at that time were ready to offer their own solution to this industrial problem.

It is interesting that T. Edison in his interview assessed this event this way: “The news that the Soviets have achieved success in the production of synthetic rubber from oil is incredible. This cannot be done. I would even say more: this entire report is fake. Based on my own experience and the experience of others, it is now impossible to say that the production of synthetic rubber will ever be successful.” And yet, already in 1932, the first synthetic rubber plant produced products in Yaroslavl.

Since 1951, the production of rubber from petroleum gases and petroleum products began. For a long time, artificial rubber has been superior to real rubber. individual indicators(temperature range, strength, chemical resistance), was inferior in one thing - elasticity (which is very important for, for example, automobile and aircraft tires), but this problem was solved.

Thus, a natural gift - the Hevea tree, and a number of accidents, and the long painstaking work of scientists have made rubber one of the most necessary and universal materials, in demand every day, in a variety of situations, in the most different areas human activity.

1817 - German baron Karl von Drais invented a bicycle made entirely of wood. We can say that it had wooden tires installed on it.

1844 - Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanizing rubber, which changed the history of bicycle tires. Before the discovery of the vulcanization process, rubber was unstable because it did not retain its shape: it became too soft when hot weather and fragile in the cold. Goodyear's invention transformed rubber into a soft material that was ideal for bicycle tires. For several years, bicycle tires have been made of hard rubber. Although they were heavy and did not provide a smooth ride, they were still stronger than the previous ones. Today you can still find several types of hard rubber tires.

1845 - Engineer Robert Thompson from England received a patent for his invention. The Thompson tire consisted of a tube, which was made of pieces of canvas impregnated with rubber and the tire itself was made of leather, attached to the wheel rim with rivets. Thompson called this invention the air wheel. Brilliant invention Thompson was not a commercial success and was soon forgotten.

1870 - In England, an engineer named James Starley produces a bicycle that uses solid molded rubber tires mounted on steel wheels.

1882 - Thomas B. Jeffrey, a bicycle manufacturer and inventor, received a patent for an improved tire. The innovation was that he fused a wire into the rubber along the edges of the tire, which firmly fixed it to the wheel rim. Previously, bicycle tires were attached to the edge of the rim using glue or rivets, which was unsafe because the tires often came off the rim.

1887 - Scottish veterinarian develops the world's first air-filled pneumatic tire for his son's tricycle. The Dunlop tire, for which he was granted a patent in 1888, has a leather hose serving as the inner tube and the outer part of the tire with a rubber tread. His invention made it possible to ride a bicycle comfortably. Such tires were used until the invention of a separate tube.

1893 - August Schroeder and his son George Schroeder invent an improved version of the valve for holding and inflating air in tires. Shredder valves are still widely used in the bicycle tire industry.

1911 - Philip Strauss invented a combination where there was a rubber tube filled with air inside and rubber tire from the outside.

1933 - German engineer and entrepreneur who emigrated to America Ignaz Schwin developed an expanded tire, which gave rise to off-road use of the bicycle.

1978 - Launch of the first high-quality folding Turbo tires.

Modern bicycle tires have been in use since the 1970s, with many modifications and improvements aimed at reliability and to improve athletic performance. Modern tires are designed with a greater emphasis on aerodynamics, a light weight using special materials that ensure efficiency and minimal resistance when moving. With the advent modern technologies and computer-aided design of the bicycle tire continues to evolve.

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