Talk:Natural rubber

The following was moved from the aricle page: olivier 04:48 Nov 27, 2002 (UTC)

Can anyone expand on this article? I wrote the very first bit, but I have no information on how synthetic rubber is produced! Mark Ryan

Synthetic Rubber is a big subject, covered by Polymer Science and Rubber Technology. I have added a note to that effect. G4sxe 18:45, 5 January 2006 (UTC)G4sxe

I have a half-memory that the seeds were initially smuggled out of Brazil, which, if true, would be the most profitable act of industrial espionage of all time... I need to check on this -- Malcolm Farmer

Henry Wickham gathered thousands of seeds from Brazil in 1876. They were germinated in Kew Gardens, England and the seedlings were sent to Colombo,Indonesia and Singapore. I will add this to the article. user:g4sxe

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I am trying to understand why half of the world's rubber is produced synthetically. Is synthetic rubber cheaper or more expensive than natural one? Is it better or worse than natural one? Is not enough natural one produced in the world? AxelBoldt 10:43, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

Natural Rubber is best for low heat build up and is used in truck tire treads and the carcasses of both truck and car tires. Synthetic rubber is used for car tire treads, as much for wet grip as economy. user:g4sxe

Edit

I moved the recent addition on Asian natural rubber to the previous paragraph, which deals with natural [rubber]. I removed the blight concern and link, because there is nothing remarkable that people might be concerned with a crop blight: this is true for any crop, and unless we go into it in some depth — which would be interesting — the squib of sentence was not useful. The link was to a syllabus; from long experience on my own website, syllabus pages very often disappear when the quarter or semester is over. — Bill 17:20, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC) Monkey D. Luffy is made of it.

Synthetic vs Natural

Synthetic rubbers have fundamentally different properties to natural rubbers and are therefore used for different purposes. For example, nitrile rubber has decreased permeability to many solvents and increased abrasion resistance.

I'd suggest the article needs an update as natural rubber and synthetic rubbers need to be more clearly delineated. Also a short monologue on chemical additives and potential allergies would be of use as they are of fundamental importance to a significant minority (natural rubber can cause a potentially fatal allergy).

I will try to address this in the coming weeks.

--John Spashett 09:29, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Where can i found Kautschuk?

Kautschuk

C an you help me? I want to know something about Kautschuk.

The spelling is Caoutchouc. Caoutchouc is a vegetable gum produced by certain South American trees.

Caoutchouc was named rubber in 1770 by the English chemist Joseph Priestley, because it was used to rub out black lead marks. G4sxe 19:03, 5 January 2006 (UTC)G4sxe

India rubber

What is India rubber? It doesn't have an entry and could do with one. Cutler 08:06, July 30, 2005 (UTC)

India rubber comes from the India Rubber Tree, Ficus elastica. The milky sap or latex was once an important source of natural rubber, but it was of inferior quality.G4sxe 00:26, 6 January 2006 (UTC)g4sxe

Theory behind elasticity

Does anyone know exactly why rubber streches? what are the mechanics involved? i have heard two theories, and i was wondering which of them (if either) is true:

• elasticity is caused by the bonds along the carbon backbone of a polymer bending back and form, with the bonds always reforming the prefered angle of 109°
• carbon to carbon bonds stretching laterally, with the electrostatic attraction reasserting the original dimensions

i realise that they are both very similar, and in reality the reasoning is probably somewhere inbetween. could an expert please explain, and type it into the article? cheers, mastodon 20:50, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Why does the rubber erases the pencil?

Does anyone know exactly why rubber erases the pencil? what is the phenomenom? What are the forces involved?

Illustration

Someone should juxtapose a picture of a condom with that of the eraser. The subtitle, of course, would be "Rubber (American English)". I'd do it, but somehow it seems like I should first check to see if anyone thinks it to be too crude.