Book 26, Question 6
How was rubber made stronger by accident?
Natural rubber gets sticky in heat and stiff in cold.
In 1839, inventor Charles Goodyear found that heating rubber with sulfur made it firm, tough, and stretchy in all weather. A popular story says he spilled a mix onto a hot stove and it charred but stayed bouncy. In England, Thomas Hancock got a patent for a similar process in 1843. This is how tires, boots, and bouncing balls became dependable.