Chemistry, and the story of Rubber.

[Francis_Eric]

I was reading this last year, and think it is Interesting
If you read the first section go back to the main menu , and read the second.

https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/menu.htm

Here is a preview

Tlachtli

Our expedition starts here in Mexico. We're in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Someday the world will know it as Mexico City. The year is about 1500, or 7-Acatl on the Aztec calendar. We're here to watch a game called tlachtli.

Tlachtli is kind of like basketball. Games similar to basketball have been played all over Mesoamerica by peoples like the Aztec, the Maya, and the Olmec. The object of Tlachtli is to put a ball through a hoop made of stone at one end of a court. But unlike basketball, the players can't use their hands. Also unlike basketball, where the losing team gets nothing worse than trash-talk from the winners, the losers in this game of tlachtli are going to have their heads chopped off after the game. The players are prisoners of war, the enemies of the Aztecs who are hosting the game. The game is a ritual honoring Amapan and Uappatzin, the patron deities of the game of tlachtli, and honoring Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war.

But we're not here because of the gory post-game celebrations. We're interested in the ball these folks are playing with. It's roughly the size of a bowling ball, and weighs about five pounds. (Getting it through the hoop without using the hands is so hard that the first team to score a goal wins.) What's special about this ball is that it is made of natural rubber.


Natural rubber is made by a number of plants which grow in warm climates. Of course, rubber balls aren't the only thing that the Aztec and other people of the Americas make from rubber. Rubber boots, raincoats of rubberized cotton cloth, and water bottles were all produced by the ingenuity of these people. Rubber was valuable enough in the world of ancient Mesoamerica that it was used to pay for goods and services in barter.

Rubber is one of the Americas' best-kept secrets. But the rest of the world will find out about rubber eventually. Back in 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first visit to the West Indies. When he came back in 1496, he visited the island of Hispaniola. There he saw people playing games with rubber balls and was amazed at how well the rubber game balls bounced.

Rubber goes on the back Burner

More newcomers will follow Columbus. As violent as the Aztecs seem to us today, what with their human sacrifice and all, they are going to meet an even more violent group of people. Following Columbus to the Americas were the Spanish conquistadors. A group of conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes will land in Mexico in 1519 and incite a revolt of the oppressed Aztec subjects destroying the Aztec Empire. The subjects would have been better off under their old masters as the Spanish kill or enslave thousands. But the people which survive the tragedy will introduced the Spanish to the many wonderful uses of rubber.

In Europe no one has ever seen anything like rubber, and people there will be full of questions about it, questions like...what is this stuff?

[Jabba The Hutt]

I was reading this last year, and think it is Interesting
If you read the first section go back to the main menu , and read the second.

https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/menu.htm

Here is a preview

Tlachtli

Our expedition starts here in Mexico. We're in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Someday the world will know it as Mexico City. The year is about 1500, or 7-Acatl on the Aztec calendar. We're here to watch a game called tlachtli.

Tlachtli is kind of like basketball. Games similar to basketball have been played all over Mesoamerica by peoples like the Aztec, the Maya, and the Olmec. The object of Tlachtli is to put a ball through a hoop made of stone at one end of a court. But unlike basketball, the players can't use their hands. Also unlike basketball, where the losing team gets nothing worse than trash-talk from the winners, the losers in this game of tlachtli are going to have their heads chopped off after the game. The players are prisoners of war, the enemies of the Aztecs who are hosting the game. The game is a ritual honoring Amapan and Uappatzin, the patron deities of the game of tlachtli, and honoring Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war.

But we're not here because of the gory post-game celebrations. We're interested in the ball these folks are playing with. It's roughly the size of a bowling ball, and weighs about five pounds. (Getting it through the hoop without using the hands is so hard that the first team to score a goal wins.) What's special about this ball is that it is made of natural rubber.


Natural rubber is made by a number of plants which grow in warm climates. Of course, rubber balls aren't the only thing that the Aztec and other people of the Americas make from rubber. Rubber boots, raincoats of rubberized cotton cloth, and water bottles were all produced by the ingenuity of these people. Rubber was valuable enough in the world of ancient Mesoamerica that it was used to pay for goods and services in barter.

Rubber is one of the Americas' best-kept secrets. But the rest of the world will find out about rubber eventually. Back in 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first visit to the West Indies. When he came back in 1496, he visited the island of Hispaniola. There he saw people playing games with rubber balls and was amazed at how well the rubber game balls bounced.

Rubber goes on the back Burner

More newcomers will follow Columbus. As violent as the Aztecs seem to us today, what with their human sacrifice and all, they are going to meet an even more violent group of people. Following Columbus to the Americas were the Spanish conquistadors. A group of conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes will land in Mexico in 1519 and incite a revolt of the oppressed Aztec subjects destroying the Aztec Empire. The subjects would have been better off under their old masters as the Spanish kill or enslave thousands. But the people which survive the tragedy will introduced the Spanish to the many wonderful uses of rubber.

In Europe no one has ever seen anything like rubber, and people there will be full of questions about it, questions like...what is this stuff?

1839, Charles Goodyear discovers Vulcanization by dropping rubber in Sulphur...

Starting in the early 1900's pharmaceutical companies add Sulphur to basically every drug possible, and humans and domesticated animals have gotten sicker and sicker since...

[Francis_Eric]

Yes one Of the things I was going to bring up about , (but wanted to see where this went on it's own.)
How he accidentally vulcanized Rubber by leaving it on the stove with sulfur 


I like how they show rubber molecule being like a tangled up tread
Since Sulfur is a round molecule it holds in into place , and is strong
Unfortunately It doesn't break down in the environment for a long time.


I didn't know that about the medicine thank you.


https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/sepisode/spill.htm