Rubber
Description
Reveals that South American tribes used rubber long before the world got to know about it; when Columbus witnessed Haitian natives playing ball, he found himself mesmerized by the bouncing goo. Discovers how Charles Goodyear learned the secret of stabilizing rubber, by dropping a lump of natural rubber on his wife's stove. Explores this invention during the Industrial Revolution and the rubber boom, which turned a remote Brazilian jungle town into one of the richest cities on earth. Shows how one researcher, looking for something to replace the rubber in tires, discovered a material that can stop bullets, Kevlar.
Runtime
25 min
Series
Subjects
Genre
Date of Publication
2011
Database
Alexander Street