Rubber

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Description

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. This program discovers how Charles Goodyear learned the secret of stabilizing rubber - by dropping a lump of natural rubber on his wife's stove. Viewers then see how this invention spurred the Industrial Revolution and created a rubber boom - turning a remote Brazilian jungle town into one of the richest cities on earth. Finally, the film shows how one researcher, looking for something to replace the rubber in tires, ended up discovering a material so tough it can stop bullets - and also makes a nice vest: Kevlar.