789-836 12.3 Viola INGL - Treccani - La cultura （789 - 836 12.3中提琴INGL - Treccani洛杉矶文化）.pdf

12.3 Elastomers 12.3.1 Introduction which, suitably ‘masticated’ and with the addition of various fillers, oils and pigments, could be pressure The first written evidence of rubber relates to the moulded or extruded. The lack of elastic properties product of a plant native to South America, Hevea and dimensional stability, however, limited its use brasiliensis, and goes back to the middle of the until, in 1839, in the United States, Charles Goodyear Sixteenth century (Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, 1516, discovered that superior qualities could be conferred and Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, 1535-37). on rubber by heating it with sulphur and lead oxide. However, the first European who probably discovered Hancock exploited this process, introducing the term the existence of natural rubber was Christopher vulcanization (from the Latin god Vulcanus), to Columbus during his voyage of 1493-96. There is no produce materials with a reduced tendency to trace of this natural polymer reaching Europe before becoming sticky upon warming and which were the voyages to South America of Charles de la insoluble in common solvents. With mastication, Condamine in 1736-43; shortly afterwards, in 1770, which made it possible to shape the material, and Joseph Priestley highlighted the usefulness of natural vulcanization, which enabled the shape to be fixed, the rubber for erasing writing by rubbing, from which foundations of rubber technology were laid. came the English term rubber and its extension Th