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= Rubber within Design = Rubber within design plays a fundamental role in the boundless material exploration used to the advantage of industrial populations. The shift from natural latex to synthetic rubber throughout contemporary design stems from promoting development in product production. Though the properties, versatility, and limitations of natural rubber have been implemented since its first discovery by the ancient Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, the latex sap from the rubber tree has shifted the history of design without much written dialogue. While indigenous rainforest dwellers of South America have been using rubber for generations, it was not until 1839 that rubber had its first practical application in the industrial world.

In 1839, Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped some India rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stovetop and discovered vulcanization—a refined process involving the substances to char like leather yet remain an elastic consistency. Revolutionizing the previously arduous practice of sourcing natural rubber into the launch of synthetic rubber, engineers and designers alike began to promote the material advancement in hopes of boosting consumer markets. Not long after, manufacturing synthetic rubber aided the spur of industrialization through social and economic change.

However, the story of rubber does not begin there. In fact, though research on characteristics and advantages of natural rubber as well as documentation on the shift in the 1800s to artificial and man-produced rubber circulates history, the stories of how rubber was discovered vary depending on who is telling the story. Spanning back to the 16th Century, early news regarding rubber in Europe was documented when a group of Spaniards returning from the "New World" refer to a substance that the natives obtained from a plant that grew in the rain forests—the caoutchouc.

Another tale tells of a Maya woman who was walking through the rain forest gathering food when she came across a crying tree. She took a sampling of the tears back to her native tribe’s chief who found the latex substance peculiar. These narratives, true and bewildering, hold their place in the timeline of rubber, whether this be natural latex or synthetic rubber as most know today.

Structural Characteristics
While the term rubber now most commonly refers to synthetic elastomers, latex has been coined as the term for the natural fluid substance in plants which is, in essence, non-vulcanized rubber. Throughout their recent implementation in design and manufacturing, natural and synthetic rubbers hold key advantages to material structure. The abrasive resistance and tensile strength, as well as the prominent elasticity, resilience, and impact durability characteristics demonstrate rubber's versatility in design use. These properties make rubber an optimal material for a variety of applications and mediums that require repeated stretch, compression, and recovery.

Natural rubber is an adaptable material through its utilization and is reliable in its solid resistance to alcohols, ketones, and organic acids. Compared to synthetic rubber, the raw material offers higher tear resistance, low odor, sturdy level of wear, and heat resistance. Due to its strength and compressibility, natural rubber is largely used in engineering applications. Although, limitations must be considered amidst the natural characteristics. One of the biggest limitations of natural rubber is its low resistance to hydrocarbons, fats, oils, and greases. This intolerance may lead to swelling, softening, or complete dissolution of the rubber products consisting of the material. Natural rubber does not function well when exposed to chemicals and petroleum derivatives, including petrochemicals.

With the rise of synthesized manufacturing in the mid-1800s and the demand for accessible materials throughout the era of industrialization, synthetic rubber aided design through a boost of advancements benefiting consumers and companies alike. Not only does it emulate the essence of natural rubber, but synthetic rubbers provided a range of mobility not previously manipulated. As styrene butadiene rubber mirrors qualities proposed by natural rubbers, polychloroprene rubber features resistance to ozone, sunlight, oxidation and many petroleum derivatives. Acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber is resistant to petroleum oils and aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as being highly resistant to mineral oils, vegetable oils, and many acids. However, the advantages to acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber do not hold the same for polychloroprene rubber, becoming limitations, and vice versa.

The properties of both natural and synthetic rubber each have their costs and benefits. The characteristics that sustain the durable material either way reinforce design practices and products by means of accessible manufacturing. With the exploration of the discovery and the newly invented synthesized compounds, sales of rubber skyrocketed as the material became more useful by the Western world's growing middle class. By that point, the rapid advancement of sourced natural rubber and the interest of utilizing it in timely practices required an increase of the material. By means of research and development, the synthetic rubber industry expanded within a short timespan throughout the late 1800s and surfacing the early 1900s.

Design Integration
Everything for the design industry changed when Charles Goodyear discovered how to vulcanize rubber in 1839. Patenting the process in 1844, the year after establishing the Naugatuck India-Rubber Company in Naugatuck, Goodyear launched his accidental chemical reaction and spurred a moment in material design that considerably impacted the field of products and design. The increase in the demand for synthetic rubber production led to a boom in the automotive design industry of bicycle and car tires. Additionally, opportunities such as medical and laboratory use, school and office supplies, and home and garden equipment utilize synthetic rubbers more than ever before. Spanning from hair ties, earplugs, dishwashing gloves, toys, jar seals, aquarium tubing, mattress pads, flip-flops, all the way to prosthetics—synthetic rubber engineered products incorporate so much of the material that it isn't even thought twice about.

Rubber saw yet more massive growth in demand during World War II, when industrialized nations around the world faced a desperate need for products and equipment from tires to amphibious dinghies. Worldwide militaries also used natural rubber to wrap all their internal wiring because of its insulating qualities, and manufacturers outfitted tanks and battleships with rubber elements. Fast forward to the year 2020, one of the most prominent purchase made by consumers and corporate companies spanning all over the world was rubber gloves. Though the most common material used for making household gloves is natural latex, PVC, nitrile, and neoprene are synthetic options—reducing numbers of latex allergens. From surgical gloves to garden gloves, rubber upholds each design and protects the wearer while maintaining a durable structure of support.