This film by Goodyear could be titled “Better Living Through Chemistry” and is about the rubber industry. It shows some of the history of rubber in the industrial age, including the use of rubber in automobile and airplane tires. The film then looks at the manufacture of synthetic rubber, and compares the differences between natural and synthetic rubber or polyisoprene. At 21:00, crude polyisoprene rubber are shown being moved to a customer. Erasers, basketballs, safety vests, textiles, and other applications for rubber are shown around 22 minutes.
At 12:53, a rubber industry production plant is shown, where isoprene and polyisoprene are produced in quantity. The film ends with an image at 24:00 of an inflatable rubber space station.
A synthetic rubber is any artificial elastomer. These are mainly polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About fifteen billion kilograms (thirty-three billion pounds) of rubbers are produced annually, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Global revenues generated with synthetic rubbers are likely to rise to approximately US$56 billion in 2020. Synthetic rubber, like natural rubber, has uses in the automotive industry for tires, door and window profiles, hoses, belts, matting, and flooring. .F. Goodrich Company scientist Waldo Semon developed a new and cheaper version of synthetic rubber known as Ameripol in 1940. Ameripol made synthetic rubber production much more cost effective, helping to meet the United States’ needs during World War II.
The production of synthetic rubber in the United States expanded greatly during World War II, since the Axis powers controlled nearly all the world’s limited supplies of natural rubber by mid-1942. Military trucks needed rubber for tires, and rubber was used in almost every other war machine. The U.S. government launched a major (and largely secret) effort to improve synthetic rubber production. A large team of chemists from many institutions were involved, including Calvin Souther Fuller of Bell Labs. The rubber designated GRS (Government Rubber Styrene), a copolymer of butadiene and styrene, was the basis for U.S. synthetic rubber production during World War II. By 1944, a total of 50 factories were manufacturing it, pouring out a volume of the material twice that of the world’s natural rubber production before the beginning of the war. It still represents about half of total world production.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
