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Rubber was really the first plastic used by modern man. Highly resilient, easily processed and versatile, rubber caught on rapidly during the second half of the 19th century and by the late 1800's, the market for rubber was wide open - the main demand being for (air-filled) pneumatic tyres.
The ideas of a tyre filled with air under pressure to improve comfort, reduce skidding and noise, and increase traction was first patented in 1846 by a Scot, Robert Thomson, although it didn't immediately find popularity.
Another Scotsman, Dr John Boyd Dunlop, had a similar idea and he also patented it in 1889 before forming a company to manufacture pneumatic tyres predominately for bicycles.
Until the original patent turned up some years later, Dunlop's company monopolised the market. With the discovery of the Thomson document, the pneumatic tyre business became open to all
By this time, vulcanisation was no longer the 'hit and miss' experiment as it had been in Charles Goodyear's day. As the process became more fully understood, small rubber goods factories flourished across Europe and the United States, most of them making footwear, rainwear, gloves, industrial hose, moulded goods and belting for machinery.
Just after the turn of the century, a new factor began exerting influence over the tyre market. The motor car had, by that time, been around for some years but its increasing power and weight demanded tyres far more advanced than the single-tube tyres manufactured for bicycles.
Strength, safety and durability continued to be important as tyre manufacturers sought to meet the ever-increasing demands of modern transport.
In the medical field, too, rapid advances have meant rubber equipment manufacturers have had to push back the frontiers in search of new and better products.
Quite simply, rubber is a remarkable material. Railways, aeroplanes, houses, factory machinery and farms depend on it. Rubber belts transport the rock, ore and coal in mines and quarries. It is used in a whole range of products from footballs to flooring.
The list is endless, although the main uses today are concentrated in four key areas; medical equipment, industrial products, domestic and recreational goods, and foremost, automotive products.