Chains of Opportunity: The University of Akron and the Emergence of The Polymer Age 1909–2007

1 The Birth of Rubber Chemistry 1909–1941

THE BIRTH OF RUBBER CHEMISTRY 1909–1941 centuries ago, rubber—or “caoutchouc” as it was then known—was simply a curious, sappy, milky-white substance that flowed from over three hundred different types of trees and other plants. The Hevea brasiliensis was the most well known, and Europeans discovered these sixty-foot-tall “weeping” trees in Central and South America in the fifteenth century. They experimented with the unusual elastic substance they produced, using it first as a bouncing ball. Then, in the 1760s, French researcher Francois Fresnau discovered that it was possible to dissolve natural rubber with turpentine, so that it could be spread upon clothing or other substances. In the 1770s, Joseph Priestley coined the term “rubber” after 10 1 Bowles.1-76 6/17/08 1:47 PM Page 10 using it to rub out his pencil marks.1 By the early nineteenth century, the thriving rubber industry emerged. It produced rubberized clothing and boots that were water-resistant. However, these early rubber products had critical flaws—they melted in the summer and cracked in the winter. In 1839, after Charles Goodyear in America, and Thomas Hancock in Britain, unlocked the vulcanization process through the use of sulfur and heat, the true potential of rubber was unleashed.2 In 1855, Charles Goodyear published a book on the vast number of applications and uses for this vulcanized “gum-elastic.”3 He envisioned a new rubberized world in which this miraculous substance would transform virtually every area of life. He foresaw mechanical, electrical , military, and medical uses. Homes would be filled with rubber products. Toys and other recreational items would be made with it. Transportation in stagecoaches and carriages would be more pleasant. Goodyear thought people would begin wearing all manner of rubberized goods, and he even imagined “fancy and ornamental uses.” While commercial rubber products had existed before, vulcanization enabled rubber goods to become a viable, large-scale industry. Few other major commodities have experienced such a dramatic change in supply, demand, and cultural significance.4 Goodyear’s prognostications came true, and the vulcanization of rubber is regarded today as one of the most important industrial developments of the nineteenth century. Rubber’s properties were nothing short of revolutionary: it was elastic, waterproof, airtight, moldable, and spreadable. It became the “great shock absorber of the industrial age,” with rubber springs cushioning carriages, rubber belts enabling machine gears to turn smoothly, and rubber seals preventing leaks and blocking air. Its resistance to electricity made it an enabling partner in the electrification of everyday life.5 Rubber tires helped establish the bicycle craze of the 1890s and the corresponding association between freedom and personal transportation. At the turn of the twentieth century , the “automobile age” was also well under way, with some correctly predicting—in 1900—that there would soon be more cars than horses in American cities.6 Without rubber tires, hoses, and gaskets, these automobiles would have been nothing more than immobile piles of metal and glass. But, despite the centrality of rubber to culture and 1909–1941 11 Bowles.1-76 6/17/08 1:47 PM Page 11 industry by the start of the twentieth century, there was one unexpected and significant place in which the value of it was virtually ignored— the university. In 1915, in the India Rubber Journal, one chemistry professor lamented , “It is surprising to note that little consideration is given to the chemistry of rubber by our colleges and universities. Organic chemistry textbooks barely make mention of rubber and the inorganic treatises seldom speak of the value of mineral pigments and fillers to the rubber industry.”7 This situation was little changed a decade later. A report by the National Industrial Conference Board in 1925 noted, “There are many undeveloped contacts between the rubber industry and the colleges of the country.”8 But, there was one institution that stood out above any other in elevating rubber chemistry to academic prominence. In 1909, Charles Knight, a chemistry professor at Buchtel College in Akron, Ohio, offered the first college course that focused specifically upon rubber (in 1913, this institution changed its name to the University of Akron.) In 1917, the journal Rubber Age reported that this was the “only educational institution in the world to give instruction in this subject.”9 Knight taught in the perfect place for such an endeavor. His campus sat on a hill, essentially overlooking the most...