How Does The Rubber Become Solid?

Freezing can making rubber solid.

In industry, rubber goes through a process called vulcanisation (vulcanization if your American). During this process, rubber is heated to a very high temperature, and sulphur is added. This makes the material a lot harder and more durable.

The process used today was originally discovered by Charles Goodyear. Although he shares his name with a very large and successful tyre company, he was not connected with it in anyway. Its a sad story in which he was basically conned and exploited by every business man, and never made a penny from his invention, which enabled many other men to become extremely wealthy. He spent his life trying to raise money to make some sort of profit from his discovery, but died poor, with huge debts.