Synthetic Rubber Development: A Review of the Different Materials now Available for Various Uses

THE term synthetic rubber is strictly related only to a product which is physically and chemically indistinguishable from natural rubber; no material has been developed fitting such a definition and synthetic substances which possess properties approximating to those of the natural product are generally regarded as synthetic rubbers. More exact definition has been attempted by many authors in particular to so‐regard only those products which are capable of vulcanization, thus turning from plastic to clastic bodies. No new word describing the synthetic bodies has been accepted and it will now prove difficult to divorce the term “synthetic rubber” from any material showing reasonably comparable properties with natural rubber.