Editing Vulcanization (section)

==History==
[[File:Roller-hockey-(Quad)-Ball.jpg|thumb|[[Roller hockey]] ball obtained via vulcanisation.]]
In ancient [[Mesoamerican]] cultures, rubber was used to make balls, sandal soles, elastic bands, and waterproof containers.<ref>Tarkanian, M., & Hosler, D. (2011). America’s First Polymer Scientists: Rubber Processing, Use and Transport in Mesoamerica. Latin American Antiquity, 22(4), 469-486. doi:10.7183/1045-6635.22.4.469</ref> It was cured using sulfur-rich plant juices, an early form of vulcanization.<ref name="urlRubber processed in ancient Mesoamerica, MIT researchers find - MIT News Office">{{Cite web|url=https://news.mit.edu/1999/rubber-0714|title=Rubber processed in ancient Mesoamerica, MIT researchers find|website=News.mit.edu|date=14 July 1999 |access-date=25 October 2021}}</ref>

In the 1830s, [[Charles Goodyear]] worked to devise a process for strengthening rubber tires. Tires of the time would become soft and sticky with heat, accumulating road debris that punctured them. Goodyear tried heating rubber in order to mix other chemicals with it. This seemed to harden and improve the rubber, though this was due to the heating itself and not the chemicals used. Not realizing this, he repeatedly ran into setbacks when his announced hardening formulas did not work consistently. One day in 1839, when trying to mix rubber with [[sulfur]], Goodyear accidentally dropped the mixture in a hot frying pan. To his astonishment, instead of [[melting]] further or [[vaporization|vaporizing]], the rubber remained firm and, as he increased the heat, the rubber became harder. Goodyear worked out a consistent system for this hardening, and by 1844 patented the process and was producing the rubber on an industrial scale.{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}

On 21 November 1843, a British inventor, [[Thomas Hancock (inventor)#Vulcanisation|Thomas Hancock]] took out a patent for the vulcanisation of rubber using sulfur, 8 weeks before Charles Goodyear in the US (30 January 1844). Accounts differ as to whether Hancock's patent was informed by inspecting samples of American rubber from Goodyear and whether inspecting such samples could have provided sufficient information to recreate Goodyear's process.