Editing Condom (section)

=== Rubber and manufacturing advances ===
In 1839, [[Charles Goodyear]] discovered a way of processing natural [[rubber]], which is too stiff when cold and too soft when warm, in such a way as to make it elastic. This proved to have advantages for the manufacture of condoms; unlike the sheep's gut condoms, they could stretch and did not tear quickly when used. The [[vulcanized rubber|rubber vulcanization]] process was patented by Goodyear in 1844.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Reprinted from ''India Rubber World'' |title=CHARLES GOODYEAR—The life and discoveries of the inventor of vulcanized India rubber |journal=Scientific American Supplement |issue=787 |date=31 January 1891 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14009 |access-date=8 June 2008 |archive-date=25 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225204441/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14009 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Charles Goodyear Story: The Strange Story of Rubber |journal=Reader's Digest |date=January 1958 |url=http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history_story.html |access-date=8 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509075421/http://www.goodyear.com/corporate/history/history_story.html |archive-date=9 May 2008}}</ref> The first rubber condom was produced in 1855.<ref name=billy>{{cite web |title=Rubbers haven't always been made of rubber |work=Billy Boy: The excitingly different condom |url=http://www.billy-boy.com/english/info/ |access-date=9 September 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721104435/http://www.billy-boy.com/english/info/ |archive-date=21 July 2006}}</ref> The earliest rubber condoms had a seam and were as thick as a bicycle inner tube. Besides this type, small rubber condoms covering only the [[Glans penis|glans]] were often used in England and the United States. There was more risk of losing them and if the rubber ring was too tight, it would constrict the penis. This type of condom was the original "capote" (French for condom), perhaps because of its resemblance to a woman's bonnet worn at that time, also called a [[Bonnet (headgear)|capote]].

For many decades, rubber condoms were manufactured by wrapping strips of raw rubber around penis-shaped molds, then dipping the wrapped molds in a chemical solution to cure the rubber.<ref name="collier" />{{Rp|148}} In 1912, Polish-born inventor [[Julius Fromm]] developed a new, improved manufacturing technique for condoms: dipping glass molds into a raw rubber solution.<ref name="billy" /> Called ''cement dipping'', this method required adding gasoline or benzene to the rubber to make it liquid.<ref name="collier" />{{Rp|200}}
Around 1920 patent lawyer and vice-president of the [[United States Rubber Company]] Ernest Hopkinson<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/ResHopkinsonE.html | title=Ernest Hopkinson Residence - New York City | access-date=16 June 2022 | archive-date=9 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809081556/http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/ResHopkinsonE.html | url-status=live }}</ref> invented<ref>{{US patent|1423525A}}, {{US patent|1423526A}}</ref> a new technique of converting [[latex]] into rubber without a coagulant ([[demulsifier]]), which featured using water as a solvent and warm air to dry the solution, as well as optionally preserving liquid latex with ammonia.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_chemical-engineering_1930-02_37_2/page/100/mode/2up | title=Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering 1930-02: Vol 37 Iss 2 | date=February 1930 | publisher=Access Intelligence LLC }}</ref> Condoms made this way, commonly called "latex" ones, required less labor to produce than cement-dipped rubber condoms, which had to be smoothed by rubbing and trimming. The use of water to suspend the rubber instead of [[gasoline]] and [[benzene]] eliminated the fire hazard previously associated with all condom factories. Latex condoms also performed better for the consumer: they were stronger and thinner than rubber condoms, and had a shelf life of five years (compared to three months for rubber).<ref name="collier" />{{Rp|199–200}}

Until the twenties, all condoms were individually hand-dipped by semi-skilled workers. Throughout the decade of the 1920s, advances in the automation of the condom assembly line were made. The first fully automated line was patented in 1930. Major condom manufacturers bought or leased conveyor systems, and small manufacturers were driven out of business.<ref name="collier" />{{Rp|201–3}} The skin condom, now significantly more expensive than the latex variety, became restricted to a niche high-end market.<ref name="collier" />{{Rp|220}}