Interesting read Story of rubber Chemistry

General Fruit Growing
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I was reading this last year, and think it is Interesting
If you read the first section go back to the main menu , and read the second.

https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/menu.htm

Here is a preview

Tlachtli

Our expedition starts here in Mexico. We’re in Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Someday the world will know it as Mexico City. The year is about 1500, or 7-Acatl on the Aztec calendar. We’re here to watch a game called tlachtli.

Tlachtli is kind of like basketball. Games similar to basketball have been played all over Mesoamerica by peoples like the Aztec, the Maya, and the Olmec. The object of Tlachtli is to put a ball through a hoop made of stone at one end of a court. But unlike basketball, the players can’t use their hands. Also unlike basketball, where the losing team gets nothing worse than trash-talk from the winners, the losers in this game of tlachtli are going to have their heads chopped off after the game. The players are prisoners of war, the enemies of the Aztecs who are hosting the game. The game is a ritual honoring Amapan and Uappatzin, the patron deities of the game of tlachtli, and honoring Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war.

But we’re not here because of the gory post-game celebrations. We’re interested in the ball these folks are playing with. It’s roughly the size of a bowling ball, and weighs about five pounds. (Getting it through the hoop without using the hands is so hard that the first team to score a goal wins.) What’s special about this ball is that it is made of natural rubber.

Natural rubber is made by a number of plants which grow in warm climates. Of course, rubber balls aren’t the only thing that the Aztec and other people of the Americas make from rubber. Rubber boots, raincoats of rubberized cotton cloth, and water bottles were all produced by the ingenuity of these people. Rubber was valuable enough in the world of ancient Mesoamerica that it was used to pay for goods and services in barter.

Rubber is one of the Americas’ best-kept secrets. But the rest of the world will find out about rubber eventually. Back in 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first visit to the West Indies. When he came back in 1496, he visited the island of Hispaniola. There he saw people playing games with rubber balls and was amazed at how well the rubber game balls bounced.

Rubber goes on the back Burner

More newcomers will follow Columbus. As violent as the Aztecs seem to us today, what with their human sacrifice and all, they are going to meet an even more violent group of people. Following Columbus to the Americas were the Spanish conquistadors. A group of conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes will land in Mexico in 1519 and incite a revolt of the oppressed Aztec subjects destroying the Aztec Empire. The subjects would have been better off under their old masters as the Spanish kill or enslave thousands. But the people which survive the tragedy will introduced the Spanish to the many wonderful uses of rubber.

In Europe no one has ever seen anything like rubber, and people there will be full of questions about it, questions like…what is this stuff?

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I like the part about
I like how they show rubber molecule being like a tangled up tread like a broken windshield
Since Sulfur is a round molecule it holds in into place , and is strong
Unfortunately It doesn’t break down in the environment for a long time.

https://pslc.ws/mactest/exp/rubber/sepisode/spill.htm

Other parts of the web site explains how to make plastics as well with a Bunsen burner , and chemical formulas.

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I did a brief goggle search and apparently rubber trees are native to the Amazon. It is an interesting tree that I know very little about but appears to be a valuable resource. While on an extended two year visit (1969-1971) to Vietnam there was a large planting of what I was told was rubber trees and they had been planted by the French when they were there. These were located North of what was call Saigon at that time. Apparently the trees rubber was so valuable that locations were sought out to grow it. Before retirement I made two business related trips to Mexico City but I didn’t see any rubber trees but l loved seeing the land away from the city. It is very different from my area.

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Thanks for posting the One Big Happy Molecule. I’m going to send the link to my daughter who has her phd in chemical engineering. I think she will find it interesting.

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Yes I know Chemistry can be difficult , but some of the plastics made on the site sound easy
they even brought these materials to schools , and young kids were creating plastics.

I am intuitive, and would love to try some basic stuff , and try to make up new stuff
one day maybe when I am a old man (maybe a mold that grew on my Ginger candy syrup or something different like that)

(I have a link of what I speak about below)
you know the Chemical in Lemon peels Limonene it is abundant , ,many tons are produced
They found a New plastic made with it It takes up mercury .
If I remember correct it is a orange color after Mercury it changes to pink after it soaks it up.

(note I know Some chemicals are not abundant , Just saying try some weird mushroom or something no one would of experimented with (and chemicals of which could be made synthetic from natures formula )

I am also against plastics (that do not break down) , but that is all political ,
and more about money of the big corporations.

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I was stationed 68/69 at the edge of the Michelin Plantation at Dau Tieng, Binh Duong Province, VN. VN rubber tappers worked it by day and VC ruled at night, firing rockets and mortars at us almost nightly. US had to pay for every tree we damaged when we returned fire with artillery. Crazy.

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Hambone:

I heard a very similar story years ago from my uncle who was in Nam at that time. He was pissed about it as they had to “guard the rubber plantation” even though they heard a nearby american unit getting pounded on the radio and asking for backup. His unit was told they could not leave as they had to guard the rubber trees.

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Thanks for your service Hambone

I find it interesting what the Nazi Chemist did when they didn’t have any oil , and the experimenting of making rubber, they used coal tar to make oil.

Not sure If I was reading this Before my back Injury at the time or while
when I hurt my back (couldn’t sit so had to lay on stomach )
I found looking through it, and all the links very interesting , and really got into it.
well it’s always nice to get back to a sit, and S#!%,
but with some people, with Covid , and work I think It might pass time for them as well like my hurt back.

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Sorry for your back injury, I hope with time you will be able to do all the plantings you like as before.
For all the members that served in Viet nam, or have relatives who did so, thank you for your service.
I have heard a lot of horror facts about the war from different veterans. One of my sister-in-laws married to a soldier when he was stationed there. They have grand childrens, and all live here now. I understand why people protested the war, and how a lot of people’s life was changed forever for worse because of it. I am sorry for what you were going through, and I hope you can find peace someday.
I am not making any excuses for anything. I hope by now you know how thankful I am to be able to raise my family here, because of the freedom that can’t be matched anywhere else in the world. There are always people/goverment who make money out of disasters, be it war, pandemic, hurricane etc… It is a sad fact about the human race.
I was little and didn’t know much about life when we were studying about a novel in class. I asked the teacher why the family was so cruel but so rich. She told the class all the bad things that happened to that family. After I got older and couldn’t find any sequel for that novel, I figured the teacher made them up so I was not so upset about the unfairness of life. I still appreciate her efforts, even though others may disagree. Now all I can do is trying to guild my kids to help other people in need.

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Makes sense. Probably owned by Michelin. I know even today there is a lot of French influence leftover in Vietnam (coffee/food/etc).

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the war was horrible to both sides. way too much politics got thrown in the mix when it shouldn’t have , prolonging the suffering. my father was there in 68’and lost 90% of his unit in 3 months. it scarred him the rest of his life. only time he was at peace was when he was gardening or outdoors activities.

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My back is Okay now actually was in Feburary I know because I was able to sit down on a 19 hour trip to new orleans on a train (I do not care for Marit Gras so much but wanted to see a Friend it was last minute planning )

Things did fall by the way side this year the citys been on my case about having stuff in a fenced in yard, and that stressed me out.

Funny Thing about my Back is people told me to take pain killers
I said what so I can not know I am doing my back more damage , and have it get worse.
Good to know oil floats on top of water as well (joke),
but one day it was so bad at the beginning I took a hour to move to use the bathroom.
can’t really play guitar well standing I could, but 2 or 3 months I just stayed on my stomach.

About that rubber , and economies
I see places like that on documentaries in south America
They had victorian style mansions or some architecture of that nature
but the money all left, and they are all falling apart
not sure why more things down in the Amazon weren’t exploited as well in the Jungles.
Well I guess Gold (mercury to find gold is messing up the Amazon) , and Lumber,
but I mean herbs , and other things less destructive of the Amazon

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About New plastic that absorbs Mercury
I wonder if that works in the body as well.
copy/ pasted

(not sure if this is the best link I had looked into it another time when I learned of it.)
(I just looked up sulphur-limonene polysulfide and quickly posted without reading much into it, but like wiley .com)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/anie.201508708

Mercury contamination plagues many areas of the world, affecting both food and water supplies and creating a serious need for an efficient and cost effective method to trap this mercury. Until now, there has been no such method, but the new sulphur-limonene polysulfide addresses this urgent need. It is as simple yet astonishing as it sounds. Citrus peels and sulphur are key to cleaning mercury from oceans, entwined in the new polymer. The sulphur-limonene polysulfide is a red, rubber-like product that can be used both for the detection of mercury and for absorbing efficiently. If the sulphur-limonene polysulfide will be produced at large scale, it would certainly find a number of applications.The research team suggests the polymer could be used to coat water pipes, as well as wastewater pipes and drainage systems. Moreover, it is fairly cheap to produce, being a highly cost effective material. As both sulphur and limonene are obtained from waste, there is plenty of resource to work with. The petroleum industry leaves behind 77 million tons of sulphur per year. The citrus fruits industry matches the number with another 77 thousand tons of limonene yearly. Repurposing this waste brings added benefits, on top of reducing the production cost of the sulphur-limonene polysulfide. Double the environmental benefits of repurposing harmful industrial waste with the purpose of the polymer: cleaning mercury pollution out of ocean waters.

Millet

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It is true that only you yourself, or a very good physical therapist who works closely with patients, can keep track of what will help or harm your back more. Take care and best wishes.

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I was recently googling to figure out how deep goldenrod roots run and wound up down a rabbit hole about how goldenrod was once considered as a possible source of domestic rubber - an effort undertaken by Thomas Edison, among others. I found it pretty interesting to imagine large golden “rubber fields”.

Here is one place with some of the story where you can see a picture of the jumbo-sized goldenrod Edison was discovering how to grow:

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I just extracted latex from osage orange So far it is sticky like taffy or pine sap, so that would not chew like gum, but plan to dry in oven at 150
I hope it turns like chewing gum I also have anise seed which tastes like liquorish , and also other flavorings like bitter hops I made with grain alcohol, so if it is good will add to latex.

I may just try powdered stuff first
as not sure if alcohol will ruin gum
that is if it even isn’t taffy like and sticks to teeth after drying.

I know it is going to be asked but if you freeze these things that is how you could extract latex.

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My dad was there on an aircraft carrier. Ended up poisoned with Agent Orange. Evidently the same planes taking images for photo-intelligence were spraying AO. He said he would regularly get soaked as they removed the film canisters from the onboard cameras.

He loved the country, what he saw of it and had great respect for the people.

The navy fought his disability claim until almost too late and the poor conditions of the VA system back in the early 20-teens finished him off.

Scott

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Sorry to hear about that
Nothing to do with your post ,
and not directed towards any bad things that happened in the military

I do not want to add anything negative, but maybe a warning be careful letting your kids detasle corn

The whole summer didn’t have any problems , except once
but it takes one spraying being soaked into your skin for a 10 hour day
I wasn’t sick by it, but I was feeling funny, and my Friend my old hippy Neighbor was asking what was wrong with me
(her 2 sons worked that day for the first, and only time
they walked off the job down the road,
and the sheriff had to bring them back so they didn’t have any effects .)

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Sorry to know what happened to your dad. The war ended a long time ago, but it still makes me so sad to hear how someone suffered so much because of it. I hope no one has to go through that in the future.
There nothing I can say but to wish the best for your family, You know that I am very thankful for his service.

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The latex I extracted by accident from the osage orange was still like taffy or wax after trying to dry so didn’t turn like bubble gum. Maybe it will never or maybe it will after I store for a time to dry slow, and see if that works.