Bearing witness.

It has become apparent that the year 1909 was quite significant in the rubber industry. Not only is the Rubber Division, ACS, turning 100 years old this year, but synthetic rubber was discovered a century ago, and Goodyear made its first aviation tire in 1909.

India Rubber World was witness to these events, having begun publishing ten years earlier. In 1909 the magazine heralded the new India Rubber Section of the American Chemical Society and encouraged all in the industry to join and participate to address the problems of the fledgling rubber industry. "There is no question that there is the greatest need, at the present time, for such work as this group proposes to undertake," the magazine wrote at the time.

Part of the editorial push was for companies to employ a chemist for material testing and quality control. Very few rubber product manufacturers had a chemist on staff 100 years ago. In 1910, the magazine editorialized: "Before the manufacturer can hope to obtain the best results he must, however, forget that a chemist is an "analyst," a mechanic who potters in chemicals. The true chemist, the man who has taken his post graduate course at college, is well equipped to take a "long distance" view of the various processes and operations through which the rubber must pass. His systematically acquired knowledge of chemical principles enables him to discern defects and their causes long before the other man is aware of their existence." Other than the assumptions that the chemist is a man and there is one post graduate course, the definition hasn't changed much in a century. Add the fact that making rubber synthetically was just being discovered, the field of rubber chemistry was definitely in its infancy.

As an aside, we would like to congratulate Lanxess for sponsoring World Rubber Day this September, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of synthetic rubber. Like Rubber World, Lanxess has had an association with this industry for more than 100 years, first as Bayer Corp.

We are proud of our association with the Rubber Division and being able to bear witness to the evolution of rubber chemistry and engineering, and especially the rubber scientist. Being able to peruse our old issues and follow the challenges that were faced and solved makes me believe that in 2109, the present will still be considered the infancy of rubber chemistry.