Introductory remarks

Abstract

The purpose of this short conference is twofold. First to give the non-specialist a review of the present position in a subject of both theoretical and practical interest, and second to bring together workers whose methods of approach are different. The term rubber elasticity derives from the remarkable properties first observed in natural rubber ‒ a product obtained commercially from the tree Hevea brasiliensis , but also occurring widely in other plants and trees. This material is, chemically, cis -polyisoprene, and its main chain consists of several thousand carbon atoms. Once it was realized that these properties are due essentially to the long-chain molecular structure of the rubber, the way was, in principle, open for the synthesis either of an identical material or of substances having similar structures. Out of this has grown the large synthetic rubber industry which today offers a range of products broadly comparable with natural rubber, from which the manufacturer of rubber goods selects according to price and detailed properties. For the purpose of this conference we shall be content to group all these materials together under the general title of rubber, because we shall be concerned with the one essential property they share ‒ a type of elastic behaviour which we describe as ‘rubber elasticity’.