February 17, 2004 > Test Your Hardware IQ

1. 1. Rubber was first used by:
   
   
   
   1. American Indians
      
   2. Europeans as balls for games
      
   3. Chinese merchants for packing material
      
   4. South Pacific Islanders to build boats.
      
   
   
   

2. What household item "launched the rubber industry"?
   
   

3. What does "vulcanization" do to rubber?
   
   
   
   1. Makes it flame proof
      
   2. Makes it bouncier
      
   3. Retains flexibility
      
   4. Retains an original color
      
   
   

4. Charles Goodyear, the Chairman of Goodyear Rubber Co., designed the first rubber tires for automobiles. True or False?
   
   

5. B.F. Goodrich designed an all weather tire to compete with Goodyear Tire Company. True or False? Extra Credit: What do the initials B.F. stand for?
   
   

Ansers:

1. a. American Indians made balls out of rubber. Columbus carried these back to Spain but no practical use was made of the substance.
   
   

2. The garden hose.
   
   

3. c. Discovered by Charles Goodyear by accident in 1839, the mixture of sulfur and rubber when heated retained flexibility in hot and cold temperatures.
   
   

4. False. Charles Goodyear, after discovering the process of vulcanization, spent the rest of his life and money trying to perfect the process. He died penniless - actually in debt.
   
   

5. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, an Akron, Ohio doctor, gathered a group of investors to start the B.F. Goodrich Company that, in 1870, began selling rubber hose.