Rubber bands
are one of the most convenient products of the twentieth century,
used by numerous individuals and industries for a wide variety
of purposes. The largest consumer of rubber bands in the world
is the U.S. Post Office, which orders millions of pounds a
year to use in sorting and delivering piles of mail. The newspaper
industry also uses massive quantities of rubber bands to keep
individual newspapers rolled or folded together before home
delivery. Yet another large consumer is the agricultural products
industry. The flower industry buys rubber bands to hold together
bouquets or uses delicate bands around the petals of flowers
(especially tulips) to keep them from opening in transit.
Vegetables such as celery are frequently bunched together
with rubber bands, and the plastic coverings over berries,
broccoli, and cauliflower are often secured with rubber bands.
All in all, more than 30 million pounds of rubber bands are
sold in the United States alone each year.
Rubber, which derives from plants that grow best in an equatorial
climate, was first discovered by European explorers in the
Americas, where Christopher Columbus encountered Mayan indians
using water-proof shoes and bottles made from the substance.
Intrigued, he carried several Mayan rubber items on his return
voyage to Europe. Over the next several hundred years, other
European explorers followed suit. The word rubber was born
in 1770, when an English chemist named Joseph Priestley discovered
that hardened pieces of rubber would rub out pencil marks.
By the late eighteenth century, European scientists had discovered
that dissolving rubber in turpentine produced a liquid that
could be used to waterproof cloth.
