The History of Elastic

In the 21st century, nearly all clothing has some Spandex, but how did we get to this point? When did we start adding elastic to textiles? Rubber has played a critical role in the history of the world, not always for the better. We find natural and synthetic rubber everywhere around us today, and this future was predicted and planned for as far back as the 1840s. The actual history of rubber goes back much further, however, and has played an important role in societies for thousands of years. Early on latex rubber, in the form of raw tree sap, was commonly used and processed by many Mesoamerican civilizations. It works well as an insulator, waterproofing, and hardens when smoke cured. Though this region processed rubber for their uses for thousands of years effectively, it took around 200 years from the European contact of this region for the product to be safely transported across the ocean. As of the 18th century, tests were being done to discover ways of stabilizing rubber, but very little came of the efforts until early in the 19th c. Thomas Hancock and Charles Goodyear, among others, found ways to take natural rubber and alter its form to be of use to a rapidly growing industrial society. Patented processes like Mastication and Vulcanization created a massive demand for rubber products, and raw rubber sources. As the use of rubber spread through industrial and domestic situations in the 19th century, efforts to find and exploit natural sources grew. This lead to deva