When Europeans touch South America roughly 500 years ago , they were awed by all the natural rubber products in Aztec city , admit giant bouncy clod and condom bands . Now scientists have figured out how the Aztecs manufactured unlike grades of rubber .
MIT materials scientist Dorothy Hosler worked with a squad to quicken the manufacturing process the Aztecs would have used to make rubber , which comes down to dissimilar mix of latex refined from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree sap and morning glory succus . Because so few galosh artifact survive – only a couple of very brittle rubber ball – the research worker swear on written report from Spanish explorers to figure out all the rubber products the Aztecs had . Spanish bill include verbal description of golosh - soled shoes , as well as rubber bands used for get spears . And it turn out that merely varying the proportion of latex paint to juice results in many different grades of pencil eraser .
In the trope above , you could see the Aztec god Ziuhtecuhtli using rubber musket ball in a ceremonial occasion .
According to MIT news :
Sure enough , varying the proportion produced different properties . A 50 - 50 portmanteau word of the latex and dawning glory produced maximal snap , or bounciness , unadulterated for the rubber bollock . arctic used as an adhesive material or for conjoin other materials ( such as ceramic and wood ) take unlike prop – posture and damping ability – and for that , pure latex seems to mould considerably . For sandals , where wear resistance is the most significant caliber , a three - to - one mix of latex to morning gloriole provides the most durable material .
The Mesoamericans had plenty of meter to function out these properties through trial and error . By the time the Spanish get in , Tarkanian aver , “ there was a prominent gumshoe industriousness ” in the neighborhood , producing 16,000 caoutchouc balls each twelvemonth , and with child numeral of rubber statues , sandals , bands and other products . Most of those were produced in villages in outlying areas , and were shipped to the capital metropolis as a mannikin of tax payment .
Long before European countries were using gumshoe in their manufacturing , the Aztecs had a booming industry construct around the substance .
viaMIT News
anthropologyHistoryScience
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