What accelerated the development of synthetic rubber?
Synthetic rubber is developed in Germany during war in 1930’s in order to make up for a deficiency of supply of natural rubber and for its functional defects. The US was cut off from virtually all sources of natural rubber in the Pacific during World War II. In order to meet the nation’s needs for this vital material, the government built synthetic rubber plants and the industry operated them. Synthetic rubber production jumped from 8,000 tons in 1941 to 820,000 tons in 1945. After the war, the government sold the plants to the industry.
