LOW TEMPERATURE A Symposium Presented before.the Division of Rubber Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, Boston, Mass., May 23 to 25,1949
R
ESEARCH generally, and partieularly in the rubber industry, has demon-
strated its value and neeessity. During the past 50 years expanded research has gone hand in hand with, and even preceded and made possible, the expanded industrial machine upon which the eeonomy of the United States is now based. The expansion of research has proceeded to the point where research has become big business and as such it must account for its stewardship. As pointed out recently by Robert E. Wilson [Chairman of the Board of the Standard Oil Company (Indiana)], research, in the minds of management, is approaehing the point where the law of diminishing returns is beginning to apply. In a declining economy it beeomes doubly important that we render a full aceounting of the accomplishments of our research aetivities. The fust and foremost function of an organization such as ours is to provide a medium for the exehange of scientific information. In exereising this function, we have an opportunity in our teahnieal meetings not only to exchange the latest &dings in the field of rilbber seience and technology, but also to publicize the fruits of the endeavors of our various laboratories and to demonstrate our role in the contributions which the rubber industry makes to the eommonweal. What promises to be the outstanding advance in the field of rubber technology during t h i s postwar period is the development of the low temperature polymerization proeess for the produetion of synthetic rubbers. The manufacture of so-called “eotd rubber” by this process will be brought to commercial fruition during the second half of 1949. The future of the synthetic rubber industry may well depend on the outcome of this development. In recognition of the vital importince of this new process and the resulting polymers obtained therefrom, the following symposium of 13 papers devoted to the broad subjwt of low temperature polymers has been arranged. Just how good these new polymers are when converted to finished vnlcanized rubber products is an open question. A number of extravagant and conflieting claims have been made in the lay press in this regard. It is the purpose of this symposium to bring together, from several independent laboratories, the most reeent data bearing on this question, including the results of tire tests. In addi.tion, the symposium includes reports of recent work on low temperature polymerization systems, the effect of temperature of polymerization on fundamental properties and structures of the resulting polymers, and the practied aspects of the pmeessing and compounding of low temperature polymers.
E. I. Cramer
