About 80 per cent of the rubber consumed in the United States is used in the automotive industry. Rubber was necessary for the development of the modern automobile, and the popularity of the automobile has, in turn, tremendously enlarged the rubber business. The parallel growth of the rubber and automotive industries is apparent in Figure 1, where the consumption of rubber is compared with the registration of motor vehicles in the United States for the past thirty years. The modern automobile contains about two hundred different parts made wholly or in considerable part of rubber. Including the tires and tubes, the weight of these materials is about 145 pounds per car. Rubber is used in the automobile in practically all of its available forms, either as latex, cements, soft rubber, hard rubber, or sponge rubber. Every important characteristic of rubber is utilized. Rubber has a wider range of properties than any other single material and automotive engineers are to be congratulated on their progressiveness in using these unique and valuable properties to improve their product.

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Rubber Division, American Chemical Society, Inc.
1941
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