154 Miracles Ahead! 



be better than grain-made alcohol for the production of 

 butadiene. Alcohol made in oil refineries will cost much less 

 than that from grain. 



Buna S is being produced in several plants operated for the 

 government by the United States Rubber Company, Fire- 

 stone, Goodrich, and Goodyear. Here are some of the syn- 

 thetic rubbers that have important places in our program: 1 



Buna N type, copolymers of butadiene and acrylonitrile. 

 They include the following: Perbunan (Standard Oil Com- 

 pany of New Jersey and Firestone Tire & Rubber Company) ; 

 Hycar (Hycar Chemical Company, owned by Phillips Petro- 

 leum Company and B. F. Goodrich Company); Chemigum 

 (Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company); Thiokol RD (Thi- 

 okol Corporation, associated with Dow Chemical Company). 



The Buna NTs are similar to rubber in being vulcanized 

 with sulphur and rubber accelerators, and may be cured to 

 hard rubber; but in some operations they are harder to handle 

 than natural rubber. They are used principally in oil and 

 gasoline hose, tank linings, packings, gaskets, printers' blan- 

 kets, and other products where resistance to oil is important 

 (such as oil-resistant soles and heels). 



Neoprene, a polymer of chloroprene. It was introduced by 

 the Du Pont Company in 1932 under the name Duprene and 

 proved to be the first commercially successful synthetic rub- 

 ber. It is a good general-purpose rubber with good resistance 

 to chemicals and oil and excellent resistance to heat, air, and 

 light better, in fact, than any other rubber. It is harder to 

 handle, however, than natural rubber or the Bunas in cer- 

 tain operations. Neoprene is used for truck and bus tires, inner 

 tubes, footwear, shoe soles, sheet goods, and many other indus- 

 trial and general purposes. 



1 On November 9, 1943, the United States Rubber Company announced 

 the development of uskol, the sixth major type of synthetic rubber to be 

 discovered. It has great resistance to oils, fuels, solvents and other penetrat- 

 ing chemicals. 



