caoutchouc's Usage Examples:

'In this respect it differs from gutta-percha, which, like caoutchouc, is derived from the latices of certain plants.

caoutchouc melts, forming a viscous liquid which does not solidify on cooling.

If the latex is warmed or an acid, an alkali or astringent plant juice is added to it, " coagulation " usually takes place more or less readily, the caoutchouc separating in solid flakes or curds.

Carbon bisulphide is used as a solvent for caoutchouc, for extracting essential oils, as a germicide, and as an insecticide.

The properties of caoutchouc clearly show, however, that its actual molecular structure is considerably more complex than is represented by the empirical formula, and that it is to be regarded as the polymer of a terpene or similar hydrocarbon and composed of a cluster of at least ten or twenty molecules of the formula C5H8.

True caoutchouc, the principal constituent of all rubbers, is probably essentially one and the same substance, from whatever botanical source it may have been derived.

By this process of preparation a considerable portion of the narcotine, caoutchouc, resin, oil or fatty and insoluble matters are removed, and the prolonged boiling, evaporating and baking over a naked fire tend to lessen the amount of alkaloids present in the extract.

The exact manner in which isoprene passes into caoutchouc is also not understood.

When solid caoutchouc is strongly heated it breaks down, without change in its ultimate composition, into a number of simpler liquid hydrocarbons of the terpene class (dipentene, di-isoprene, isoprene, 'c.

Sulphur when warmed with caoutchouc combines with it, and on this fact the vulcanization of rubber depends, and also the production, with an excess of sulphur, of the hard black material known as vulcanite or ebonite.

When exposed to air the latex gradually undergoes putrefactive changes accompanied by coagulation of the caoutchouc.

The globules in the latex, however, consist more probably of a distinct liquid substance which readily changes into the solid caoutchouc.

Synonyms:

foam rubber, ebonite, rubber, gum elastic, cold rubber, latex, Para rubber, natural rubber, hard rubber, vulcanite, crepe rubber, India rubber,

Antonyms:

good,