50 More Things That Made the Modern Economy

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Things That Made the Modern Economy

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Inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped to create the modern economic world

Tim Harford introduces inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped to create the modern economic world

Things That Made the Modern Economy: Series 2: Rubber

Rubber

Series 2

BBC Radio 4 - Things That Made the Modern Economy, Series 2, Rubber

Natural rubber still goes mostly into tyres, and its production still causes controversy.

When John Boyd Dunlop figured out how to make pneumatic tyres from rubber, it sparked a boom in demand that had horrific consequences in the Congo Free State, a Belgian colony.

Charles Goodyear was determined to invent a way to make natural rubber withstand extremes of heat and cold. Eventually he succeeded – we now know the process he devised as vulcanisation. When John Boyd Dunlop later figured out how to make pneumatic tyres from rubber, it sparked a boom in demand that had horrific consequences in the Congo Free State, a colony ruled by Belgium’s King Leopold. Tim Harford tells how natural rubber still goes mostly into tyres, and its production still causes a degree of controversy.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon

Things That Made the Modern Economy: Series 2

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More inventions, ideas and innovations that helped to create the modern economic world.

More inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped to create the modern economic world.

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