Polymer science be considered polymer science in the modern sense. In the 1840s, Friedrich Ludersdorf and Nathaniel Hayward independently discovered that adding sulfur to raw natural rubber (polyisoprene) helped prevent the material from becoming sticky. In 1844 Charles Goodyear received a U.S. patent for vulcanizing natural rubber with sulfur and heat. Thomas Hancock had received a patent for the same process in the UK the year before. This process strengthened natural rubber and prevented it from melting with heat without losing flexibility. This made practical products such as waterproofed articles possible. It also facilitated practical manufacture of such rubberized materials. Vulcanized rubber
Texas Gulf Sulfur Company by the Frasch Process to that date. The company entered the Mexican market in 1949, with its subsidiary Cia. Exploradora del Istmo, S.A. Headquarters were established in Coatzacoalcos in 1950, and production from their Nopalapa plant commenced in 1957. By 1958, Texas Gulf had produced 69,490,00 tons of sulfur, which was 53.7 percent of the total Frasch sulphur production from 1895 through 1957. In April 1972, the company became TexasGulf. In 1981 the company was acquired by Elf Aquitaine. Texas Gulf Sulfur Company The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company was one of the largest sulfur mining companies in the world from