The Compressibility of Rubber

Abstract Although many of the elastic properties of rubber have been investigated with very interesting results, no measurements have been made, so far as we know, of its cubic compressibility at high pressures. Those measurements which have been made at low pressures yield results varying from 93×10−6 obtained by Clapeyron to an estimate of the order of the compressibility of bronze (about 1×10−6) given by Amagat. As the compressibility of rubber enters as a minor correction into most compressibility measurements at high pressures, it is very desirable to have a reliable estimate of its value. In this communication we propose to give the results of experimental determinations of the compressibility at 25° of three samples of rubber which were furnished to us by H. L. Curtis and A. H. Scott of the U. S. Bureau of Standards. The samples are described as follows: Sample A.—Hard rubber from panel made by the Goodrich Company. It is a rubber-sulfur compound containing no inorganic fillers. The total sulfur amounts to 27.4 per cent, of which 0.21 per cent, is free sulfur. The density is 1.149 at 27° C. Sample B.—A rubber-sulfur compound containing 90 per cent. smoked rubber and 10 per cent. sulfur and vulcanized 105 minutes at 300° F. Density = 0.990 at 25°. Sample C consists of pale crepe rubber 90.75 per cent., zinc oxide 5 per cent., sulfur 4 per cent., tetramethylthiuram disulfide 0.25 per cent. It was vulcanized for 30 minutes at 260° F. Density = 0.990 at 27°.