Erasers – An English scientist named Joseph Priestley discovered that a wad of rubber was good for erasing (rubbing out) pencil marks on paper. But someone else discovered how to use it in boots, tires, and the like. There was a problem, though.  Rubber would melt if it got too hot, and it would break if it got too cold.

Tires – Charles Goodyear worked for several years to find a solution to this problem.  Then, one day, he accidentally dropped a some rubber and sulfur on a hot stove and found something that worked.

Silly Putty – During World War II, there was a severe shortage of rubber, so the U.S. government was looking for a way to make synthetic rubber out of something plentiful.  They decided on silicone. An inventor at General Electric, Peter Hodgson, added boric acid to silicone oil and developed a gooey, bouncy substance, unsuitable as a substitute for rubber. He began selling it in 1950 as a fun toy known as Silly Putty.  Later, astronauts began to use it to stabilize their tools in space.  They carried the putty in silver eggs.  The toy version is sold in plastic eggs today.