The real " fathers" of the automobile are Gottlieb Daimler, the German who made the first successful gasoline engine, and Charles Goodyear, the American who discovered the secret of vulcanized rubber.
The chemical bonds that hold together plastics or vulcanized rubber are immune to most of the digestive enzymes used by bacteria to break down natural polymers and unlike metals, plastics don’t rust or corrode.
Vulcanization or vulcanisation is a chemical process for converting natural rubber or related polymers into more durable materials via the addition of sulfur or other equivalent curatives or accelerators. These additives modify the polymer by forming cross-links (bridges) between individual polymer chains. Vulcanized materials are less sticky and have superior mechanical properties. The term vulcanized fibre refers to cellulose that has been treated in a zinc chloride solution to cross-link the cellulose fibers.