【精英翻譯】的部落格

Handy Little Band

小小橡皮筋用途多

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0058/360298/web/

Cheap, reliable, and with a variety of different uses, rubber bands are found in just about every home on the planet. For such a simple item, however, the rubber band has a very interesting history.

橡皮筋便宜、耐用而且有各種不同用途，在地球上的每個家裡幾乎都可以找到。然而，就這樣一個簡單的東西而言，橡皮筋有著非常有趣的歷史。

Rubber was discovered by the native people of Central America several thousand years ago. By mixing tree sap with juice from certain plants, they created a solid that they used to make balls, shoes, and even jewelry.

橡膠是幾千年前由中美洲當地人發現的。藉由混合樹液與某些植物的汁液，他們創造出一種用來製作球、鞋子甚至首飾的固態物質。

In 1736, rubber arrived in Europe, and the new material quickly became popular. Thomas Hancock, an Englishman, invented rubber bands in the early 1800s but never sold any, as they were susceptible to going soft or hard depending on the temperature. It wasn’t until vulcanization—the process that makes rubber strong and elastic—was developed a few years later that reliable rubber bands became a possibility.

一七三六年，橡膠到了歐洲，這種新的材料很快就受到歡迎。一名英國人湯瑪斯．翰考克在十九世紀初發明了橡皮筋，但因為它們很容易因溫度變軟或變硬而從未販售過。直到幾年後發展出硫化（使橡膠變強韌和有彈性的過程），耐用的橡皮筋才成為可能。

For many years, rubber bands were mostly used in factories. However, in 1923 American businessman William Spencer persuaded some local newspaper companies to bind their newspapers with his rubber bands to keep them from blowing apart on people’s lawns. As a result, rubber bands soon became a common item in people’s homes.

橡皮筋有很多年主要用於工廠中。然而，一九二三年，美國商人威廉．斯賓塞說服一些當地的報社用他的橡皮筋捆綁報紙，以避免報紙在人們的草坪上被吹散。因此，橡皮筋很快就成為家家戶戶常見的物品。