Synthetic rubber production. Workers handling a sheet of synthetic rubber coming off a rolling mill at a factory in the 1940s. The sheet will need to be dried. This synthetic rubber is being produced by the 'ameripol' process, where it is derived from butadiene (a petroleum derivative). In this rolling mill the crumbs of rubber are squeezed dry of excess water and pressed together into the blanket shown here. Photographed in 1941 at the B. F. Goodrich Company, Akron, Ohio, USA. This photograph, by Alfred T. Palmer, is part of a collection from the United States Office of War Information.