Rubber bands - those stretchy little loops of elastic that seem to have a million handy uses. But have you ever wondered how those colorful little bands get their sizes? Why is a #16 rubber band longer than a #32? Well, it all has to do with the history and evolution of rubber band sizing standards.
Back in the early 1900s, rubber bands were growing in popularity for holding together bundles of paper, packaging items, and even industrial machinery parts. But with no sizing standards, rubber band manufacturers labeled them seemingly at random. This made it tricky to know which band was the right size for the job.
To bring order to the chaotic rubber band market, an numbering system was organically adopted starting in the 1920s. Bands were generally categorized by width first, then length - so a 1/16" wide, 7/8" long band was dubbed a #8. As the bands got longer in the same width, the numbers increased - so a 2 1/2" long band was a #19. Widths moved up to 1/8", numbered in the 30s, and so on.
This numbering system was informal at first, but by 1925 the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Standards published specific size and strength guidelines for standardizing rubber bands across the industry. Manufacturers and consumers finally had a common framework for describing and selecting their stretchy tools.
So next time you grab a #32 for your mail pile or a #16 for a craft project, appreciate the order in that little numbering system! Those numbers have been specially sized and sorted just for your rubber band needs since commerce regulators stepped in nearly a century ago. The handy and ubiquitous rubber band continues to play an important role today thanks to those forward-thinking standard-setters.