On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:34:04 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
wrote:

Jupiter Jaq wrote:
Vulcanization...

Doesn't that require sulfur, or is that just rubber?

Geoff.

It was a Star Trek joke, actually.

No, it was actually used as a term to define the polymerization (the
actual term) of any polymer based media for many years.

Now, we know the term is 'polymerization' (with the exception of the
original definition for the term), so nobody knows much more about the
term 'vulcanization' beyond its original use, which most certainly was
for rubber, and required Sulfur.

So, it was loosely used to refer to the 'hardening' of just about
anything 'wet'. Not correctly, and not in large circles, but it was
used.

"Fixing" was a term that was already in place, and related to
paintings... works of art. That would have been the term until someone
cited the fact that at the microscopic level the pigment particles were
actually 'fusing' to the paper fibers.

Otherwise, everyone would call it a 'fixer' and the process would be
'fixing'.