Editing Solidago (section)

===Industrial use===
Inventor [[Thomas Edison]] experimented with goldenrod to produce [[rubber]], which it contains naturally.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,881890,00.html|author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line -->|title=Goldenrod Rubber|date=December 16, 1929|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=June 6, 2017}}</ref> Edison created a fertilization and cultivation process to maximize the rubber content in each plant.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SL345/SS548: Fertilizer Experimentation, Data Analyses, and Interpretation for Developing Fertilization Recommendations—Examples with Vegetable Crop Research |url=https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/SS548 |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=edis.ifas.ufl.edu |language=en}}</ref> His experiments produced a {{convert|12|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall|abbr=on}} plant that yielded as much as 12% rubber, and the new variant was named ''Solidago edisoni'',<ref>{{cite news |title=Phonograph exhibit hints at rubber invention |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1992/10/04/phonograph-exhibit-hints-at-rubber-invention/ |access-date=19 December 2024 |publisher=The Orlando Sentinel |date=4 October 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Thulesius |first1=Olav |title=Edison in Florida: the Green Laboratory |date=1997 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville |isbn=0-8130-1521-9 |pages=83-93}}</ref> also called ''Solidago edisoniana''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Vargues |first1=Lisa |title=In Search of Thomas Edison's Botanical Treasures |url=https://www.nybg.org/blogs/science-talk/2013/10/in-search-of-thomas-edisons-botanical-treasures/ |access-date=19 December 2024 |publisher=The New York Botanical Garden |date=30 October 2013}}</ref> The tires on the [[Model T]] given to him by his friend [[Henry Ford]] were made from goldenrod. Like [[George Washington Carver]], [[Henry Ford]] was deeply interested in the regenerative properties of soil and the potential of alternative crops such as peanuts and soybeans to produce plastics, paint, fuel and other products.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Karen |title=George Washington Carver And Henry Ford Worked On Experimental Projects Together |url=https://historydaily.org/george-washington-carver-henry-ford-experiments |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=History Daily |language=en}}</ref> 

Ford had long believed that the world would eventually need a substitute for gasoline, and supported the production of ethanol (or grain alcohol) as an alternative fuel.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-11-25 |title=Henry Ford, Charles Kettering and the fuel of the future |url=https://environmentalhistory.org/people/henry-ford-charles-kettering-and-the-fuel-of-the-future/ |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=Environmental history |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1942, he would showcase a car with a lightweight plastic body made from soybeans. Ford and Carver began corresponding via letter in 1934, and their mutual admiration deepened after [[George Washington Carver]] made a visit to Michigan in 1937. As [[Douglas Brinkley]] writes in ''Wheels for the World'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brinkley |first=Douglas |url=https://cmc.marmot.org/Record/.b21749760 |title=Wheels for the world : Henry Ford, his company, and a century of progress, 1903-2003 / |date=2003 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-03181-8}}</ref> his history of Ford, the automaker donated generously to the Tuskegee Institute, helping finance Carver's experiments, and Carver in turn spent a period of time helping to oversee crops at the Ford plantation in Ways, Georgia.

By the time World War II began, Ford had made repeated journeys to Tuskegee to convince [[George Washington Carver]] to come to [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]] and help him develop a synthetic rubber to help compensate for wartime rubber shortages. Carver arrived on July 19, 1942, and set up a laboratory in an old water works building in Dearborn. He and Ford experimented with different crops, including sweet potatoes and dandelions, eventually devising a way to make the rubber substitute from goldenrod, a plant weed commercially viable.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-washington-carver-begins-experimental-project-with-henry-ford|title=George Washington Carver Begins Experimental Project with Henry Ford – Jul 19, 1942 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|publisher=[[History (U.S. TV channel)]]|access-date=20 May 2015}}</ref> Carver died in January 1943, Ford in April 1947, but the relationship between their two institutions continued to flourish: As recently as the late 1990s, Ford awarded grants of $4 million over two years to the George Washington Carver School at Tuskegee.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Washington Carver |url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/carver.html |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=American Chemical Society |language=en}}</ref>

Extensive process development was conducted during World War II to commercialize goldenrod as a source of rubber.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/CAT30868499|title=Extraction, Characterization, and Utilization of Goldenrod Rubber|publisher=US Department of Agriculture|date=9 September 1944|access-date=27 Sep 2011}}</ref> The rubber is only contained in the leaves, not the stems or blooms.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=What Is Natural Rubber and Why Are We Searching for New Sources? |year=2019 |language=en |doi=10.3389/frym.2019.00100|doi-access=free |last1=Arias |first1=Marina |last2=Van Dijk |first2=Peter J. |journal=Frontiers for Young Minds |volume=7 }}</ref> Typical rubber content of the leaves is 7%. The resulting rubber is of low [[molecular weight]], resulting in an excessively tacky compound with poor tensile properties.<ref>{{Cite web |title=weakest rubber compounds: Topics by Science.gov |url=https://www.science.gov/topicpages/w/weakest+rubber+compounds |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=www.science.gov |language=en}}</ref>