Work at the Detroit Arsenal has shown that techniques similar to those employed for the determination of pole figures of metals can be utilized for studying organic materials such a a stretched rubber latex. The rubber, when stretched, forms a preferred orientation pattern which is proportional in intensity to the degree of elongation, and which can be used to plot a pole figure.

A Geiger-counter spectrometer was used to study samples of rubber stretched 600 to 1000 per cent. Using a transmission technique, the specimens were tilted to the impinging X-ray beam in five degree increments while rotating through 360 degrees to allow the measurement of the diffracted beam from the selected atomic planes at various angles within the specimen. The intensities of the diffracted beam at these angles were plotted on a stereographic net to form the pole figures of the (002) and (012) planes of the stretched rubber. The geometry of the sample arrangements permitted the outer portion of the pole figure to be plotted from alpha angle 0 degrees to alpha angle 45 degrees.