Condoms are central to most adult lives today, but they also occupy that uncomfortable place in our heads that we’d rather not poke and prod too deeply. No surprises then that few people know just how condoms get made.
But it’s a mesmerising process: glass molds are dipped in latex to produce the basic rubber product, which is then heat-dried, machine-washed, lubricated, rolled and packed, all with assembly-line efficiency. Along the way, each batch is also tested, in ways that seem surprisingly similar to adolescent games, from blowing them up like balloons to filling them to capacity with water to check for leaks.