When stretching a piece of rubber (e.g. a rubber band) it will deform lengthwise in a uniform manner. When one end of the sample is released, it snaps back to its original length too quickly for the naked eye to resolve the process. An intuitive expectation is that it returns to its original length in the same manner as when it was stretched (i.e. uniformly). Experimental observations by Mrowca et al. suggest that this expectation is inaccurate. To capture the extremely fast retraction dynamics, they utilized an experimental method devised by Exner and Stefan in 1874. Their method consisted of a rapidly rotating glass cylinder which, after being coated with lamp black, was placed next to the stretched rubber sample. Styli, attached to the mid-point and free end of the rubber sample, were held in contact with the glass cylinder. Then, as the free end of the rubber snapped back, the styli traced out helical paths in the lamp black coating of the rotating cylinder. By adjusting the rotation speed of the cylinder, they could record the position of the styli in less than one complete rotation. The trajectories were transferred to a graph by rolling the cylinder on a piece of damp blotter paper. The mark left by a stylus appeared as a white line (no lamp black) on the paper.