“Guys who drive in retractable convertibles with remote control often hoodwink others!”
Rubber patentIn 1820, Thomas Hancock's first patent was dated. It was for the application of rubber in clothing where some elasticity was useful, such as braces (suspenders) or slip-on boots. Thus began his wish to find uses for rubber, which until then had limited worth due to its poor properties, being hard and liable to crack in winter cold and sticky in summer heat. Later, he invented a “masticator” which fed waste rubber through a spiked roller rotating in a hollow cylinder and produced a homogeneous mass of solid rubber resulting from the pressure appled and heat generated during the process. When rolled into sheets or compacted into blocks, the product was suitable to make various articles. Thus, he became the founder of the British rubber industry. |
