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T Hancock 1819 UK
First started using rubber solutions to coat fabrics and manufactured articles – gloves, etc.
T Hancock 1820 UK
First patent for dry rubber; cut strips for elasticating clothes, braces etc. Opened a factory in London which became ‘James Lyne Hancock’.
T Hancock 1820 UK
Invented his “Pickling” machine which enabled dry rubber to be worked into a “dough”. Actually a masticator.
  1820 USA
Dipped shoes appeared in the USA, made in S America, exported to Paris – gilded, “fashioned” and returned to America.
  1821 UK
Bertrams Ltd established. Made machinery for linoleum, paper and rubber manufacture.
T Hancock 1821 UK
Pickling machine (masticator) now horse powered!
J Syme 1821 UK
Used Naptha for rubber solvent.
  By 1823 USA
Direct imports from Brazil.
C Macintosh 1823 UK
Realised that if fabric coated with rubber solution then had another layer of fabric applied to rubber, the three layer sandwich was waterproof and not sticky –“MACINTOSH”.
C Macintosh, H Hornby & J Birley 1823 UK
Founded Chas Macintosh and Co.
T Hancock 1824 UK
Obtained the first authenticated sample of latex in the UK and proposed using it to saturate fibres and compress to make ‘artificial leather’. First rubber belting from these materials.
  1825 UK
Pitch/rubber solution -> sheets for coating ships’ bottoms etc.

J Hancock

1825 UK
Thomas’ brother  began work on rubber/fabric hoses.
TC Wales 1825 USA
First native rubber shoes sold in the US.
M Faraday 1826 USA
Established empirical formula of natural rubber as C5H8.
T Hancock 1826 UK
Agreement with Macintosh to make rubberised fabrics and garments at latter’s factory in Manchester.
HC Lacy 1826 UK
Patent for carriage springs made of rubber blocks.
  1827 UK
First recorded use of rubber hoses used against a fire (in London).
T Hancock 1827 UK
Patented rubber solution spreading machine.
  1828 UK
Water beds containing warm water used in Wales to assist miners with hypothermia.
JN Reithofer 1828 Austria
Patented rubber thread wrapped with fabrics to give elastic woven webs.
EM Chaffee 1828 USA
Roxbury India Rubber Co. founded (1st US rubber Co.).
  1820 - 1830 USA
On average, some 500,000 pairs of rubber overshoes per annum had been imported from Para.
T Hancock 1830 UK
Use of latex for dresses and ornaments.
  1830 UK
Sent a teacher to Brazil to show the natives the best way of collecting and preserving latex.
EF Leuchs 1831 Germany
Sulphur and hot molten rubber gave a ‘coal-like’ mass – probably ebonite.
EM Chaffee 1831 USA
Rubber/turps/lampblack paint to waterproof leather.
A Barbier &  NE Daubrée 1832 France
Founded company named after themselves. Eventually became Michelin et Cie.
F Lüddersdorf 1832 Germany
Rubber and a little sulphur in solution – heated to give better ageing and reduced stickiness – The first vulcanizate?
Dr Arnott 1832 UK
Claimed to have invented the water bed and gives details of manufacture and advantages.
EM Chaffee 1832 USA
Roxbury India Rubber Co. began manufacture of rubber footwear in the US.
W Montgomerie 1832 Singapore
First encountered gutta percha, used by the natives to make hatchet handles.
WH Barnard 1833 UK
Patent for ‘cracking’ rubber to produce ‘caoutchoucine’ and suggested its use as a rubber solvent.
N Ruggles & SD Breed 1833 USA
Patent for sticking shoe and boot soles on with rubber.
T Hancock & C Macintosh 1834 UK
Hancock became director of Chas Macintosh and Co.
A Jones 1834 UK
Proposed making ‘carpets’ of canvas, wallpaper and rubber.
EM Chaffee 1834 - 1836 USA
Invented the two roll, two speed, mill which could be heated/cooled. Invented the three (and more) roll mill for calendering rubber ‘dough’. Both are still the basic procedures and designs of today.
J Thurston 1835 UK
Introduced rubber billiard table cushions.
C Goodyear 1834 USA
Became intrigued by rubber – some say obsessed after seeing rubber goods in New York store of the Roxbury India Rubber Co.
A Bouchardat 1836 France
Pyrolytically decomposed rubber.
W Hancock 1836 UK
Used rubber solutions for binding books.
C Dickens 1837 UK
Wrote that Mr Pickwick’s frown vanished like the marks of a blacklead pencil beneath the influence of India rubber.
T Hancock 1837 UK
Invented the spreader, the standard coating machine of today. At last forced to release details of his ‘pickling’ machine or masticator.
  By 1837 USA
Economic crisis. Rubber bubble burst.
T Hancock 1838 UK
Made latex thread using a spiral grove cut in a cylinder. No applications or interest shown.
C Goodyear and        N Hayward 1838 USA
The two meet.
N Hayward 1838 USA
Patented “Solarisation” process whereby rubber films treated with solution of sulphur in turpentine and exposed to sunlight develop a “superior surface”. Patent USP1090 granted Feb 1839.
  1839 USA
Rubber manufacturing industry in the US finished but 5,000,000 pairs of unvulcanized shoes p/a still imported from Brazil.
C Goodyear 1839 USA
Purchased rights to Hayward’s “solarisation” process and began experimenting with rubber/sulphur mixes.
C Goodyear 1839 USA
Left a mix of rubber, sulphur and white lead on a hot stove and he recognised that the resulting material was”CURED” of all its defects. It no longer softened on heating/hardened on cooling and it had lost its stickiness.
  1841 USA
First commercial vulcanized material – rubber thread for “shirred” cloth.

JA Fanshawe

1841 UK
Patent for a masticator with specific mention of the addition of sulphur and lead oxide (as an opaque filler).
S Moulton 1842 UK / USA
An Englishman in America, he came to the UK as Goodyear’s agent, with samples of his vulcanized rubber to negotiate a deal with interested UK parties.
W Brockedon 1842 UK
Showed Hancock some of Goodyear’s cured rubber and proposed the term ‘vulcanization’ for the process of its manufacture.
  1842 UK
The UK began to import rubber from Singapore (from ficus elasticus and urceola elastica).
J Robinson 1842 UK
Joseph Robinson & Co. founded. Rubber manufacturing equipment.
T Hancock 1842 / 1843 UK
Identified sulphur in a piece of Goodyear’s cured rubber. Could not duplicate cure as did not know about white lead, but effected cure with rubber/molten sulphur.
W Montgomerie 1843 UK
Introduced gutta percha to Europe. First use was for knife handles. Then golf balls etc.
C Goodyear 1843 USA
1st US vulcanization patent applied for.
T Hancock 1843 UK
Produced “Hard rubber” (Ebonite / vulcanite) by prolonged treatment of rubber with molten sulphur.
T Hancock 1843 UK
In November he obtained UK provisional patent. For vulcanizing rubber.
  1843 - 1900 UK
Over 100 rubber and rubber equipment manufacturing companies formed in this period. Some historically interesting ones are in the timeline.
A Parkes 1843 UK
Used carbon disulphide as solvent for rubber.
C Goodyear 1844 UK
In February UK patent application refused but US patent granted.
T Forster 1844 UK
Suggested rubber-moulded dolls and toys.
A Turner 1844 UK
Used vulcanized wrapped rubber thread to make webbing for ‘elastic sided’ boots.
J Thurston 1845 UK
Introduced vulcanized rubber billiard table cushions.
J Patterson 1845 UK
First gutta percha golf ball made in Scotland.
W Siemans 1845 UK
Suggested gutta percha as telegraph wire insulant.
RW Thompson 1845 UK
Patented the pneumatic tyre but no vehicles suitable to make it a commercial success!
Lagrénée 1845 France
Brought gutta percha from China.
S Perry and TB Daft 1845 UK Patented elastic bands (as well as Girths, Belts and Bandages)
CH Stearn 1846 USA
Made a part-ebonite plate to treat cleft palates.
C Hancock & H Bewley 1845 UK
The Gutta Percha Company formed.
       
A Parkes 1846 UK
“Cold cure” process discovered. Using sulphur chloride, initially in solution but then in vapour phase – (see 1876). This initiated the ‘dipped goods (thin film)’ industry.
WTG Morton 1846 USA
Advent of anaesthetics with rubber components of apparatus.
C Hancock 1846 UK
Patented a vulcanized sponge rubber – suggested use in Cushions.
Alexander, Cabriol & Duclos 1846 UK
First gutta percha patent – for a laminate consisting of three layers: gutta-fabric-gutta.
W Brokendon 1847 UK
Used ammonium carbonate as blowing agent – still used today.
  1847 USA
Vulcanized rubber shoes and overshoes manufactured again– many for UK market.
JG Ingram 1847 UK
Began manufacture of vulcanized rubber balloons.
WH Barlow &             T Forster 1847 UK
Patent for the making of telegraph cables with gutta percha.
JJ Craven 1847 UK
Insulated undersea cables with gutta percha.
CC Page 1847 USA
Noted the close similarity of the thermal decomposition products of natural rubber and gutta percha.
S Moulton 1848 UK
Moulton founded his rubber goods company at Bradford-on-Avon.
  1848 UK
Byrne India-Rubber Co. founded later sold to Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co.
W Burke 1849 UK
Used golden antimony sulphide instead of sulphur to produce red thread (20% of thread market by 1914).
  1849 UK
First recorded use of gutta percha as a telegraph cable insulant (in London).
R & J Dick 1850 UK
Founded R & J Dick Ltd., gutta percha and balata manufacturers.
TL Wilson 1850 Wst Africa
Drew attention of rubber traders to the rubber-producing vines and their possible commercial value.
J Brett & JW Brett 1850 UK
Failed in first attempt to lay gutta percha insulated cable from Dover to Calais.
J Brett 1851 UK
Second attempt failed but then completed.
C Goodyear 1851 USA
Proposed ebonite as a bonding layer – rubber to metal.
N Goodyear 1851 USA
Charles’ brother, Nelson, patented manufacture of ebonite.
  1851 UK
Great Exhibition in London full of rubber and ebonite articles.
  1851 USA
Vulcanized rubber shoes being manufactured at a rate of over 5,000,000 pairs p/a.
  1853 Amazonia
The first ‘serious’ rubber traders moved up the Amazon with the coming of steamers.
SW Silver 1852 UK
Founded what was to become the “India-Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works” in London.
WR Forster &           TJ Williams 1852 UK
Founded Forster & Williams (submarine and India-Rubber manufacturers) which joined with CE Heinke & Co in 1902.
  1853 Amazonia
3 tons of rubber exported.
W Johnson 1853 UK
Suggested ammonia as suitable stabiliser for latex.
  1853 UK
First imports of latex to UK.
  1853 USA
Rubber sole with leather edging (to sew to uppers) appeared.
W Johnson 1854 UK
Patented the use of a press for vulcanising shaped products.
C Goodyear 1855 USA
Discusses various ‘fillers’ or buking agents – including lamp black and various earths.
  1855 France
Exposition Universelle in Paris. As with London (1851) full of rubber and ebonite products. Goodyear’s book ‘Gum Elastic present, printed on rubber pages and with carved ebonite covers.
JH Johnson 1855 UK
Patented ebonite components in spinning/weaving machinery and also proposed ebonite-coated metal components.
C Goodyear Junior 1855 USA
Patented use of ebonite for dental plates.
H Lee Norris  &        ST Parmelee 1856 Scotland
UK manufacture of vulcanized rubber shoes began in Scotland to avoid Hancock’s English patent. The North British Rubber Co.
  1856 Germany
Harburger Gummi-Kamm-Co formed to make ebonite combs.
T Hancock 1857 UK
Published his “Personal Narrative” with much practical information on rubber products and their manufacture.
CW Field 1858 USA / UK
First transatlantic cable (insulated/coated with gutta percha) laid by the cable ship ‘The Faraday’.
AFE Robert 1858 UK
Manufactured the first hollow rubber dolls.
GA Engelhard &      HH Day 1859 UK
First prepared chlorinated rubber.
W Hooper 1859 UK
Introduced the first rubber insulated/coated cables.
  1859 UK
New Liverpool Rubber Co founded – later to become Dunlop Rubber Co.
  1860 USSR

Rubber footwear manufactured in St Petersburg.

G Williams 1860 UK
Decomposed natural rubber and isolated isoprene (C5H8). Gave it that name.
W Clissold 1860 UK
Rubberised ‘V’ belting patented.
JT Pitman 1860 UK
Used steam-heated platens in his vulcanising press.
  1860 Brazil
Rubber prices at all time high – cost more than silver.
  1860 World
World wide production of natural rubber around 1,500 tons.
Scotish Vulc. Co. 1861 UK
First British company dedicated to ebonite – The Scottish Vulcanite Co. – formed. Later joined with N British Rubber Co.
F Hofmann 1861  
Showed that degraded gutta percha had oxidised.
F Shaw 1861 UK
Developed the first screw extruder for rubber production.
J Quinn 1862 UK
Founded Brookland Rubber Co., later Leyland and Birmingham Rubber Co.
J Leighton 1862 USA
Invented the ubiquitous rubber stamp.
SC Barnum 1862 USA
Dental dam introduced
Sanderson 1862 UK
Proposed brass as a bonding interface between steel and rubber.
  1862 UK
The invention of the inflatable rubber bladder (and the pump to inflate it) gave the modern football.
JK Wright 1864 USA
Carbon black first produced commercially to use with rubber vulcanizates.
N Hayward 1865 USA
Died. Tombstone in Colchester CT describes him as the inventor of “hard rubber” (ebonite).
CW Field 1866 Atlantic
Atlantic cable laid from Heart’s Content (Newfoundland) to Valentia (Ireland) by the ‘Great Eastern’.
Dom Pedro II 1867 Amazonia
Opened the Amazon and its tributaries to foreign trade. Ocean liners could now reach as far as Iquitos (2,300 miles from the Atlantic coast).
RW Thomson 1867 UK
Patented first commercial solid vulcanized tyres for steam engines.
  1868 USA
A shoe was produced with a vulcanized rubber sole fused to a canvas upper. Reputedly known as the ‘felonies’ and also ‘brothel creepers’ they must have been very quiet! In the UK they were eventually called Plimsols by Philip Lace (1876).
M Berthellot 1869 France
Polymerised styrene – not an elastomers but mentioned here because of its importance in SBR, SBS etc.
BF Goodrich 1870 USA
Founded rubber factory in Akron.
Murphy 1870 USA
Recognised “oxidation” as cause of deterioration in rubber.
CKGP Co. 1871 Germany
Continental Kautschuk und Gutta Percha Co. established in Hanover.
A Stephen & F Pegler 1871  
Founded Northern Rubber Co.
J Collins 1872 UK
Commissioned to report on Rubber in Brazil.
GB Pirelli 1872timeline4.htm Italy
Forms GB Pirelli & Co. UK registered company in 1909.
H Wickham 1873 Brazil
Commissioned by Kew to collect seeds of “hevea braziliensis”.
  1875 World
World wide production of natural rubber approached 10,000 tons.
G Bouchardet 1875 France
Suggested that isoprene was the primary unit of rubber and obtained a ‘rubber’ by heating it with fuming hydrochloric acid. The first synthetic rubber?

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