Thomas Hancock, Charles Macintosh...those hideous yellow raincoats

Actually, the raincoat was not that bad, but I hated the yellow hood...guys were supposed to have wet hair.

Thomas Hancock
May 8th 1786 to March 26th, 1865

Thomas Hancock was an inventor and manufacturer who founded the British rubber industry. His chief invention, the "masticator," worked rubber scraps into a shredded mass of rubber that could be formed into blocks or rolled into sheets. This process, perfected in 1821, led to a partnership with the Scottish chemist, Charles Macintosh, inventor and manufacturer of waterproof rubber impregnated fabric. Hancock established the first English rubber factory in 1820 and supplied Macintosh. The process of vulcanization was discovered [1839] independently by Hancock and an American, Charles Goodyear. That made possible a resilient rubber product, and led eventually to the large-scale usage of rubber in bicycle and automobile tires.

Thomas Hancock [Wikipedia]

Noble Obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock, and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the 19th Century

by

Charles Slack

ISBN-10: 0786888563
ISBN-13: 978-0786888566