Person    | Male  Born 8/5/1786  Died 26/3/1865

Thomas Hancock

Categories: Science

Inventor and founder of the British rubber industry. Born Wiltshire. After schooling he moved to London and is recorded in1815 as a coach builder in Pulteney Street with a shop in St James's Street. 1819 he was investigating the use of rubber to make items of clothing elastic and at a factory in Goswell Road he was making items such as braces, waistbands and straps. He invented the masticator, a machine which shredded the rubber and made it more malleable. He became the masticated rubber supplier to Charles Macintosh in Manchester and eventual became a partner in the firm. Hancock carried on his researches into the properties of rubber and discovered/invented/patented a number of useful substances: including vulcanized rubber and ebonite. His brothers Charles, John, Walter, and William worked with him. Died at Marlborough Cottage, Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, where he had lived for fifty years.

The factory was taken over by the British Tyre and Rubber Company Ltd.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hancock_(inventor)

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Thomas Hancock

Commemorated ati

Thomas Hancock

From the Scott Bader website: "Marble, granite or stone can be produced using...

Read More

Other Subjects

Royal Society

Royal Society

Also known as the Royal Society of London (for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge). A learned society for science, granted a royal charter by King Charles II.  Wren was a founding member. The Soc...

Group, Community / Clubs, Race Issues, Science

4 memorials
Geological Society of London

Geological Society of London

The first geological society in the world, inaugurated in The Freemasons' Tavern. Founded by 13 men having dinner on Friday the 13th. Is this why the earth is in such a mess?

Group, Science

3 memorials
Thomas Earnshaw

Thomas Earnshaw

Born Ashton under Lyme, Lancashire. Maker of watches and chronometers. Lived and worked mainly in London and Greenwich. He seems to have been a bitter man with whom it was unpleasant to do business...

Person, Commerce, Science

1 memorial
Sir Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy

Chemist. Born Penzance. Wrote "Researches, Chemical and Philosophical". Discovered potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, etc. Invented the safety lamp for coal miners.

Person, Science

1 memorial
Philip Henry Gosse

Philip Henry Gosse

Zoologist.  Born Worcester.  1827 sailed to Newfoundland where his interest in entomology began.  He also travelled to Alabama and Jamaica studying the local natural sciences, returning to London i...

Person, Religion, Science, Canada, Jamaica, USA

1 memorial