Thomas Hancock

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Thomas Hancock (born May 8, 1786 in Marlborough (Wiltshire) , † March 26, 1865 in London ) was a British inventor and is considered the founder of the British rubber industry.

Life

Thomas Hancock received his first rubber patent in 1820 for the production of "elastic tapes and fabrics by threading fine raw rubber cords into the textile industry". In the London borough of Goswell Road, he built a small factory and began manufacturing a. a. of suspenders . Because the rubber threads were cut from large bales, there was significant and unprofitable rubber waste. Hancock invented a method of chopping up the leftovers and combining them into larger lumps under pressure and heat. The first hand-operated apparatus from 1821 had a capacity of 4.5 kg. A larger machine, which he called the “Masticator” and was powered by horses, already had a volume of 82 to 90 kg. In 1822 Hancock brought out rubber hoses and in 1825 acquired a license from Charles Macintosh to manufacture the raincoat of the same name . In 1827, Hancock produced fire hoses that proved their worth in a major fire in London. In 1830, Hancock merged with Macintosh to form Chas. Macintosh & Co. Thomas Hancock discovered the 1,843 hard rubber - curing and took the fabrication of various articles on, for which he created forms. In 1845 he manufactured the first solid rubber tire for horse-drawn carriages. Charles Goodyear , whose US Patent 3,633 was not registered until June 15, 1844, corresponded to Thomas Hancock's British patent of November 21, 1843. As a result, there were patent disputes between Goodyear and Hancock, which were brought to court. Goodyear accused Hancock of copying his method (Hancock apparently had a sample from Goodyear), while Hancock stated that he found out the vulcanization method through lengthy laboratory experiments. Goodyear lost Hancock's trial in 1851.

In 1828, Rattier and Guibal in Paris, who had previously dealt with the production of textiles using the method of Johann Nepomuk Reithoffer , took over Hancock's process for the production of waterproof clothes. Macintosh's niece, Miss Barker, married Edouard Daubrée, who founded the rubber factory Barbier & Daubrée in Clermont-Ferrand (France) in 1832 . Their grandchildren were the brothers Édouard and André Michelin .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Britannica.com Thomas Hancock
  2. ↑ Ulrich Giersch, Ulrich Kubisch: p. 54.
  3. ↑ Ulrich Giersch, Ulrich Kubisch: p. 55.
  4. ↑ Fritz Röthemeyer, Franz Sommer: Rubber technology. Carl Hanser Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-446-43776-0 , p. 6.
  5. ↑ U.S. Patent 3,633
  6. ↑ Sir Arthur Du Cros: p. 155.
  7. ↑ Sir Arthur Du Cros: p. 156.
  8. ↑ Waterproof clothes. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 32, 1829, Miszelle 24, pp. 382-383.
  9. ↑ Ulrich Giersch, Ulrich Kubisch: p. 57.
personal data
SURNAME Hancock, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British inventor
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Marlborough (Wiltshire)
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1865
Place of death London