Who invented the rubber band?

Answer 1

Ok, sorry if this post is confusing. It seems to me that *technically* Thomas Hancock probably invented the rubber band in 1843. Working with Hancock, Stephen Perry patented it two years later in 1845, and generally gets credited with being the inventor.

Another name that gets floated around is Dr. Jaroslav Kurash, but that rumor seems to have originated with an errant Wikipedia entry. It has also been said that William H. Spencer invented the rubber band in 1923 when he was cutting them out of discarded rubber products. It seems to me that if Perry patented the rubber band in 1845, as multiple sources say he did, it was not invented 78 years later by Spencer.

Anyway, I've pasted the two main versions below, along with a bunch of sources for you to check out. You can decide for yourself.

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In 1845, Stephen Perry, of the rubber manufacturing company Messers Perry and Co., patented the rubber band to hold papers or envelopes together.

The first rubber band was developed in 1843, when an Englishman named Thomas Hancock sliced up a rubber bottle made by some New World Indians. Although these first rubber bands were adapted as garters and waistbands, their usefulness was limited because they were unvulcanized. Hancock himself never vulcanized his invention, but he did advance the rubber industry by developing the masticator machine, a forerunner of the modern rubber milling machine used to manufacture rubber bands as well as other rubber products. In 1845, Hancock's countryman Thomas Perry patented the rubber band and opened the first rubber-band factory. With the combined contributions of Goodyear, Hancock, and Perry, manufacturing effective rubber bands became possible.

http://www.answers.com/topic/rubber-band

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Here's the William H. Spencer version:

On March 7, 1923, William H. Spencer of Alliance, Ohio, obtained rejected inner tubes from the Goodyear Co. and began cutting them into bands in his basement. Spencer, who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad, began trying to sell his rubber bands to office-supply stores and paper and twine outlets.

One day he noticed the Akron Beacon Journal blowing across lawns and persuaded that paper to bind them with his bands. He talked the Tulsa World into doing the same, and persuaded grocers to use his rubber band instead of string to secure produce.

Spencer continued working for the railroad for 14 years while building his rubber-band business at his Alliance plant. By 1944 he was able to open a second plant in Hot Springs, Ark. In 1957 he opened another, in Franklin, Ky., and one in Salinas, Calif. in 1988. The Alliance Rubber Co. now produces more than 2 million pounds of rubber bands a month in addition to other office, mailing and packaging products and sells to more than 30 countries.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/03/07/loc_ohiodate0307.html

Answer 2

William H. Spencer invented rubber bands. On March 7, 1923

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Who invented the rubber band?

Answer 4

1. William H. Spencer invented Rubberband
2. Joseph Rubberman discovered Rubber would be the ideal material for industrial use

Answer 5

invented rubber band

Answer 6

William H Spencer

Answer 7

I gotta gut what should I invent. Post-its were invented by a woman. I'll go with post-its.

Answer 8

Spencer was too late, it was patented in England on March 17th. in 1845.