Inventive chemists

Inventive chemists The innovators who created NEW MATERIALS

Scientists are always looking to make stronger, lighter, and longer-lasting materials. Here are some of the greatest success stories.

Did you know? Goodyear teamed up with American Hiram Hutchinson in 1852 to invent rubber boots, soon making 14,000 pairs a day!

Charles Goodyear

American engineer Charles Goodyear was the driving force behind TYRES. Extreme temperatures cause natural rubber to melt in the heat and freeze in the cold, but Goodyear heated rubber with a mixture of chemicals to introduce strength and stability. He patented this process in 1844, making vulcanized (hardened) rubber the standard for tyres worldwide.

Tyres are now tougher and harder wearing.

Leo Baekeland

In 1893, Belgian chemist

Leo Baekeland created Velox, the first widely used photographic paper. This invention was bought by the

Kodak camera company, which made

Baekeland very rich. He followed this in 1907 with a light, robust, and malleable plastic, called BAKELITE.

Billions of things are now made from bakelite, including components for lighting, jewellery, telephones, and vehicles.

Percy Julian

Known as the soybean chemist, African-American medical researcher Percy Julian applied chemical processes to soybean plant extracts. He used the products to create mass-produced medicines in the 1940s. His clever synthesis led to various treatments, including one for the eye disease glaucoma. Julian received more than 130 CHEMICAL PATENTS and gained a number of awards in the process.

Stephanie Kwolek

During her research to develop lightweight, heat-resistant fibres for use in extreme environments, American chemist Stephanie

Kwolek discovered KEVLAR in 1965. Five times stronger than steel, this sturdy material has proved a life-saver as body armour for the police and military. Kevlar is also used as a reinforcement material for vehicles and construction.

Bulletproof vests are made from tightly packed Kevlar fibres.

George William Gray

Scottish university professor George William Gray began researching how to make flat television screens in 1970.

He found a molecule called 5CB, which proved ideal for long-lasting liquid crystal displays (LCDs). His discovery REVOLUTIONIZED

TELEVISIONS, with 5CB included in 90 per cent of LCDs by the 1980s.