putterings       560   <   561   >   562       index

Little does the average person think, as he looks at a piece of linoleum...
puttering around with some India Rubber

 
      Little does the average person think, as he looks at a piece of linoleum, that woven into the history of its discovery and development there is an interesting story — that linoleum is largely the outgrowth of a fortunate combination of two accidental discoveries. Linoleum, to most people, is prosaic and commonplace. But, as with so many of the other gifts of science, invention, and their helpmate, happy accident, when we delve into its past and even into its present manufacture, an absorbing story is brought to light.

A Lucky Accident
      The first of these happy accidents which ultimately gave the world linoleum is quite widely known. It occured in 1839 when Charles Goodyear was puttering around with some India Rubber, endeavoring to discover a way of hardening it for commercial usage. He had been experimenting with a mixture of sulphur and rubber, and quite by accident he saw transpire the very thing he was striving for. The rubber hardened, or vulcanized.
      It happened that at about this time a floor covering, called "Kamptulicon" and made of pulverized cork and India rubber, was placed on the market. Goodyear's discovery of vulcanization, however, spelled commercial defeat for this product. Following his discovery there came a great demand for water-proofed garments made with vulcanized rubber. The rubber market turned handsprings immediately. Prices shot up and the supply went down. As a result the Kamptulicon manufacturers were forced to demand more than most people could pay for this floor covering.
      The time was then ripe for a second accident...

ex “To Sell More, Learn More about the Goods you Sell; A Lesson in Linoleum; Illustrations Through Courtesy of the Armstrong Cork Company,” in Southern Furniture Journal 56:2 (High Point, North Carolina; August 1928) : 57-59 (57) : link
 

24 September 2025