Waldo Semon
(1898-1999)
invented
Plasticised PVC
|
Waldo
Lonsbury Semon, whose father was a Civil Engineer,
was born in Demopolis, Alhabama, USA on 10 September 1898. He
attended schools in Washington and Oregon, studied chemistry at University
of Washington at Seattle
where he took up a temporary teaching post in 1923 after
obtaining his doctorate whilst searching for suitable employment.
He joined the chemical and rubber company BF
Goodrich at Akron, Ohio in 1926 to research
rubber to metal bonding and synthetic rubber..
The discovery of a method of plasticising poly(vinyl-
chloride), usually known as PVC, was a by-product
of this research.
Goodrich began marketing their 'Koroseal' line of
PVC compounds in the 1930s and after World War II,
PVC became one of their most important products.
Semon's research into synthetic rubbers continued
and in 1931 discovered a synthetic rubber 'bubble
gum' - a product on which Goodrich failed to
capitalise - and in 1940 introduced 'Liberty
Rubber' just as stockpiles of natural rubber were
being exhausted by the war effort.
In 1954, Semon was appointed Director of Polymer
Research at Goodrich and in 1962 Director of
Corporate Forward Technology. He retired in 1963
tand returned to teaching at Kent State University., Ohio.
He outlived his wife, Marjorie, a fellow
University student whom he had married in 1920, and
died aged 100 years in Hudson, Ohio on 26 May
1999.
|