Workers operating a rubber masticating machine.

We're taking a short trip to London, because that's where Thomas Hancock is living in 1820. In this year Hancock does something to make the rubber business more efficient.

This machine is called the masticator, but most people call it a "pickle". "Masticate" is a fancy word that means "to chew", and that's just what this pickle does. The pickle is a giant grinding machine that takes the scraps leftover from raincoat making and grinds and mashes them into big blocks of rubber that can be used rather than thrown away. This will in time make it much cheaper for people like Charles Macintosh to make raincoats from rubber.

Diagram showing the inside of the pickle.	Thomas Hancock

The pickle is the beginning of rubber recycling. But recycling rubber would become more difficult in the future, thanks to something called crosslinking.

Next stop: Massachusetts - Goodyear's Accident

All images from Thomas Hancock, Personal Narrative of the Origin and Progress of the Caoutchouc or India-Rubber Manufacture in England. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857.