Mark Fennell

Who are they?

Well, let's start with Joseph Patrick.

And there was one day where they came across something kind of by accident.

Walk me through what happened this one day in the lab.

In my mind, I have this image, and it's basically that old B movie, The Blob.

Am I close to that?

Basically, what they had created by accident was a brand new kind of synthetic rubber.

It takes them a couple of years to realise just how big a deal this was going to be, but by the late 1920s, they patent it and create a company, which they call Fire Coal.

Now this is huge, right?

Because before this moment, if you needed rubber, you basically needed latex trees.

You needed to tap them.

It was quite intense.

It was quite an intensive process, wasn't it?

What is it that synthetic rubber can do that natural rubber can't?

Because there's actually some quite big distinctions there, isn't there?

One thing that's probably worth pointing out is compared to natural rubber, it kind of stank, didn't it?

That would be the sulphur, right?

Okay, so you've got your stinky, weather-resistant, durable and affordable product that Americans can make without having to rely on the British.

Fast forward to the 1940s and the synthetic rubber is no longer just being used for cars.

They start to use it for rockets.