Table of Contents

1: Marlborough, Wiltshire - Roots
2: The Hancocks Gather in London
3: From Seawater to Steam
4: Life, Death, and Bankruptcy
5: The Family, the Law, and the End of a Dream
6: Life's Ups and Downs
7: A New Industry
8: Gutta Percha Comes to Town
9: The Great Hose Controversy
10: 'The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations
11: Back to the Courts
12: A Life of Ease
13: Death and Depositions
14: Marlborough Cottage and the Great Aunts
15: The Hancock Legacy
16: James Lyne Hancock & Co
Epilogue: Thoughts on a Dynasty
Appendix I: The fourteen patents of Thomas Hancock 'for the treatment and application of INDIA RUBBER'
Appendix II: Mechanical Applications of Vulcanized India Rubber as described by Thomas Hancock
Appendix III: Technical Development of the Rubber Industry 1850-1950

About the Author

John Loadman took his master's degree in organic chemistry from the University of Durham in 1987. He has since been an analytical chemist with the Natural Rubber Producers' Research Association, done conservation work with museums and art galleries on artworks containing rubber, and is an expert on early rubber manufacturing techniques and history of rubber development. Francis James was educated at Marsh Court Preparatory school and Kings College Taunton, and is a
qualified teacher. After some years as an antiquarian bookseller, he moved on to historic building conservation. He has written several books including The EMG Story, and is now the leading authority
on the English handmade gramophone. His hobby, like his life, is saving the past and recording it for the future.

Reviews

`An authoritative book that makes its scientific and mechanical subjects accessible to the general reader, it will be read through for the human as well as scientific interest of the material. The distinguishing merit of this book is its contextualization of the events of rubber development in relation to the story of the Hancock family and the business network within which they collaborated and competed. Reading this book gives a sense of the period, its
idealism, the persistence and energy of these people, the diversity of innovation - failures as notably as successes - and the excitement of the time.

'
Ann Lane, Queensland University of Technology
`Very well documented and written in simple yet technologically accurate language.'
Sir Geoffrey Allen, FRS, FREng
`Written in a vivid style, as much about human problems and dynamics as about science itself.'
Mark Warner, Cambridge University
`The mixture of the personal anecdotes, the scientific detail and the sweep of the historical events throughout the book is impressive and intertwined with many interesting, really fascinating stories.'
Mark M Green, Polytechnic Institute of New York University