A YORK shop has made equipment to help patients at St Leonard's Hospice while celebrating the anniversary of a man who revolutionised the way we live today.
Charles Goodyear, who was born 200 years ago yesterday, discovered the process of stabilising rubber so that it could be used for everything from wellington boots to rubber tyres.
Five years later he patented the revolutionary process, which produced vulcanised rubber from a mixture of gum elastic and sulphur, but he died in 1860 with debts of more than $200,000.
Ainslie Waller, of the Make Your Mark rubber stamp shop, in Goodramgate, York, decided to mark the anniversary by donating a sheet of rubber dies, or stamps, which can be used by patients at the hospice during sessions led by occupational therapist Lu Mason.
The sheet of stamps contains a series of about 80 images.
A small exhibition about Charles Goodyear went on display in the shop yesterday and also for today.
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