The first rubber band--an elastic concept.

The other day I casually wondered who invented the rubber band, and when. Was it a guy whose nickname was Office Max? With the aid of my trust research assistant, Google, this ought to be an easy question to answer, I postulated incorrectly. We live in the Age of Information we're told. But maybe we live in the Post-Information Age--the Age of Too Much Information. (This post has nothing to do with the Palin kids.)

I found out that the rubber band was invented in Ohio 1923 by a man named William H. Spencer who cut up old inner tubes then used them to keep newspapers and veggies neat. Why not Ohio, a state name that's round on both ends and hi in the middle--like a stretched rubber band ?

Then I found out that on March 17, 1845, Stephen Perry of the rubber manufacturing company Messers Perry and Co, Rubber Co Manuf. London patented the first rubber bands made of vulcanized rubber. Perry invented the rubber band to hold papers or envelopes together.

Then I found out that the ancient Mayans used bands of rubber to hold things together, but despite the smarts they had to invent a complicated calendar, they were never brainy enough to invent lawyers or file for patents.

"The rubber band was invented in England on March 17, 1845 by Dr. Jaroslav Kurash." it says here, but it cites as the source Wikipedia. With Wikipedia entries being so easy to make, you could go edit that article and declare yourself the inventor of the rubber band.

It says here and also here that Thomas Hancock invented the rubber band in 1845--so at least most people agree on the date.

Finding out who invented the rubber band did not turn out to be a snap. Ouch!