Joseph C. Patrick

{{Short description|American inventor of synthetic rubber and founder of Thiokol corp. (1892–1965)}}

Dr. Joseph Cecil Patrick (August 28, 1892 – April 12, 1965) invented Thiokol, America's first synthetic rubber in the early 1920s.{{cite web|title=This isn't Antifreeze!|url=http://pslc.ws/macrog/exp/rubber/synth/thiokol.htm|publisher=The Polymer Science Learning Center|accessdate=17 March 2014}} While seeking a formulation for automotive antifreeze, he attempted to hydrolyze ethylene dichloride with sodium polysulfide. In doing so, he produced a brown, insoluble gum that later became known as Thiokol.{{cite book |last=Herbert, Attilio Bisio.|first=Vernon |title=Synthetic Rubber: A Project That Had to Succeed.|year=1985 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut}}{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Douglas C. |editor1-last=Bhowmick |editor1-first=Anil K. |editor2-last=Stephens |editor2-first=Howard |title=Handbook of Elastomers, Second Edition |date=2001 |publisher=Marcel Dekker Inc. |isbn=0-8247-0383-9 |page=135 |chapter=Chap. 5 - Liquid Rubber |edition=First |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFwp_jBu0QsC&q=Handbook+of+Elastomers%2C+Second+Edition+%2B+liquid+elastomers |accessdate=8 February 2015}} He solved commercial production problems by inventing the suspension polymerization process, and solved compounding problems by degrading high molecular weight polymer to a low molecular weight liquid polymer. This material is one of the principal binders for rocket propellant.{{cite book

|title=Pioneers in Polymer Science

|chapter=J.C. Patrick Father of American Synthetic Elastomers

|last=Seymour

|first=Raymond B.

|publisher=Springer

|year=1989

|pages=111–118

|isbn=978-94-009-2407-9

|doi=10.1007/978-94-009-2407-9_9

}} Patrick's most cited research publication treated the subject of high molecular weight polymers.{{cite journal |last1=Patrick |first1=J. C. |title=The formation of high polymers by condensation between metallic poly-sulphides and dihalogenated hydrocarbons and ethers. |journal=Transactions of the Faraday Society |date=1936 |volume=32 |pages=347-357 |doi=10.1039/TF9363200347}}

Patrick was the 1958 recipient of the Charles Goodyear Medal.{{cite web|url=http://www.rubber.org/uploads/136051421946768.pdf |title=Charles Goodyear Medallists |publisher=American Chemical Society, Rubber Division |year=2014 |website=www.rubber.org |accessdate=7 February 2015}}