Lord Corporation rubber-to-steel bonding patent (circa 1900)
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Origin of Lord Corporation in Erie, PA, on an MIT patent ca. 1900 for bonding rubber to steel (railroad shock-absorber applications). Thomas Lord left 50% of company to four universities and Cleveland Clinic on his death; the Lord Foundation of Massachusetts is 10% of company profits flowing to MIT.
One of the major players in this is the Lord Corporation. Their headquarters is now in North Carolina, but their original home was up in Erie, Pennsylvania. Thomas Lord's grandfather started the company based on a patent from MIT of how to bond rubber to steel. This patent was back around 1900, and at the time they needed to bond rubber to steel for all kinds of railroad applications — shock absorbers and things like that. Out of Erie, Pennsylvania — one of the big things that's made in Erie even today is, that's where General Electric makes all their locomotives for railroads. The Lord Corporation got started bonding rubber to steel, but they're into adhesives, and one of their major businesses now is these high-tech adhesives for automotive.