Centenary patent – US 1,000,000

U.S. patent number 1,000,000 was granted on 8 August 1911 to Francis Henry Holton Sr. It appears that the coveted number was coincidentally granted to this largely-forgotten pioneer in the US rubber industry, who had a long history of patenting throughout his working life. He founded a number of rubber businesses on the East Coast of the USA and was later employed by B.F. Goodrich in Akron, Ohio. U.S. 1,000,000 was for a new form of non-pneumatic automobile tyre and was granted to Holton as a private individual when he was long retired and nearly 80 years old.