Waldo L. Semon (1898 to 1999) was an American chemist who discovered a usable form of polyvinyl chloride, now the second best selling plastic in the world. Born in Demopolis, Alabama, he entered the University of Washington intending to be a chemist, graduated cum laude in 1920 and received his doctorate in chemistry in 1923. After a short period as an instructor there he joined The BF Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio. In 1926 he took on a doubtful project, trying to dissolve polyvinyl chloride, an unwanted material, to make an adhesive for bonding rubber to metal. He never produced the adhesive, but by heating the material in a solvent he obtained a substance that was both flexible and elastic, which at first no one knew how to use.
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Source Waldo L. Semon (National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee page)Inductee pageQuote, Inductee page
Born in Demopolis, Alabama
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1. Waldo L. Semon (National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee page)
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