Patent Attorney and Founder
Hi everyone, I’m J.D. Houvener, and welcome to the Bold Today Show, where the inventor, entrepreneur, or business owner gets your daily dose of inspiration to make the world a better place. Hey, we’re in part two of our FIFA World Cup series; this is all about the soccer ball. We just talked yesterday about the beginning of soccer balls in a very graphic format, and we talked about how there’s an enormous need for change. These early soccer balls were made of pigskin, pig bladders, human skulls, and animal skin. So, there was actually a long period of time, and it was kind of gross. Not until 1850, actually, it was 1844, an inventor, Charles Goodyear, you might know the brand Goodyear Tires, now with a grandfather, Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber and brought this into reality. He was able to use that in the form of a soccer ball as one of the versions of his invention. Of course, he made tires and all sorts of other rubberized items. Once he found this compound, it was really this unique compound of sulfur and white lead was what made this combination. With that, it was this compound that was able to be inflated, and all of a sudden, the ball was actually quite round, as opposed to these other animal skins or bladders that would have an irregular shape.
So, take a look at this photo. We’ve been looking at it; this is the first soccer ball as we know it. Charles Goodyear is known as the inventor of the soccer ball. This is the material that really changed the game, began the game of soccer. So, when you went to kick the soccer ball, you could actually tell where it was gonna travel. If it was rolling, you would generally go in that direction when kicked, whereas before, it was kind of a guessing game.
So, what happened was this is actually currently on display now in the Hall of Fame of Soccer, which is actually in New York. Take a look at this, and you know, this patent was issued in the United States in 1944. The patent number was 3633, so it’s one of the first, I mean, the 6000. There’s actually almost 10 million patents issued to date. So, this is one of the very, very first, a groundbreaking cornerstone patent in all of sports. And so, this was obviously used as one of the main citations for what was also patented later as the football. Hope you’ll have enjoyed this fun session here and are still cheering on your favorite team with the World Cup. Hope you’ll have a great day, go big, go bold.