99% Invisible - 99% Invisible-46- Vulcanite Dentures

Episode Date: January 27, 2012

Before the 1850s, dentures were made out of very hard, very painful and very expensive material, like gold or ivory. They were a luxury item. The invention of Vulcanite hard rubber changed everything. It was moldable, it could be precisely … Continue reading →

We get support from UC Davis, a globally ranked university, working to solve the world's most pressing problems in food, energy, health, education, and the environment. UC Davis researchers collaborate and innovate in California and around the globe to find transformational solutions. It's all part of the university's mission to promote quality of life for all living things. Find out more at 21stCentry.ucdavis.edu. This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Morris. You probably all heard that this American life episode called When Patent's Attack about innovation, stifling, tech industry,

patents, and patent trolls. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. If you haven't heard it, you should just go listen to it right trolls. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. If you haven't heard it, you should just go listen to it right now. I'll wait. Choo. Let's see what's on the internet.

All right. Now, you don't really have to have heard the TAL show, but it gives an interesting backdrop to what you're about to hear. because it's horrible and egregious as patent enforcement and lawsuits are today. They rarely result in murder. But things were different in 1879. That's when a hounded and pursued patent violator struck back, it made it possible for average working people

to afford quality dentures. It's a very historically significant murder. I mean, anyone who ever gets dentures, I mean, he was indirectly affected by this crime. That's John Mar. My name's John Mar. The editor and publisher of the fanzine murder can be fun.

Before the 1850s, dentures were made at a very hard, very painful and very expensive material, like gold or ivory. They were a luxury item. But the invention of vulcanite, hard rubber changed everything. It was moldable, it could be precisely fitted, and it was relatively cheap. Everyone began making dentures with vulcanite. And these dentures had been overwhelmingly popular. But then in 1864,

a long disputed patent application originally filed a dozen years earlier in 1852 was awarded and then acquired by the Good Year Dental Vulcanite Company. It was a company created to collect fees or very often sue dentists who already used Volcanite and there were plenty of dentists to go after. And the person that went after them was named Josiah Bacon, the treasurer of the Good

Year Dental Volcanite Company. The Good Year Volcanite from their patent from the dentist. The Good Year Volcanite Company now monopolized the market. Dense us were required to buy their rubber and other contraptions used to make denture bases from them, and there were heavy taxes and fees associated with all of this. The price just kept going up and up. Josiah Bacon was crisscrossing the country, throwing dentists in jail, extracting fees, fines, setting up sting operations. He is a very busy man, very enthusiastic about enforcing his patent.

It was reported and disputed that Bacon's zero for enforcing the patent may have been more his personal mission than that of the good your Volcanite company. He had rigged the deal so he actually personally got the money. I don't know how much the details, but it sounds like a very unusual financial arrangement with the company. Enter Samuel Shelfant, a dentist who made dentures and who didn't pay the good year of old-night company for the privilege. And Josiah Bacon was out to make an example of him. Josiah Bacon had chased Shelfant out of them Delaware, out of them St. Louis, and finally

in San Francisco, and he was swearing he was going to send him to prison. Samuel Shelfand was completely beaten down by this relentless pursuit and claimed that he went to Josiah Bacon to San Francisco Hotel Room on Easter Sunday 1879 to make peace, to pay whatever he could, and just go back to being a simple dentist. However, Shelfant, he had a gun in his pocket. And as he says, he argued with Bacon, Bacon Threatness and in prison, to command some respect, Shelfant pulled the gun and as guns that you wave in front of your enemies always do, it went off.

Samuel Shelfant murdered Josiah Bacon. Shelfant was like extremely upset. He sat in the hotel suite, waiting for people to come in to capture him. Everyone was down at breakfast, so he slipped out of the hotel. And he wanted to run the city and took a room in a cheap, grooming house

and just kind of laid in bed for a couple days, you know, guilty, feverish, distraught, and then he turned himself into the police. He made a statement to the police where he said that he had shot them, bacon accidentally. And the police believed he was sincere thinking that he'd have to come up with some story better than that if it was truly premeditated. However, when it came time for a trial, the prosecution had this man marching in the hotel room of his bittersd enemy with a loaded gun in his pocket. The consensus was he was very lucky to get off with a 10-year sentence

for second-degree murder. He actually had a very good gig in prison. He was the prison dentist. He had an office outside the walls Or actually most importantly, he didn't have to work in the jute mill making burlap sacks like most of the other poor guys did The only part of the prison uniform he had to wear were striped trousers his patients who weren't on convicts He could collect fees from for being in San Quentin. He had it pretty good But nonetheless, he just found it enormously oppressive and was quoted as saying that he would almost have preferred to have gone

to the gallows. Then it just be blocked up in a cell for 15 hours out of 24. Shalfon had a female admirer on the outside, fighting for his release by normal legal means. But it was alleged that she also tried to get him out of prison through less than legal means. Someone slipped in some non-striped trousers, railroad tickets, some money and some pistols, bag of laundry, and he snuck out with a crowd of visitors taking the boat back to the city. And before they noticed he was gone, he was safely in sconce on a Utah-bound train.

The only reason he was caught, he had disguised himself with some whiskers, but he was eating a peach while they were crossing Nevada. And the juice from the peach loosened the gum, holding his whiskers enough that a rail detective spotted that this guy looked kind of suspicious. He was detained in Nevada. He never made a pass when a maca.

guy look kind of suspicious. He was detained in Nevada. He never made a pass when a maca. Even though he got caught escaping, he was later pardoned and only spent six years in prison when he got out. He returned to San Francisco and was a very successful dentist until he retired shortly before the earthquake. But it must have felt kind of weird making Volcanite dentures. In doing my research, I found a directory of professional men of San Francisco from the 1890s.

And there was a half page in there on him and it talks about his education, his experience in serving the Civil War. But it makes absolutely no mention of rubber dentures, chasai bacon, or the Vulcanite Company. But this extreme case of anti-patent role of vigilantism or cold blood murder, however you want to view it, did have an effect. The good your Vulcanite Company stopped enforcing their patent. Apparently none of their employees was really unwilling to take a chance

of being shot by a dentist. And there's also the implication that sort of this whole denture patent was kind of a jaziah bacon's personal project more than it was major policy of the companies. In the patent last most of the world forgot about Samuel Schauffant but the late 19th century dental profession learned from their bitter experience in what they considered the Vulcanite rubber patent reign of terror. They collectively positioned themselves so that they could no longer be milked

by any profiteering patent holders. Many years later, a similar scheme was put into motion to try to collect royalties for gold crowns, and the Deadwood Association killed it easily without firing a single shot. angle shot. 99% Invisible was produced this week by me Roman Mars. It was based off the story by John Mar from his fanzane murder can be fun. The great, rate of life changing fanzane murder can be fun.

It's not a website. It's on paper. Ask appearance. Special thanks to Plastics Historian Julie Robinson. Yes, there is such things as a Plastics Historian. And her name is Julie Robinson. This program is made possible with support from Lunar, making a difference with creativity. It's a project of KALW-91.7 local public radio in San Francisco, the American Institute of

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