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George Washington Carver’s Brilliant Work Being Applied Today

George Washington Carver’s Brilliant Work Being Applied Today

by Stephen BrownSeptember 3, 2015

The Mercedes Benz Biome concept uses soybean composites, and biodegradable materials pioneered by George Washington Carver over 85 years ago.

 

George Washington Carver, and billionaire automaker Henry Ford were great friends. Ford had a true admiration for Carver’s brilliant research into plastics, paints, & fuels being made from organic materials such as peanuts & soybeans. Ford believed, as Carver did, that eventually the world would need a clean substitute for gasoline and supported the production of ethanol as an alternative fuel over 85 years ago.

 

Little known Black History fact:

-In 1942, with the outbreak of world War II, heavy rationing in the US caused many shortages of steel, rubber, gasoline, and other products. To combat this, Henry Ford recruited George Washington Carver to help create a synthetic rubber substitute made from goldenrod to replenish dwindling supplies. The technique is still being used today as an alternative to standard rubber which is not biodegradable at all.

 

-In 1942 Henry Ford with the assistance of Carver, created a car that was made of Soybeans that was almost strong as steal with 1/10 the weight.

 

Watch the video of the car G.W. Carver helped design. Note the cars durability.

 

 

Cars being made of Soybeans are just now being developed. The Mercedes Benz Futuristic concept car ” Biome” is being hailed as a technological breakthrough in organic material design. The 100% green vehicle runs on clean burning ethanol and has a body made of soybean compounds. Many of the techniques, and organic material guidelines used to create the Biome were created by Carver.

 

Unfortunately, George Washington Carver died in January 1943 without seeing his vision of clean, biodegradable fuels & vehicles manifest. However his influence, & scientific legacy lives on for future generations.

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About The Author
Stephen Brown
Stephen Brown @SteveBTech is a Technology Entrepreneur, & Int'l CES Judge. Along with being the founder of DigiLyfe, and Nubby.co, he is the founder of DigitalAfro.com, & StemStars.org an organization that teaches K-12 Students Science & Technology.

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