Rise and Fall of a Condom Empire

November 9, 2011 10:33 AM

Julius Fromm, a “quintessential ‘entrepreneurial proletariat’”, and a modest man with minimal education, sought a career alternative to making cigarettes and began taking evening classes in rubber chemistry around 1912. Julius Fromm then hit upon the idea of making condoms. The early condoms from the eighteenth century were generally made of animal intestines, and were used primarily by wealthy men – like Giacomo Casanova, who referred to them as “English riding coats” . . .

The Great Rubber Robbery: How Julius Fromm’s Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis. via 3 quarks daily
posted by Rumple (2 comments total)

Not enough rubber and so Nazis made synthetic rubber, with the help of course of an American firm

http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_04.htm
posted by Postroad at 11:10 AM on November 9, 2011

began taking evening classes in rubber chemistry around 1912....

Greatness is exemplified in that one line on so many levels.
posted by IndigoJones at 11:31 AM on November 9, 2011