SMALL BUSINESS: Circling the Square

Harry Moll, a retired Denver businessman, liked to rub his face with an ice cube after shaving. One morning several years ago the ice cube slipped and its square edge jabbed his eye. "Why can't these things be round?" he muttered thoughtfully, his other eye on a huge market of after-shave ice-rubbers.

Before long Moll had designed a rubber mold to make ice-balls instead of cubes (the nine-ball mold had ½-in. holes through which the frozen balls could be squeezed out). But the wartime rubber shortage held up manufacture of the molds. Last year the Williams-Bowman Rubber Co. in Cicero,...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!