20th Century Football

Description:

A leather football from the 20^th century, comprising 12 sections of leather stitched together that would have encased an inflatable rubber inner.

The first footballs were made from inflated pigs’ bladders with leather stitched around them, until the introduction of rubber inners just before the English Football Association was formed in 1863.

Richard Lindon (30 June 1816-10 June 1887) was a leather worker based in Rugby, Warwickshire, opposite the famous public school, and he invented an inflatable India rubber bladder and the first pump inflator, which he was prompted to do following the sad loss of his wife, who had inflated multiple pigs’ bladders for his business by mouth and died, he believed, from disease acquired during this process.  Lindon’s invention led to the production of the first round-shaped football for association football (soccer), the design of which has changed since to the perfectly spherical ball used today.  Over time there have been changes to the number and shape of the panels, the stitching, the colour, number and shape of panels, the introduction of a cushioning layer, and in the 20^th century, the use of stronger, galvanised rubber (invented by Charles Goodyear of Goodyear Tyres) became commonplace.

This particular ball has the same appearance as one pictured from 1948 (Bush, 2014, ‘The Aerodynamics of the Beautiful Game), which differs from earlier types as it lacks a laced panel to draw the leather outer skin together. This panel was reportedly painful for players if they made contact with it when heading the ball.