Illustration: Brock Davis

Three years ago, French entrepreneur Gary Cige was helping a friend hang a mirror in his country house when they realized they needed a drill. But where to get one? Buying one would cost 150 euros, a huge waste considering they

1948: A mile-long stretch of Exchange Street in Akron, Ohio, is the first in the United States to be paved with a rubber-asphalt compound.

Rubber was everywhere in postwar Akron. As the home of B.F. Goodrich,