Rev. Robert Adams Paterson (c. 1829 – April 1904) was a Scottish-American clergyman who invented the

gutta-percha Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus ''Palaquium'' in the family Sapotaceae, which is primarily used to create a high-quality latex of the same name. The material is rigid, naturally biologically Chemically inert, inert, resilient, electrically n ...

golf ball A golf ball is a ball designed to be used in golf. Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than , has a diameter not less than , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like golf clubs, golf bal ...

— known as the guttie — in 1848."Golf Ball Inventor Dead"
''The New York Times''. 26 April 1904.Flemma, Jay
"Old Tom: Still Watching Over the Old Course"
golfobserver.com. 16 July 2005. Retrieved 1 June 2012. Paterson was born in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, where he attended the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

. Golf was popular at the university, but Paterson was very poor and could not afford to buy the expensive balls, which were made with pigskin and stuffed with feathers. He instead used gutta-percha, which had been wrapped around an idol from India as packaging. He died in

Bloomfield, New York Bloomfield is a village in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 1,361 at the 2010 census. The Village of Bloomfield is in the Town of East Bloomfield and is west of Canandaigua. History The village was part of the Ph ...

. He was a president of the New York State Ladies' College of Binghamton.

References

1820s births 1904 deaths 19th-century Scottish people Scottish emigrants to the United States {{Scotland-inventor-stub