13 January 1942: Henry Ford patents his plastic car

On this day in 1948, Henry Ford was granted a patent for his method of making cars with plastic bodywork.

Automotive pioneer Henry Ford was a big fan of soybeans. He was also a big fan of farmers, who made up a substantial portion of his customers. And he was always looking for a way to make more use of the crop, and boost his customers' income so they could buy more tractors. So much so that in 1930 he built his own Soybean Experimental Laboratory in Greenfield Village, near to his factory in Dearborn, Michigan.

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.