About the Invention

The cold temperatures of Canadian winters cause asphalt pavements to crack. To prevent water from soaking in through the cracks and washing away the road beneath the asphalt pavement, a seal coat is applied to the cracked pavement. A seal coat is made up of an asphalt emulsion which is sprayed on to the road and then covered with gravel. With time, these seal coats crack as well and the job has to be done all over again after a few years. It was felt that adding rubber to the asphalt in the seal coat would make the sealant more flexible and less likely to crack in cold weather.

In the 70s there was pressure from environmentalists to use recycled rubber tires in asphalt roads and a desire to compete with an American process which mixed rubber crumb from old tires into hot asphalt and diluted it with a highly flammable solvent so that the mixture could be sprayed on the road.

The American process was expensive and quite dangerous to work crews who had to be specially trained to handle the product. This challenge resulted in the successful invention of Thompson's product. Elaine Thompson was solely responsible for the initial lab and field testing of the product, but hired two assistants to help carry out the large scale field testing.

About the Inventor

Elaine Thompson says she remembers the excitement of being the only student in her Grade 12 Chemistry class to succeed in making acetylene in the laboratory. At university she debated studying chemistry or psychology but because she didn't like the subjective way English (a required course in the Honours Psychology course) was marked, she decided on Honours Chemistry. She completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1975 at the University of Manitoba under a National Research Council Scholarship.

She worked in industry for 5 years as a research chemist and developed and patented an emulsified rubber asphalt product. When the environmental and political pressure to use recycled rubber tires in pavements lessened, this new product was abandoned by the company. She was disappointed not to be able to continue to improve this product. The research aspect of her job was replaced by tasks that were not as exciting, such as carrying out quality control.

She decided to start her own consulting company, E. Thompson Research, which was replaced several years later by a limited company called Technological Research Investigation and Development (TRIAD) Ltd. She runs this business from home, mainly working on her own. Her work has evolved into consulting as well as writing and editing scientific articles.

Elaine takes pride in making scientific processes and products clear to clients. She says that legal cases in which she has been involved as a consultant have never gone to court because, after reading her report, everyone involved has a clear understanding of what happened and the matter under dispute is settled out of court. She has been awarded many honours including the Chemical Institute of Canada Manitoba Section Outstanding Contribution Award. She and her husband Edward have two girls, Laura and Tracy to whom she attributes great support.