Masonite

1926, proprietary name of a type of fiberboard, by Mason Fibre Company, Laurel, Mississippi, U.S., and named for  William H. Mason (1877-1940), protege of Edison, who patented the process of making it. Earlier (1840) as a word in mineralogy for a type of chloritoid; the name honors Owen Mason of Providence, R.I., a collector who first brought the mineral to the attention of geologists.