Charles Goodyear - wikipedia Charles Goodyear For other people named Charles Goodyear, see Charles Goodyear ( disambiguation ). Charles Goodyear Charles Goodyear, as illustrated in an 1891 Scientific American article December 29, 1800 New Haven, Connecticut July 1, 1860 ( 1860 - 07 - 01 ) ( aged 59 ) New York, New York Nationality United States Occupation Engineer Spouse ( s ) Clarissa Beecher ( m. August 1824 ) Children Ellen M.P. Goodyear ( daughter ) Cynthia Goodyear ( daughter ) Charles Goodyear, Jr. ( son ) Amelia P. Goodyear ( daughter ) Ann Goodyear ( daughter ) Parent ( s ) Amasa Goodyear ( b. 1 June 1772, d. 19 August 1841 ) Cynthia Bateman Goodyear Engineering career Projects vulcanize rubber perfected and patented in 1844, in Springfield, Massachusetts STATUS : Bankrupt Circa 1834 Signature Charles Goodyear ( December 29, 1800 -- July 1, 1860 ) was an American self - taught chemist and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized rubber, for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office on June 15, 1844. Goodyear is credited with inventing the chemical process to create and manufacture pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber. However, the Mesoamericans used a more primitive stabilized rubber for balls and other objects as early as 1600 BC. Goodyear 's discovery of the vulcanization process followed five years of searching for a more stable rubber and stumbling upon the effectiveness of heating after Thomas Hancock. His discovery initiated decades of successful rubber manufacturing in the Lower Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut, as rubber was adopted to multiple applications, including footwear and tires. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is named after him. Contents 1 Early life 2 Marriage and early career 3 Perfection and Patent of Vulcanization in Springfield, Mass. 4 Court cases regarding vulcanization 5 Death and legacy 6 See also 7 References 8 External links Early life Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Amasa Goodyear, and the oldest of six children. His father was a descendant of Stephen Goodyear of London, Middlesex, England, one of the founders of the colony of New Haven in 1638. In 1814, Charles left his home and went to Philadelphia to learn the hardware business. He worked industriously until he was twenty - one years old, and then, returning to Connecticut, entered into partnership in his father 's business in Naugatuck, CT where they manufactured not only ivory and metal buttons, but also a variety of agricultural implements. Marriage and early career This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( June 2013 ) Engraving by W.G. Jackman, D. Appleton & Company, New York On August 3, 1824 he married Clarissa Beecher. Two years later the family moved to Philadelphia, and there Charles Goodyear opened a hardware store. This is where he did most of his work. His specialties were the valuable agricultural implements that his firm had been manufacturing, and after the first distrust of domestically made goods had worn away -- for all agricultural implements were imported from England at that time -- he found himself heading a successful business. This continued to increase until it seemed that he was to be a wealthy man. Between 1829 and 1830 he broke down in health, being troubled with dyspepsia. At the same time, the failure of a number of business endeavors seriously embarrassed his firm. They struggled on, however, for some time, but were finally obliged to fail. Between the years 1831 and 1832, Goodyear heard about gum elastic ( natural rubber ) and examined every article that appeared in the newspapers relative to this new material. The Roxbury Rubber Company, of Boston, had been for some time experimenting with the gum, and believed it had found means for manufacturing goods from it. It had a large plant and was sending its goods all over the country. It was some of Roxbury 's goods that first attracted Goodyear 's attention. Soon after this, Goodyear visited New York, and his attention went to life preservers, and it struck him that the tube used for inflation was not very effective nor well - made. Therefore, upon returning to Philadelphia, he made tubes and brought them back to New York and showed them to the manager of the Roxbury Rubber Company. The manager was pleased with the ingenuity that Goodyear had shown in manufacturing the tubes. He confessed to Goodyear that the business was on the verge of ruin, and that his products had to be tested for a year before it could be determined if they were perfect or not. To their surprise, thousands of US $ worth of goods that they had determined to be of good quality were being returned, the gum having rotted, making them useless. Goodyear at once made up his mind to experiment on this gum and see if he could overcome the problems with these rubber products. However, when he returned to Philadelphia, a creditor had him arrested and imprisoned. While there, he tried his first experiments with India rubber. The gum was inexpensive then, and by heating it and working it in his hands, he managed to incorporate in it a certain amount of magnesia which produced a beautiful white compound and appeared to take away the stickiness He thought he had discovered the secret, and through the kindness of friends was able to improve his invention in New Haven. The first thing that he made was shoes, and he used his own house for grinding, calendering and vulcanizing, with the help of his wife and children. His compound at this time consisted of India rubber, lampblack, and magnesia, the whole dissolved in turpentine and spread upon the flannel cloth which served as the lining for the shoes. It was not long, however, before he discovered that the gum, even treated this way, became sticky. His creditors, completely discouraged, decided that he would not be allowed to go further in his research. Goodyear, however, had no mind to stop here in his experiments. Selling his furniture and placing his family in a quiet boarding place, he went to New York and in an attic, helped by a friendly druggist, continued his experiments. His next step was to compound the rubber with magnesia and then boil it in quicklime and water. This appeared to solve the problem. At once it was noticed abroad that he had treated India rubber to lose its stickiness, and he received international acclamation. He seemed on the high road to success, until one day he noticed that a drop of weak acid, falling on the cloth, neutralized the alkali and immediately caused the rubber to become soft again. This proved to him that his process was not a successful one. He therefore continued experimenting, and after preparing his mixtures in his attic in New York, would walk three miles to a mill in Greenwich Village to try various experiments. In the line of these, he discovered that rubber dipped in nitric acid formed a surface cure, and he made many products with this acid cure which were held in high regard, and he even received a letter of commendation from Andrew Jackson. Exposure to harsh chemicals, such as nitric acid and lead oxide, adversely affected his health, and once nearly suffocated him by gas generated in his laboratory. Goodyear survived, but the resulting fever came close to taking his life. Together with an old business partner, he built up a factory and began to make clothing, life preservers, rubber shoes, and a great variety of rubber goods. They also had a large factory with special machinery, built at Staten Island, where he moved his family and again had a home of his own. Just about this time, when everything looked bright, the panic of 1837 came and swept away the entire fortune of his associate and left Goodyear penniless. His next move was to go to Boston, where he became acquainted with J. Haskins, of the Roxbury Rubber Company. Goodyear found him to be a good friend, who lent him money and stood by him when no one would have anything to do with the visionary inventor. A man named Mr. Chaffee was also exceedingly kind and ever ready to lend a listening ear to his plans, and to also assist him in a pecuniary way. About this time it occurred to Mr. Chaffee that much of the trouble that they had experienced in working India rubber might come from the solvent that was used. He therefore invented a huge machine for doing the mixing by mechanical means. The goods that were made in this way were beautiful to look at, and it appeared, as it had before, that all difficulties were overcome Goodyear discovered a new method for making rubber shoes and received a patent which he sold to the Providence Company in Rhode Island. However, a method had not yet been found to process rubber so that it would withstand hot and cold temperatures and acids, and so the rubber goods were constantly growing sticky, decomposing and being returned to the manufacturers. Perfection and patent of vulcanization in Springfield, Mass. Wikisource has original text related to this article : United States patent 3633 Several years earlier, Goodyear had, however, started a small factory at Springfield, Massachusetts, to which he moved his primary operations in 1842. The factory was run largely by Nelson and Henry Goodyear, Charles ' brothers. Charles Goodyear 's brother - in - law, Mr. De Forest, who was a wealthy woolen manufacturer, became involved as well. The work of making the invention practical was continued. In 1844, in Springfield, the process was sufficiently perfected that Goodyear felt it safe to take out a patent. The first vulcanization of rubber is considered one of the major `` firsts '' that contributes to the City of Springfield 's nickname, `` The City of Firsts. '' In 1844, Goodyear 's brother Henry introduced mechanical mixing of the mixture in place of the use of solvents. Court cases regarding vulcanization External video Booknotes interview with Charles Slack on Noble Obsession : Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock, and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the Nineteenth Century, October 27, 2002, C - SPAN In the year 1852 Goodyear went to Europe, a trip that he had long planned, and saw Thomas Hancock, then in the employ of Charles Macintosh & Company. Hancock claimed to have invented vulcanization independently, and received a British patent, initiated in 1843, but finalized in 1844. In 1855, in the last of three patent disputes with fellow British rubber pioneer, Stephen Moulton, Hancock 's patent was challenged with the claim that Hancock had copied Goodyear. Goodyear attended the trial. If Hancock lost, Goodyear stood to have his own British patent application granted, allowing him to claim royalties from both Hancock and Moulton. Both had examined Goodyear 's vulcanized rubber in 1842, but several chemists testified that it would not have been possible to determine how it was made by studying it. Hancock prevailed. Despite his misfortune with patents, Goodyear wrote, `` In reflecting upon the past, as relates to these branches of industry, the writer is not disposed to repine, and say that he has planted, and others have gathered the fruits. The advantages of a career in life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents, as is too often done. Man has just cause for regret when he sows and no one reaps. '' Death and legacy Goodyear 's grave in New Haven, Connecticut Goodyear died on July 1, 1860, while traveling to see his dying daughter. After arriving in New York, he was informed that she had already died. He collapsed and was taken to the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City, where he died at the age of 59. He is buried in New Haven at Grove Street Cemetery. In 1898, almost four decades after his death, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded and named after Goodyear by Frank Seiberling. On February 8, 1976, he was among six individuals selected for induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In Woburn, Massachusetts, there is an elementary school named after him. The Government of France made him a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1855. The ACS Rubber Division awards a medal named in Goodyear 's honor, the Charles Goodyear Medal. The medal honors principal inventors, innovators, and developers whose contributions resulted in a significant change to the nature of the rubber industry. The Goodyear welt, a technique in shoemaking, was named after and in honor of its inventor, Charles ' son ; Charles Goodyear Jr. See also Leverett Candee, first person to manufacture rubber footwear under the Goodyear vulcanization process. William Henry Goodyear, his son Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Rubber Vulcanization References Jump up ^ Zumdahl, Steven ; Zumdahl, Susan ( 2014 ). Chemistry ( Ninth ed. ). Belmont, California : Brookes Cole / Cengage Learning. ISBN 978 - 1 - 133 - 61109 - 7. Retrieved October 25, 2014. However, in 1839 Charles Goodyear ( 1800 -- 1860 ), an American chemist,... Jump up ^ Haven, Kendall ; Berg, Roni ( 1999 ). The Science and Math Bookmark Book : 300 Fascinating, Fact - Filled Bookmarks. Englewood, Colorado : Teacher Ideas Press / Libraries Unlimited, Inc. ISBN 1 - 56308 - 675 - 1. Retrieved October 25, 2014. Famous Scientists : Charles Goodyear, chemist. Jump up ^ United States Patent Office Jump up ^ Hosler, D., Burkett, S.L., and Tarkanian, M.J. ( 1999 ). `` Prehistoric polymers : Rubber processing in ancient Mesoamerica, '' Science, 284 ( 5422 ), pp. 1988 -- 1991. Jump up ^ Slack, Charles ( 2003 ). Noble Obsession, 225, Hyperion. ISBN 0 - 7868 - 8856 - 3. Jump up ^ Leading American Inventors, 1912 Jump up ^ Firsts Archived 2013 - 05 - 21 at the Wayback Machine. -- Springfield 375 Jump up ^ Goodyear, C. ( 1939 ). A Centennial volume of the writings of Charles Goodyear and Thomas Hancock, Boston, Mass. : ( Centennial Committee ) American Chemical Society, p. 97. Jump up ^ Charles Goodyear, Find a Grave Jump up ^ Goodyear website, History by Year Jump up ^ National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1976 Archived August 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Clapp - Goodyear School Jump up ^ Wildsmith Shoemaking Process External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Goodyear. Wikisource has original works written by or about : Charles Goodyear Works by or about Charles Goodyear at Internet Archive The Charles Goodyear Story Today in Science History -- Goodyear 's U.S. Patent No. 240 : Improvement in the Process of Divesting Caoutchouc, Gum - Elastic, or India - Rubber of its Adhesive Properties, and also of Bleaching the Same, and Thereby Adapting it to Various Useful Purposes. Iles, George ( 1912 ), Leading American Inventors, New York : Henry Holt and Company, pp. 176 -- 218 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Divisions Dunlop Tyres Goodyear Aerospace The Kelly Springfield Tire Company Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires Sponsorships 1988 Goodyear NASCAR 500 Akron Wingfoots Goodyear Television Playhouse Goodyear Theatre Goodyear Polymer Center Goodyear Silents Paul Whiteman 's Goodyear Revue PeopleMover Wingfoot Express Spirit of America Cotton Bowl Classic People Charles Goodyear Fred Gampper Stanley Gault Lilly Ledbetter Frank Seiberling Ward Van Orman Other Black Sunday Cremaster 1 Goodyear, Arizona Goodyear Blimp Goodyear chimney Goodyear Dunlop v. Brown Goodyear MPP Goodyear Polyglas tire Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 STARAN VIAF : 20460564 LCCN : n80061814 ISNI : 0000 0000 6158 1487 GND : 117549649 BNF : cb10436222s ( data ) IATH : w6jw8sjg Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Goodyear&oldid=794972768 '' Categories : 1800 births 1860 deaths Businesspeople from New Haven, Connecticut American inventors Polymer scientists and engineers People from Staten Island Burials at Grove Street Cemetery People of the Industrial Revolution Goodyear family American people of English descent American engineers 19th - century engineers 19th - century inventors Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Biography with signature Articles with hCards Articles needing additional references from June 2013 All articles needing additional references All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from March 2012 Articles with Internet Archive links Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge 한국어 Hrvatski Ido Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Lëtzebuergesch Magyar Malagasy മലയാളം Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Seeltersk Shqip Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 11 August 2017, at 05 : 20. 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Question: who is credited with developing the process of vulcanization
Answer: Charles Goodyear