Complex sentence: Thomas Hancock (1786--1865), a scientist and engineer, was the first to patent vulcanization of rubber and indeed, he understood vulcanization better than Charles Goodyear and was likely inspired from seeing Goodyear's earlier samples.
Split into simpler sentences: Thomas Hancock (1786--1865), a scientist and engineer, was the first to patent vulcanization of rubber and indeed, he understood vulcanization better than Charles Goodyear. However, Hancock was likely inspired from seeing Goodyear's earlier samples.