Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-06-05
a Stolen Secret.

One Of the most important discoveries
of this century is the vulcanizing Of caou
tchouc--that is the process by which it is
rendered insensible to cold and heat. Pre-
vious to SIS a. summer or winter weather
prevailed, India-rubber fabrics stifened or
melted This susceptibility was the great
hindrance to their use Some half-dozen
inventors on this and the other side of the
Atlantic had been experimenting upon this
difficulty for several years Charles Good
year at last stumbled upon the secret.
Over his little stove, liz an attic chamber
Of an Indifferent house in New Haven, be
had melted the gum in a kettle slimed with
birthstone. 1t showed no change il cool
ing. Beyond alteration in form, the mate
rial appeared the same. 1t was elastic,
dark in color, ,inodorous, as at first, ,tasteless,
yielding to the touch, and unaltered in
specific gravity. Apparently, it had suf-
fered no alteration in q single one Of its
qualities. And yet it had become another
thing. Heat could not melt nor frost
stiffen the new material 1t was no longer
irregular in elasticity All sickness was
gone. The grand discovery had in fact,
been made that caoutchouc gum, raised to
q high temperature by heat and exposed
to the fumes of birthstone, became vulcan
izei.
E.atc with success, Goodyear. first pro-
tccting his invention in the United States
by caveats and patents, started for England
Among the British oxperimenters upon
Iudia-rubber was Charles Hancock To
him proceeded our inventor. Secure iu
the safety of his secret, instead Of cover
ing it by an English patent, he endeavored
10 sell it, naming his price. and leaving
his samples tearIessly in Hancock's lab
oratory, proceeded North Scarcely was
he out Of sight when furnace and blow
pipe. rctort and crucibe, chemicals and
gases, were put TO work The specimens
Of the new invention defed analysis.
There they we're, undeniably genuine
caoutchouc, elastic beyond the native gum,
inodorous Of natural color, soft and fctile
in every respect exactly the substance
upon which Hancock had been experiment
Jag for years, and yet divested OF the ele-
ment that hindered all practical progress.
They were no longer plastic The most
intense heat would not melt nor the sever
est frost stitIen them. They would neither
stick when exposed to the heat OF the
blow-pipe or harden under exposure TO
the severest artificial cold.
Foiled In his chemical efforts to solve
the mystery, and yet reluctant to pay the
price-ten thousand pounds sterling-de-
manded by Goodyear for his secret, Han
cock betook himself to study. Between
him and his competitor there had been
letters exchanged for years. They treated
Of the subject kindred in interest to them
both tie now consulted these letters,
compared the processes described, collated
the results arrived at. noted the progress
made from the beginning, and arriving at
the point. where both Goodyear and him
self had been batfled, set himself to refec-
ton 1t was the old story Of Pythagoras
and the forty-ftth problem Of Euclid, OF
Archimedes and specific gravity, or Cor
nelius Drebal and the red dye of Gobelin
tapestry. Hancock guessed at sulphur
The experiment was tried. Failing once
and again, he caused his furnaces to be
brought to their highest power, when, at
the temperature of 1000 Fahrenheit, India
rubber gum, submitted to the fumes OF
birthstone, became Vulcanized caoutchouc
Long before Goodyear returned from the
North, Hancock had patented the discov-
cry 1t was for years a subject Of law
suits. Into the question of priority The
English patent laws did not enter Good
year also obtained patent, but it was
practically useless For fourteen years
renewed afterward for seven years more,
the exclusive use of the discovery of vul.
canization of India-rubber, enriching its
holder and mis- associates beyond millions
of pounds sterling, remained with the
common-sense thinker. 1t was really a
stolen secret, but neither craft nor fraud
but honest brains, perpetrated the theft
Harper'S Magazine.