The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1872-05-09

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NO. 10.
E stolen Secret.
"A One Of the most important discov-
cries of this century is the rutcdnising
of caoutGhouc--i. e., the process BY
which IL 10 rendered insensible to cold
and heat. Previous to ls4S, as sum
mer or winter weather prevailed, India
rubber fabrics stifiensd or melted.
This susceptibility was the great hind
rance 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 Goodyear at last stumbled
upon the secret. Over his little stove,
In an attic chamber of an Indifferent
house In New Haven, be had melted
the gum In a kettle slimed with brim,
stone. 1t showed no change in cool.
Ing. Beyond alteration in form, the
material appeared the same. It was
elastic, dark In color, odorous as at
first, tasteless, yielding to the touch,
aud unaltered in specific gravity.
Apparently, it had suffered no altera
tton In q single one Of its qualities.
And yet it had become another thing.
Heat could not melt nor frost stiffen
the new material II was no longer
irregular in elasticity. All sickness
was gone. The grand discovery had,
in fact, been made, that caoutchouc
gum, raised to high temperature by
heat, and exposed to the fumes Of
birthstone, became vulcanized.
Elate with success, Goodyear, first
protecting his invention in the United
States 5y caveats and patents, started
for England. Among the British ex
perimenters upon India rubber was
Charles Hancock. To him proceeded
our inventor. Secure In the safety OF
his secret, instead of covering it by an
English patent. he endcavored to sell
it, named his price, and leaving his
samples fearlessly in Hancock's labra-
tory, proceeded North. Scarcely was
he out of sight when furnace and
blow pipe, retort and crucible, chemi-
Gals and gases, were put to work. The
specimens Of the new invention defied
analysis. There they were, undenia-
bly, genuine caontchonc, elastic beyond
the native gum. inodorous, Of natural
color, soft, and fictile-in every respect
exactly the substance upon which
Hancock had been experimenting for
years. and yet divested of the element
that hindered all practical progress.
They were no longer plastic. The
most intense heat would not melt nor
the severest frost stiffen them. They
would neither stick when exposed TO
the heat Of the blow pipe, nor harden
under exposure in the severest artifi-
cial cold.
Foiied in his chemical efforts to
solve the mystery, and Yet reluctant
to pay the price ten thousand pounds
sterling--demanded By Goodyear for
his secret, Hancock betook himself to
his study. Between him and his
competitor there had been letters ex-
changed for years. They treated of the
subject kindred In interest to them
both. He now consulted these letters,
compared the processes described, col.
sssc0 sssO sevusss asss~ess sc, ssvse0 sssc
progress made from the beginning,
and arriving at the point where both
Goodyear and himself had been baf.
fled, set himself to reflection. 1t was
the old story of Pythagoras and the
forty fifth problem of Euclid, or Ar
chimedes. and specific gravity, or
Cornelius Drebel 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
40Oo Fahrenheit, India rubber gum,
submitted to the fumes OF birthstone,
became vulcanized caoutchouc.
| Long before Goodyear returned fro IN
the North Hancock had patented the
discovery. 1t was for years subject
Of lawsuits. Into the question OF
priority the English patent laws did
not enter. Goodyear also obtained a
patent, but 1t was practically useless.
For fourteen years, renewed afterward
] for seven years more, the exclusive
/ use Of the discovery of vulcaniZation
/ of India rubber, enrching its holder
and his associates beyoni 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. N. 5. DoDaE, in Harper,
Muga.iac for Nay.