The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-03-23
CHARLES GOODYEAR.
Struggles of the Man to Whom We Are In
debted for India Rubber.

Struggles of the Man to Whom We Are In
debted for India Rubber.
Among the inventors who have sac
rificed enough for their brain-children
to be called indeed martyrs is
Charles Goodyear, the man to whom
we are indebted for India rubber. 1t
was in 1920 that pair of rubber shoes
was seen for the first time in the United
States, and then they were merely
handled about as curiosity. Good
year found, in 1884, that for all prac-
teal purposes rubber was a failure.
Articles made from it melted in sum-
mer, and emitted such an offensive
odor that it became necessary to bury
them. At the time when his attention
was first turned to the subject, he was
bankrupt, and his first experiments
with.rubber were made in Jail.
Like all persevering inventors, he
thereafter sacrificed not only his time
and money for the sake of his pet pro-
ject, but all the funds which he could
borrow or beg from his friends. His
wife's jewels and family relics speedily
found their way to the pawnbroker' s,
and Goodyear moved into the country
in order that he might live as econom-
ically as possible. At length his inven-
ton was patented, and wealthy part
ner Joined him; but commercial crisis
soon swept away every cent of their
Joint capital. Then Goodyear found
that he had not even enough money to
| buy food for his family, and the pawn
| broker became again his only resource.
He had become an object of general
ridicule, and one of his New York
friends. having been asked how he was
| to be recognized in the street, said of
him: ''f you see a man wearing an
India-rubber coat, India-rubber shoes,
an India-rubber cap, and in his pocket
an India-rubber purse with not cent
| in it, that is he"
For he constantly wore the material
| about, with the twofold object of test
| ing and advertising it. Sometimes he
seemed to be on the road to prosperity.
| The Government once gave him an
order for one hundred and fifty rubber
mail-bags, but when they were made
| the handles dropped off and the rubber
| fcrmented. But Goodyear was not dis
| heartened. He baked India-rubber in
his wite's oven, boiled it in her sauce
pans, steamed it at the nose of the tea
| kettle. roasted it in ashes and toasted
it before fires quick and slow. And all
this time he was regarded by most
people US harmless, but very weari-
some, lunatic.
His children were often sick, hungry
and cold. and it is said that he once
| sold their schOol-books for five dollars,
with which he laid in new stock of
| gum and sulphur for his experiments.
His darkest hour came when he had
| in the house dead child. with no
means of burying it, and five living
members of the family, with no food
for their next meal. But help was at
| hand. His immediate wants were re-
lieved, and his brothers advanced
money for carrying on his experiments.
In 1874 he was able to produce vulcan
lied India-rubber, with absolute econ
omy and success. But having attained
one object, he adopted another. no less
dear-that of perfeeting a life saving
| apparatus and after twenty-seven
years Of labor, having actually founded
a new industry, he died insolvent, leav-
ing his family an inheritance of debt
Youths Companion.