Omaha daily bee., 1910-10-30
PERSISTENCE PULLED REWARD
How Connecticut Yankee struEgIed
with Rubber and won the
Prize.

Rubber has done a good deal for civil
izadon, and civilization has done a great
deal for rubber, but both are indebted to
Charles Goodyear
Goodyear was a Connecticut Yankee.
born at Naugatuck. December @. 1900;
those now living who remember him in
the flesh knew him as a frall little man
with soulful eyes and sympathetic ma
ture. Goodyear, after devotlng the encr-
sies Of his life to experiments discovered
vulcanlzation, a process which neutralizes
the adhesiveness Of rubber, while harden
Ing II, so that heat does not dissolve Il
or cold impair It's elasticity. The chem
lists rad sought the great secret in vain.
Triumph was reserved for a man who was
always I'm debt and sometimes in prison.
| and occasionally reduced to the most pitt
ful shifts to keep the wolf from the door.
Goodyear was originally a hardware
dealer In a small way, but he got inter
ested in rubber when Il began 20 make a
| STIR In the world with the first imUorta-
ton OF shoes from Brazil. They were soon
being made in New England, but the bust
| ness tumbed to ruin when the rubber de-
composed In hot weather and gave out an
| offensive Odor No one had a good word
TO say for the stuff-it sold for cents O
pound In the general disgust-but Good
year. although without money or credit
got to work to rehabilltate the reputation
of gum elastic, as he always called It, He
thought Of rubber all day and dreamed Of
1t all night and it adhered to his hands
and clothing so that they were one and
indivisible. III you meet a man." said
some one who wanted to describe the in
vertor, who has on an Indian rubber cap,
STOCK coat, vest and shoes, with an India
rubber purse without a cent Of money in
it, that It Goodyear"
In chasing what seemed to his friends a
Will-o'-the-wisp. Goodyear was often in
| the pawnshops, He once left his umbrella
with Cornelius Vanderbilt for some ferry
tickets and at another time sold his chill
dren's school books for s., which he needed
FOR his experiments. But he had a de-
voted family like Eeniuses, and his wife
and children were just as much wrapped
up in rubber as he was. To harden his
gum elastic Goodyear mixed magnesia
with it and turned out some shoes beau
uful to look at for the man had the ar
ustic sense, but, as usual, they decom-
posed. He thought he had hit upon the
secret with nitric acid took out a patent
and embarked in the business Of making
shoes and toys. Bad times swept away
his profits before he learned that ne had
]
visits to the pawnshop.
About this time Goodyear met Nathaniel
Hayward, who was fussing with rubber
{ I'm factory at woburn, where he was re-
garded as harmless crank. To Hayward
| 1t was revealed In a dream that rubber
could be hardenen by mixing sulphur with
| 1t and exposing the compound to the sun
! The process gave out a rank odor, which
made Hayward a nuisance in the factory
but he took out a patent on It, Goodyear
! Icing struck with the idea, bought the pat.
ent. The two men leased a building, went
in for making life preservers. But the
secret had not been discovered, although
Hayward was on the right scent-4n no
weather It seemed q wrong one to pur.
chasers Of the life preservers. GOodyea,
was not dismaYed.
After more experiments he took q con.
tract to make fifty rubber bags for the
government, and advertised his good luck
4 The bags were a credit to his skill. but
in July the handles dropped off and the
substance melted. His friends advised hin
! to go back to hardware The wolf wa!
again at the door, and Goodyear had t
divide time in the use of kitchen oven witt
his wife. He was always baking tn,
compound OF sulphur and rubber, but will
no satisfactory results Yet he wa
warm" as they say in the children
game. One night while gesticulating OF
his favorite theme with a piece of sui
phurated gum II came in contact with a red
hot stove. Instead Of melting, as usual
the stuff charred IKE leather. Was a yer!
high heat needed to harden rubber2 Tn
enthusiast trembled with anticipation. Blu
there was the cold-it was a winter
night. Would the mass lose It's flexibllltS
in the freezing arr Goodyear nailed Il
against the house. The next morning tn,
compound was as elastic as ever. He haC
discovered INFLAMMATION.
The secret was that rubber, with
slight admiKture VI sulphur hardened AN,
lost Its adhesivness, but not Its fleXibiltS
when subjected to a temperature Of from
zoo to go degrees Fahrenheit. Neither hea
nor cold afterward affected It; but Il car
be overvulcanized into what is known a.
ebonite. Goodyear perfected his process
took out a patent, and for fourteen year
fought infrngements in the courts unit
ledge Grier decided in his favor in 1894
New York Mail.
l.