The Washington times., 1920-07-03
SECRET OF RUBBER
FOUND BY ACCIDENT
Great Discovery Followed Many
Futile Experiments by
Goodyear.

when Charles Goodyear began has
experiments. rubber as known 10
civilization was the crude rubber OF
today. The possibilities II possessed
were realized to a degree. and for
tunes were spent in the attempt TO
manufacture durable goods from II.
But these goods were so affected by
temperature changes that they were
usually total loss 10 the manufac-
turers. In cold weather they became
stiff and brittle. and in summer grew
soft and sticky and lost their shape,
and decomposition caused them to
| give of AN offensive odor.
Having discovered the proper
method OF treatment. Goodyear, in
| stead of resting on his laurels. set 10
work TO put his discovery to practical
use. In speaking OF this phase OF his
work, his son, william Il. Goodyear,
who is curator OF fne arts at the
| Brooklyn Museum. said a few years
! ago:
1T Is a matter or record that, with
rare exceptions, all the extensive ap-
plications or rubber land there are
over 200 OF them) were devised.
launched and financed by Charles
Goodyear up 20 the point where any
other business man or manufacturer
could do the rest, and at that point
he invariably began to develop a new
application. He never was manu-
facturer in the strict sense. or beyond
the early days when manufacture was
the only means OF earning money fol
experiments. He was never a manu-
facturer for gain and never belonged
to any of the so-called Goodyear
companies in all of which his name
was simply a trademark. Nor has
any member OF the Goodyear family
since his death ever been in the India
rubber business. in spite OF the wide
diffusion OF the name as trade mark.
1T lay within Goodyears power, at
any time after 1914. to Identify him
self with some one of the great in
dust ries which he successfully launch
ed. and to share by this activity more
largely in the enormous profits which
these industries produced under pro-
lection OF the patent laws. His great
est glory is not that he discovered
vulcanization. but that having discov-
cred il. he scorned the wealth which
the discovery created, except in so far
as it helped him in the nobler task OF
continuing to create new industries
The story of Goodyear's discovery
of the secret that solved his problem
is told nowhere in more interesting
fashion than in John Martins recent
booklet for children, Rubber. A Won
der Story:
"One day, Charles Goodyear. Con-
meet icut hardware merchant OF an in
ventive turn of mind. went to store
to buy life preserver The only
ones he could find were imperfect af-
fairs. but they drew his attention 10
the study of rubber. and presently he
was thinking of 1t by day and dream
ing Of il by night. Rubber became a
passion. He neglected his business
and grew poorer than the turkey JOB
kept. He pawned his goods and bor-
rowed from his friends until they
dreaded to have him and his rubber
lrtalk enter their doors. He even
pawned his children's books to get
money for his experiments. His fam
ily hardly dared walk into a room or
sit down at a table for fear they
would come upon some of his ever
present gum elastic, as he called it.
with an inventors tireless
patience and endless hope, he tried
one combination after another, but
they all failed. He had an entire suit
of rubber clothes and one of his
friends once said Mr.. Goodyear Is
the man you will see walking about
all dressed in rubber. carrying a rub
her nurse with nothing in it
: "Finally, in 1889. when he was mix
in d,some rubber and sulphur togeth-
! erfa thing he had often done before,
he accidentally dropped a spoonful on
the hot stove Rubber melts at such
' -, ,no,nar.ture that he had never