who discovered rubber
Charles Goodyear and the Invention of Vulcanized Rubber. None of it would have been possible without Charles Goodyear, who in 1844 -- more than 50 years before the first rubber tires would appear on cars -- patented a process known as vulcanization.
In 1852, in Trenton, New Jersey, two men appeared in the Circuit Court of the United States, the legal giants of their day, to argue the case of Goodyear vs. Day for patent infringement. Rufus Choate represented the defendant (Day) and Daniel Webster the plaintiff (Goodyear). Daniel Webster, in the course of his plea, pointed to his client. The man whose cause he pleaded was a man of fifty-two, who looked fifteen years older, sallow and emaciated from disease. This was Charles Goodyear, inventor of the process which put rubber into the service of the world.