Goodyear, Charles

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GOODYEAR, CHARLES

Charles Goodyear (1800–1860) did not prosper in his lifetime, but the industry he helped to found has played a major role in the development of the world's economy. Goodyear failed at business, spent many years in and out of debtor's prison, and left his family destitute, but his persistent work at developing rubber as a commercial product launched an entire industry.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 29, 1800, Charles Goodyear was son to a father who worked as a manufacturer, an inventor, and a merchant of hardware, particularly of farm tools and implements. Goodyear attended public schools and was sickly as a child—a problem he was never to overcome. At age 17 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to learn the hardware business as a salesman, but ill health forced his return to New Haven in 1822, where he became his father's partner. At age 24 he married, and he and his wife Clarissa later had six children.

In 1826 Goodyear and his wife opened the first American hardware store in New Haven. Four years later, two events occurred that would shape Goodyear's life—both he and his father went bankrupt, and, on a trip to New York City, he visited a store that sold goods made of India rubber. Excited by the possibilities of goods made of rubber, Goodyear purchased a rubber life preserver from the Roxbury India Rubber Company. The only problem was that India rubber goods were frail; they became brittle when exposed to cold, and sticky when exposed to heat. Goodyear quickly invented an improved valve for the life preserver, but he was rebuffed by Roxbury and told that if he really wanted to improve the life preserver he would need to work on the rubber, not the valve.

So began a life's work that would consume Goodyear. He spent all of his time and resources working with rubber, trying every imaginable method to improve the quality of the material. He had no money, little knowledge of chemistry, and few resources for experimentation, yet he continued to persevere with his experiments, using trial and error to see what would work. He mixed rubber with anything and everything, from witch hazel to castor oil, from acids to cream cheese. Throughout his efforts, Goodyear was in poor financial condition. While his family often lived on the charity of friends, he zealously pursued his dream of developing rubber. He worked on his processes even while in debtor's prison.

Goodyear thought that he had secured acceptable results for treating rubber with nitric acid laced with sulfuric acid, but the financial panic of 1837 wiped out his fledgling company. Undaunted, he kept on with his work, wearing a suit of clothes made from rubber as a gimmick to gain attention. Shortly after the panic, Nathaniel Hayward partnered with Goodyear, and it appeared that their venture would be successful: The U.S. Post Office ordered 150 mailbags made of Goodyear's treated rubber. Unfortunately, the bags disintegrated in the summer heat and the venture failed. Goodyear persevered. His breakthrough came quite by accident in 1839, when he spilled a rubber and sulfur mixture onto a hot stove. Expecting the rubber to melt, Goodyear was surprised to see that the rubber had only charred on the edges. The areas that had not burned retained their elastic properties. Exposed to cold, this fragment continued to maintain its flexibility.

Goodyear had discovered the key to the process he called vulcanization, which was to cure the rubber-acid mixture with heat. He obtained a patent for the process on June 14, 1844; however, his typically poor business sense led him to license the patent at ridiculously low prices. Moreover, industrial pirates preyed on the patent and used it without authorization. Goodyear eventually retained famed attorney Daniel Webster (1782–1852)to represent him and secure his rights, but Webster's attorney fees exceeded the amount that Goodyear had made from his patent. He also had trouble obtaining a patent abroad, since Thomas Hancock had already patented the process in Great Britain.

Still attempting to make good on his dream of manufacturing rubber products, Goodyear borrowed money for extravagant displays of his products in London in 1851, and in Paris in 1855. He earned nothing from these attempts and spent another round in debtor's prison as a result of the Paris show. Nevertheless, while in debtor's prison he was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor for his efforts.

Goodyear returned home sick, feeble, and broke. When his daughter was dying in 1860, Goodyear traveled to New Haven to visit her, but he died en route in New York in 1860, leaving his family more than $200,000 in debt.

See also: Tire and Rubber Industry