Charles goodyear biography summary format

His oldest daughter, Ellen had recalled later proudly, that she constructed the first pair of rubber shoes. It began to appear in little patches upon the window panes and on the dinner plates. Father took possession of our kitchen for a workshop. He would sit hour after hour, working the gum with his hands. However, the arrival of next summer sealed the fate of the shoes, as all his efforts failed.

The shoes had softened and became sticky. Even his neighbours complained about his rotting gum that released unpleasant smell. Failure of most of these early tests disappointed his friends who were cajoled by Charles for fund advances. Discouraged, they refused him even household supplies and further financial assistance. Already leading a poverty-ridden life, Charles then tried to make ends meet by selling his household furniture to reimburse the assistance that he had received.

Next, he shifted his family to a lodging house in a retired locality, keeping as security for unsettled fee, the linen that his wife had spun. Charles tripped and fell countless times as he kept on trying to find his answers. But during all these trying times, Charles, a deeply religious man, never lost his faith and belief, but reverently accepted whatever disappointments came in his path.

He firmly believed that he was assigned to complete some great work in his lifetime, the benefits of which would be reaped by the whole world. Years later, he expressed his belief in the source of his inspirations during this period as, "reflection, that which is hidden and unknown, and cannot be discovered by scientific research, will most likely be discovered by accident if at all, and by the man who applies himself most perseveringly to the subject, and is most observing of everything relating thereto.

This is corroborated and illustrated by the circumstances attending this discovery. After managing to provide shelter for his family near New Haven where his family continued living under the charity of his friends, Charles relocated alone to New York, and found a single tenant's room, that he also used as his laboratory. Here, with full devotion and commitments, he began his laborious experiments in India rubber.

A friendly druggist supplied him the necessary chemicals. His brother-in-law Mr. William De Forest visited him one day after a long time and was shocked to see the disheveled charles goodyear biography summary format of Charles, who looked worn out and ageing. Charles then laboured doggedly in his experiments by boiling the gum with magnesia in a solution of quicklime.

This seemed to bring results as the stickiness was destroyed. He soon managed to make thin sheets of rubber. In order to test this resulting compound material for its weather resistance capacity, he wore daily clothing made out of its thin sheets. Charles soon received wide acclamation, and even acquired a patent for this development method inby which he made beautiful ornamental goods, children's toy, globes, etc.

However, he did not lose hope and tolerantly carried on with full belief in himself. He soon gained permission to use a mill at Greenwich Village three miles away, where he secretly continued his tests, now coating rubber with an acid and metal. When his lime and bronze mixtures were prepared in the attic room for making rubber drapery, Charles would carry them on his shoulder in his gallon jug, walking the distance to the mill.

During the course of making the drapery, he applied nitric acid to the India rubber material for eating out the bronze metal, but the rubber drapery discoloured and he cast it away. Days later, on examining it closely, he found that the surface felt different. The outer layer of India rubber was cured to a smooth, dry and manageable material as the adhesiveness was successfully eliminated.

Charts, maps, embossing, engravings, as well as beautiful prints could be transferred easily on this cured India rubber sheet. So he generously decorated his drab test samples by gilding and painting them. Happily, he then disclosed to his daughter that his great discovery was made. This discovery brought success and significant money to Charles, but accidentally, he also had a close brush with death.

Always surrounded by the suffocating corrosive gases emanating from the harsh chemicals, he became ill for a few weeks. Though he lived through the incident, it proved detrimental to his health in the long run. Charles Goodyear now won back the confidence of his people. With advance financial backing of several thousand dollars from a New York business partner, he leased warehouse buildings and set up manufacturing facilities at Bank Street in Manhattan and Staten Island for production of a variety of rubber articles with the help of steam power.

Fabrication of beautiful goods soon began at these factories. After a long time of suffering, success seemed to embrace him in the distant horizon with prospects of a thriving future. Charles then shifted his entire family to his own home on Staten Island to live comfortably in their company. However, his bad luck played havoc again. In the economic panic ofthe fortune of his benefactor and his budding business was instantly obliterated.

It was a big blow to Charles as his source of providing for his family was lost once again. This time his failure was attributed to absence of merit in his goods. His friends now turned their backs on any proposal of Charles and refused to invest with him. Penniless once more due to the disaster, he lived on the premises of the vacant Staten Island factory, feeding his family, fish caught in the port.

Consecutive failures meant that the inventor returned to the debtor's prison occasionally. Yet, his tender behaviour with his family rewarded him with deep love and affection from them.

Charles goodyear biography summary format

They too made sacrifices, self-denying their needs, and were willing to go through the ordeals of life along with him. Ever patient Clarissa lovingly took care of their children. She had economical habits, just like her husband and stood by Charles through thick and thin. As a devoted wife, she never criticized or rebuked him, but encouraged him gently in all his efforts by participating in his misery.

Indeed, she was a blessing to Charles throughout his trails and tribulation. Intermittently some acquaintance gave them money for food and small loans that Charles used for improvements in manufacturing rubber goods. In exchange for his daily bread, he gave up his furniture, umbrella, and the few remaining valuable possessions. Soon his family was left with their only prized article of a teacup set valued at fifty cents, which was used for breakfast as well as mixing India rubber compounds.

He even made rubber plates when his cutlery was finally gone. With access to machinery in the Staten Island factory, Charles made piano and table covers, ladies aprons, etc. His brother Robert, who too was living with them tried his best to contribute towards the living expenses. His misery did not end here, as he was yet to see his darkest days.

Very soon Charles met Mr. Haskins, a stockholder of the Roxbury Rubber Company, who became his good friend and was extremely supportive of him. Despite facing losses himself, Haskins lent him money to continue when no one else would. He did whatever was in his power and capacity to help Charles who was deeply overwhelmed with gratitude. Along with Haskins, another kind gentleman, Mr.

After receiving the backing and financial assistance from his messiahs Chaffee and Haskins, Charles soon moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, by lateand began using their idle machinery. Soon, he invented a better method of constructing rubber shoes and obtained a patent for the same. The company then began manufacturing rubber shoes. Soon enough, he gained profits of around four or five thousand dollars.

His family now joined him in Roxbury in their pleasant Norfolk House. Though they eagerly welcomed the change in their lives, Charles used very little of his profits on family enjoyment and comfort. Besides producing rubber goods, majority of the profits from the sale of his invention were for the one predominant obsession in his life, to uncover how to stabilize India rubber.

Charles then got to know Mr. Nathaniel Hayward from Woburn, Massachusetts, in the summer ofwho was the founder of a former rubber company that had failed. Hayward had invented a rubber curing process, which involved drying and hardening India rubber by using a small amount of sulphur over it and exposing it in the sun. Charles also began new inventions with this new sulphur drying technique in the vacant Roxbury factory that had better machinery, and confidently made beautiful and imaginative rubber goods such as newspapers printed on rubber sheets.

Meanwhile, the United States government gave him a contract for India rubber mail bags. This got him wide publicity, just as he had intended. Charles had the hunch that now his highest expectations would soon be fulfilled. As he imagined the scenario of a sizeable income, he once again gathered his family, his aged parents and two younger brothers around him.

The colourful mail bags were made in summer and attracted great admiration from the public, when displayed in the factory. Charles then went out of town for a few weeks and returned at the time of delivery of the order, to get unexpected results. The handles were falling apart! The compounds that Charles had added to impart different colours to the bags, proved disadvantageous.

Yet, despite this fiasco, his guts never left him. His factory work was closed down. His misfortunes were back and his perseverance was being tested time and again. His community people could now no longer endure the mention of India rubber. His moral backing and social support too had vanished as he received criticism and disapproval.

He later said of this experience, "It was generally agreed, that the man who could proceed further with a course of this sort was fairly deserving of all the distress brought upon himself, besides being justly debarred the sympathy of others. Regardless of the countless advice from his friends to pursue the familiar hardware business in agricultural tools, Charles listened to his inner guiding voice and ruthlessly continued amongst constant discomfort in treating rubber with sulphur.

For a living, he simply took resort to manufacturing few saleable rubber articles by old methods. Always under the twin pressures of responsibility and poverty, he did not feel miserable and on the contrary, his optimistic mind was constantly occupied with this rubber curing problem. Charles, now at an all time low in life, soon moved his family to Woburn.

His difficulties were never-ending, yet without wasting any time, he continued his trials at his home workshop with whatever little he had. Along with two male helpers, he began manufacturing rubber shoes for sale. He had a happy family with whom he was lovingly attached, and could share tender moments of laughter effortlessly. Their presence gave him the strength to continue in his endeavours.

His pious mother always reminded them to be grateful for what they had and believe in the future. On the day of the important discovery, the events unfolded around a hot stove on a winter evening. Charles was sitting with his brother and a few acquaintances in his kitchen, chatting. He was holding a mixed piece of India rubber and sulphur in his hand when he made a momentary gesture, due to which the rubber accidently slipped and fell on the hot stove.

He was astonished, as this piece did not melt or dissolve on the hot iron surface but appeared charred. The next morning, he was even more startled to find that though the piece was hanging outside overnight in the severe cold, it did not harden or become brittle. Rather it remained dry, flexible and waterproof, bearing a likeness to leather.

On conducting a few further tests, Charles found that the periphery portions did not show any charring, but seemed flawlessly cured. This was a big breakthrough as he realized that the combined power of sulphur and high heat on rubber resulted in an intriguing substance which was soft and tough, yet pliable. When he accidentally dropped a piece on a hot stove, it burned, but the uncharred part was transformed into a smooth, firm material that was not affected by high or low temperature.

The additive in the sample was sulfur, but it took Goodyear several months to determine the right combination of heat, pressure, and sulfur to produce a stable compound. Its first commercial use was as elastic thread in men's shirts. Goodyear vigorously promoted his product, but was forced to spend large sums of money defending his patent. In BritainThomas Hancock had received a patent for vulcanized rubber after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire a few months before Goodyear applied for his.

Although Hancock offered to share his royalties, Goodyear took his claim of sole ownership to court and lost. Goodyear invented a material that would eventually be used in thousands of ways and opened the door for a huge industry. Today there is one rubber tree for every two people on Earth. Despite this, he died destitute in New York on July 1, Although the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was named in his honor, Goodyear's descendants had little to do with the rubber industry after his death.

Slack, Charles New York : Hyperion. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Ede, Andrew " Goodyear, Charles. Ede, Andrew "Goodyear, Charles. Charles GoodyearAmerican inventor, experimented with, perfected, and promoted the use of vulcanized rubber. He was instrumental in establishing the rubber industry in the United States. Charles Goodyear was born on Dec.

He attended the local public schools. His father was an inventor, manufacturer, and merchant of hardware, especially of farm tools. When Charles was 17, his father sent him to Philadelphia to learn the business, and at 21 he returned to become his father's partner. He married at the age of 24 and 2 years later opened a store in Philadelphia.

In a lifetime of financial distress began for the Goodyears when both father and son went bankrupt. On a trip to New York City that year, Goodyear visited a store that sold goods made of india rubber, a product only recently manufactured in America. Inspired by the possibilities of the material, he determined to improve its usefulness. His first experiments were carried out in jail, where he had been sent for failure to pay his debts.

In Goodyear settled his family on the charity of friends near New Haven and went to New York to continue his work. He received a patent for an improved type of rubber and was able to find a modest amount of financial backing. After moving to Massachusetts, he met Nathaniel M. Hayward, an inventor, whose patent on a process for mixing sulfur with rubber he bought.

Goodyear intended to combine the new patented process with his old one, which involved coating rubber with an acid and metal. During an argument one day in his shop, Goodyear accidentally dropped a piece of the sulfur-impregnated rubber on a hot stove. Instead of melting, it merely charred slightly. Realizing the importance of this two major drawbacks to using rubber were that it melted at high temperatures and tended to harden at low temperatureshe began experiments to discover the proper proportions and method of baking the new type of rubber, which he called "vulcanized.

He claimed to have found more than uses for rubber and received patents in all charleses goodyear biography summary format except England, where Thomas Hancock had invented vulcanization in A shorter study is in John C. Patterson, America's Greatest Inventors Goodyear, Charles gale. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia.

Charles Goodyear gale. Charles Goodyear American Inventor A merican inventor Charles Goodyear made important charleses goodyear biography summary format to the practical application of rubber and its related industries. Andrew Ede Bibliography Slack, Charles Chemistry: Foundations and Applications Ede, Andrew. Charles Goodyear Charles GoodyearAmerican inventor, experimented with, perfected, and promoted the use of vulcanized rubber.

More From encyclopedia. After dedicating much of his time to work, Charles returned to Connecticut when he turned 21 and joined his family's business. Alongside his father, Charles began manufacturing agricultural tools. On August 3,Goodyear married Clarissa Beecher. Two years later, they relocated to Philadelphia and opened a hardware store.

Initially, American consumers preferred English imports over domestically-made products, leading to initial struggles for Goodyear's business. However, over time, their tools gained popularity and began to sell well. Unfortunately, their success was short-lived. Between andCharles fell seriously ill with dyspepsia, a digestive disorder. Around the same time, several trading houses went bankrupt.

Despite his attempts to recover, Goodyear ultimately faced financial ruin. Ellen M. Amasa Goodyear b. Early life [ edit ]. Marriage and early career [ edit ]. Perfection and patent of vulcanization [ edit ]. Wikisource has original text related to this article: United States patent Court cases regarding vulcanization [ edit ]. Death and legacy [ edit ].

See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Chemistry Ninth ed. ISBN Retrieved October 25, Famous Scientists: Charles Goodyear, chemist. Archived from the original PDF on July 14, PMID Noble Obsession, Hyperion. City of New Haven. Retrieved Hyperion Books. December 29, Goodyear Corporate. Archived from the original on August 8, Archived from the original on External links [ edit ].

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