Goodyear, Charles

Name:
Goodyear, Charles
Detailed information:
(1800–1860). Born in Woburn, MA. Goodyear was the first to realize the potentialities of natural rubber. Frustrated by its lack of stability to temperature and other weaknesses in the uncured state, he experimented with additives such as magnesium and sulfur. The discovery of vulcanization was not accidental, as is often stated, but the result of intelligent trials and correct evaluation of their results. Though Goodyear's patents were contested by Hancock in England, he well merits the credit for making rubber usable in countless ways and helping to make the automobile possible.See Vulcanization.