Goodyear, Charles (1800-1860)

US inventor who developed rubber coating in 1837 and vulcanized rubber in 1839, a method of curing raw rubber to make it strong and elastic.

Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and entered his father's hardware business. He began to investigate rubber in the 1830s and obtained US patents for his process 1844, but both Britain and France refused his applications because of legal technicalities. His attempts to set up companies in both countries failed, and for a while he was imprisoned for debt in Paris. When he returned to the USA, many of his patents had been pirated by associates, and he died in poverty.

Goodyear discovered the vulcanization process by accident. Whilst experimenting in mixing rubber, sulphur and white lead he accidentally overheated his mixture and found charring but no melting. He repeated this experiment and found vulcanization.