GoodYEAR

             I want to talk with Charles Goodyear because I wanted to know how he coped up to produce a stable rubber after five years. His story was miserable and what convinced him to pursue in producing stable rubbers. He is famous now especially in the field of engineering. Let’s talk to him and know him more behind this matter.

I started chatted Charles Goodyear yesterday and our conversation on Facebook goes like this:

Me: Hi Mr. Goodyear good day!

Goodyear: Yes?

Me: Can I have a personal talk with you at J.co and have some coffee and donut?

Goodyear: Yes sure. What time?

Me: 10:00 A.M

At J.co

Me: Hello Mr. Goodyear

Goodyear:  Hi

Me: How are you?

Goodyear: I’m fine. Why did you send me in this place?

Me: Uhm.. because I want to know more about you and your stable rubber.

Goodyear: I made a stable rubber to produce tires.

Me: Before that, Where are you from Mr. Goodyear?

Goodyear: I’m from Springfield, Massachusetts and during my time it was called the “City of Firsts”.

Me: Why is it called the “City of Firsts”.

Goodyear:  The first vulcanization of rubber is considered one of the major "firsts" that contributes to the City of Springfield's nickname, "The City of Firsts".

Me: How was your life before inventing the rubber?

Goodyear: I didn’t actually invent the rubber.

Me: Ha? What did you mean?

Goodyear: My life was miserable. My family and I sold our house and our properties. It’s been many years since I tested how to make a rubber that can’t be easily stretch out by our bare hands.

Me: How did you discover it?

Goodyear: I walked into the New York retail store of the Roxbury India Rubber Co., America's first rubber manufacturer. This hardware is totally bankrupt. The manager showed me the rubber they made.

Me: Did you mean there were rubbers that time?

Goodyear: Yes. Actually during ancient times in America there were rubbers made in rubber sap.

Me: What was the problem that time?

Goodyear: I’ll tell you later.

We went to the Goodyear Vulcanizing Rubber Store. We continued talking about the problem during his time.

Me: So Mr…. Let’s continue your story.

Goodyear: The problem that time was the durability of rubber in winter. The manufacturers of rubber lost million dollars because all the rubbers they made were not standing up to extreme temperatures, becoming brittle in winter.

Me: And you are the one who tried to improve it?

Goodyear: Many of us are inventors. Many of us tried to improve it.

Me: What did you do to improve the rubber?

Goodyear: I tried many experiments but none of them work. I put myself in debt and involved in several patent lawsuits.

Me: You’re life is really miserable.

Goodyear: But one day our neighbor was boiling water in the pot.

Me: What is the connection of the boiling water to the rubber you made?

Goodyear: I made another experiments and the rubber that I made in that experiment accidentally went inside the hot pot which is contained with boiling water.

Me: Accidentally?

Goodyear: This experiment called serendipity.

Me: What did you notice after?

Goodyear: The rubber was better and good in quality as in very very good.

Me: What is your concept behind it?

Goodyear: I discovered that if you remove the sulphur in the rubber it will make the rubber to retain its elasticity even if winter happens.

Me: Your genius! How did you propose it?

Goodyear: I sent samples of heat-and-sulphur-treated gum to British rubber companies without revealing my concepts.

Me: And then?

Goodyear: My samples were seen by the English rubber pioneer.

Me: Who is he and what happened before that?

Goodyear: He was Thomas Hancock. Hancock noticed a yellowish sulphur "bloom" on the Goodyear sample's surface. With that clue, he reinvented vulcanized rubber in 1843, four years after me.

Me: Do you mean……

Goodyear: Yes! I was foolishly declined and lost but I installed great pavilions built entirely of rubber, floor to roof during 1850 in London. There I received Legion of Honor from Emperor Napoleon.

Me: What a wonderful story! After that?

Goodyear: I was died with a debt of $200,000.

Me: What happened to your family?

Goodyear: Accumulated royalties made my family comfortable. My son Charles Jr., inherited something more precious inventive talent and later built a small fortune on shoemaking machinery.

After his last word “machinery” his voice faded away and he was gone. I saw a piece of paper in his table and there’s something written in that paper:

"Life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents. I am not disposed to complain that I have planted and others have gathered the fruits. A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps." -Goodyear