Goodyear
CHARLES, an American inventor; born in New Haven, Conn., Dec. 29, 1800. He failed as an iron manufacturer in 1830, but in 1834 turned his attention to india-rubber, the manufactured products of which had hitherto proved failures because of their liability to soften in the heat of summer. Amid in the heat of summer. poverty and ridicule, sometimes in prison for debt, he patiently pursued the experiments which, after he had obtained a fresh idea from his assistant Hayward's use of sulphur, ended, in 1844, in the issue of his patent for vulcanized rubber.
This process he afterward perfected. It required 60 patents to secure his inventions. He received medals at London (1851) and Paris (1855), as well as the cross of the Legion of Honor; though kept in continual litigation and consequent poverty by shameless infringements of his rights, he yet lived to see his material applied to nearly 500 uses.
He died in New York City, July 1, 1860.