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Article: Charles Goodyear. (Vulcanisation special section)
- Article from:
- European Rubber Journal
- Article date:
- June 1, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Charles Goodyear
Charles Goodyear's story is one of the great successes, and one of the great tragedies, of science.
Authors Howard and Ralph Wolf sum up the life of the founder of the rubber industry best in their 1936 book, Rubber, a story of glory and greed:
"It is the tale of a man who starved and suffered; who made his experiments alternately in jail cell and sickbed; who was forced to sell his children's schoolbooks to buy food; who was an unwilling intimate of pawnbrokers as well as jailers; who was derided and scoffed at and considered demented until he made his great discovery; who thereafter was victimised by sharp bargainers and ...