Haven, Connecticut in 1800. Charles was the oldest child in his family and had four brothers and a sister. He married Clarissa Beecher in 1824. They had six children: Ellen, Cynthia, Sarah, an unnamed child, Charles Jr., and William. Unfortunately, William died at 3 years old.
Most of his life with his first wife and children was in poverty. He remarried after the death of his first wife to Fanny Wardeell of London, England. Charles died on July 1, 1860, himself a poor man. Charles had an average education. He went to high school but not college.
He did an apprenticeship in New York at a hardware store. Charles was very influenced in his early childhood by his father’s interest in inventing things. His father experimented with new types of pitchforks, etc. In 1821, he worked with his father in a hardware business. This business failed in 1830 as they tried to expand too quickly, causing them to go bankrupt.
Indiarubber was not used in industry because of its adhesive surface. It was too sticky when hot and too brittle when cold. Goodyear spent most of his life in limited usefulness to the industry. Rubber products melted in hot weather, froze, and cracked in the cold, and adhered to everything.
One day, Good year’s early experiment led him to discover a workable rubber. But his big breakthrough was when he mixed rubber with sulfur on a hot stove. This discovery allowed rubber to be applied in various ways. Unfortunately, Goodyear achieved very little recognition before he died.
He had a few companies using his process and was earning some money. He was satisfied knowing that his dream had come true. Today, the Goodyear Medal is awarded to honor individuals for outstanding contributions to the vulcanization process. The impact of this process is evident in the wide range of products that use rubber, including tires. Rubber is also used for other things.
Mouse balls and the little buttons on TV clickers are made possible thanks to rubber. Without rubber, we would still be wearing leather soles and using patented vulcanization to strengthen it for various industrial uses, including automobile tires. Rubber also helped create one of my favorites: snowmobile tracks, which allow me to go snowmobiling with my dad at our camp in Vermont.
I don’t know what I would do without rubber. Rubber has changed the ways of transportation on many occasions. Charles Goodyear didn’t invent the tire, yet he has one of the biggest tire companies. In addition to vulcanization, Goodyear also invented, along with his father, improved pitchforks.
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