Happy Birthday, Vulcanised Rubber!

Today, June 15, is a red-letter day for the tyre industry – exactly 165 years ago Charles Goodyear was granted the initial patent for process of rubber vulcanisation. But while this patent – number 3633 – may have opened the door to the development of a viable range of rubber products and eventually led to a company bearing his name becoming one of the largest tyre manufacturers in the world, the patent delivered far more financial reward to others than to Goodyear himself.

According to accounts of Charles Goodyear’s life, the vulcanised rubber story began in 1834 when Goodyear, whose hardware store had recently been made bankrupt, approached the Roxbury India Rubber Company with a new business idea. He showed the shop owner a swim ring that he had made improvements to and asked if he would sell it. But the man simply laughs and takes Goodyear into his stock room and shows his the numerous swim rings that have perished because of heat or cold. Natural rubber is not temperature resistant. Whoever can solve this problem, commented the shop owner, will make a fortune.

Goodyear cannot let go of the idea. At home he experiments with natural rubber and various chemicals. Because he is completely broke, he even sells his children’s schoolbooks in order to continue. Please from his wife that he should seek a new job are ignored. Finally, chance came to Goodyear’s rescue: When he applied sulphur to the rubber, some of the substance dripped onto a hot stovetop. The result was a stable yet elastic product, and with this substance he received Patent 3633 for the vulcanisation of rubber.

Charles Goodyear wanted to produce rubber boots and tents himself, but the persistent experimenter has no head for business. For years he desperately searches for sponsors, and he is often imprisoned as a result of his debts. A more positive wind finally blows in 1845 when the Californian gold rush leads to a demand for waterproof boots and tents. Later, in at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, Goodyear displays a range of products including inflatable balloons, rubber furniture and other products.

The money Goodyear earns from his invention can only pay his debts, however. He must borrow more funds for new projects, such as the first latex condom, which he developed in 1855. One contemporary newspaper, the London Spectator, wrote that “”If you see a man with an India-rubber coat on, India-rubber shoes, an India-rubber cap, and in his pocket an India-rubber purse, with not a cent in it, that is Goodyear.”

It was others who later made money from Goodyear’s work. Amongst these were the Seiberling brothers, who in 1898 founded a rubber products factory and named it “Goodyear Tires and Rubber Company” in recognition of the inventor. Tyres for coaches and bicycles were two of the first products from a company that would over time become one of the largest tyre manufacturers in the world. But Charles Goodyear himself never lived to see his rubber reach such heights. He died in New York in 1860 due to complications from his chemical experiments. His family was left with Patent 3633 – and debts totalling $200,000.