Charles Goodyear was born December 29, 1800 in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended the local public schools. His father was an inventor, manufacturer, and a merchant of hardware. His specialty was farm tools. Charles must have gotten some of his fathers brain cells, because Charles also invented the steel pitchfork to replace the heavy iron one. When Charles was seventeen, his father sent him to Philadelphia to learn the hardware business. When he returned in 1821, he went into partnership with his father in the hardware business, but it later failed in 1830.

In 1830 Charles went to New York and visited a store that sold many goods made of Indian Rubber. He was inspired by the possibilities of the material. He was determined to improve the Indian Rubber and make it more useful. His very first experiences with the material happened in jail, because of his financial problems. While he was in jail, he asked his wife to bring him some raw rubber and her rolling pin, and he shaped it and worked on it hour after hour.

In 1837 Charles settled his family near New Haven and went to New York to continue his work. There he received his patent for the improved Indian Rubber, and he was able to find a decent amount of financial backing.

When he moved to Massachusetts, he met Nathaniel M. Hayward. He was an inventor which had a patent on a process for mixing sulfur with rubber which Charles bought. Charles intended to mix the new process with his old one which meant he had to coat rubber with acid and metal.

One day in his shop he got in a argument with a man and accidentally dropped a piece of sulfur-impregnated rubber on a very hot stove and instead of melting, it just lightly charred. He realized the importance of this, so he began experimenting to discover the proper amounts and methods of baking the rubber which he later called, “vulcanization”. His important patent was issued on June 15, 1844 for the new rubber after he borrowed $50,000 for his experiments, which little was ever repaid.

Later, he said that he had found over five hundred different uses for the invention, but we don’t know that for sure. He received patents in all countries except for England, because in 1984 Thomas Hancock invented it and got the patent from England.

Just before Charles died he wrote, “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.”

Charles Goodyear died in 1860. He left his wife and his six children $200,000 in debt. People think that Charles died a bitter man, but he didn’t. He really lived a pretty cool life.

Neither Charles nor his family was ever connected to the Goodyear Company that was named in his honor. If they would have been, they would have gotten out of debt and actually made some money.