The unknown story of the inventor of the tire
Charles Goodyear was an inventor who discovered a vulcanization method in 1839 that prevents natural rubber from freezing in the cold and melting in the heat. Most people think that Goodyear and his family are so rich because of it. But the facts are very different…
Hundreds of years ago, rubber was exuded from trees, molded and sold in countries like Brazil. But people noticed that there is a flaw in the rubber products. Items made of rubber became sticky and melted when the weather was very hot, and hardened and cracked in cold weather. People were digging pits and burying thousands of melted goods because of the bad smell it gave off. The people who rioted declared the death of rubber.
REJECTED BUT DIDN'T LET IT GO
Charles Goodyear, 33, believed he could resurrect him. In 1834, he wanted to go to a rubber factory and sell his newly developed air valve for life buoys. He was told that the factory went bankrupt because natural rubber was useless and he should not be involved in this business. That day, Goodyear, who was already interested in inventing, had a desire to add some substances to natural rubber and make it usable in all weather conditions.
Charles Goodyear (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860) was an American self-taught chemist and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized rubber, for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office on June 15, 1844. Goodyear is credited with inventing the chemical process to create and manufacture pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber.
TRIED HUNDREDS OF TIMES
For 5 years until 1839, Goodyear tried to mix rubber with all kinds of materials and make it usable. He was experiencing great difficulties because his financial means were very limited, and he was constantly in jail because of his debts. Referring to the prison as our hotel to his friends, Goodyear first thought of adding a desiccant to the rubber to withstand the heat. So he boiled the rubber with magnesium hydroxide and indeed the rubber hardened. He tried to make shoe covers from this hard rubber and sell them. However, the product did not work in very hot weather. Adding slaked lime to the mix got much better results, but these products also failed. Since he was out of money, he tried to take one of the old mixtures and remove the paint on it with nitric acid, but he threw it away when the rubber became black under the influence of the acid. He took the darkened rubber out of the garbage and cleaned it, and when he saw that the material was very dry and smooth, he prepared new rubber products with nitric acid.
HIS NEIGHBORS FEEL PAIN FOR HIM
At that time, Goodyear, which received an order for 150 water-resistant big bags from the postal administration, was beginning to believe that it could make money. He relied so heavily on nitric acid-cured rubber bags that he kept the bags in a warm room for a month, but unfortunately all the bags melted like gum. Over-indebted due to this failure, Goodyear could no longer even provide food for his wife and children. Free milk for the children of his farming neighbors, who pity him and his family; He was also giving potatoes to Goodyear and his wife.
DISCOVERED THE FORMULA ACCIDENTALLY
In 1839, Goodyear produced a shoe by mixing rubber with sulfur and was promoting it to those around them, and the shoe accidentally fell on the hot stove. The sulphurous rubber, which was supposed to soften immediately on the stove, on the contrary, became harder and became like leather. While the other parts of the shoe became gum in hot weather, the parts that touched the hot stove could maintain its shape and flexibility like leather in hot and cold weather. Realizing that the solution is sulfur and temperature, Goodyear produced the ideal tire of the day by heating sulfur and rubber under pressurized steam at 115 degrees Celsius for 6-7 hours.
HE FINISHED THE MONEY EARNED IN THE PATENT WAR
Goodyear himself said that the stove part of the story is not so simple, that coincidences will only benefit those with sufficient knowledge and experience. During his last experiments, Goodyear suffered a great deal of grief and was back in jail for a $5 debt, and his son, who was just a few months old, died in those days. But now that he had produced the best tire in the world for that day, he finally started making money and getting out of debt. Since he did not have commercial ability, he earned very little, while the companies he gave the license rights to earned a lot. Goodyear, who received the patent, has sued most companies that used his invention without permission, and won some and lost more than 30 lawsuits.
THE BRAND WAS NOT RELATED TO THE NAME
He spent his money on tire research and lawyers, though not much, and left $200,000 in debt when he died. He and his children had nothing to do with Goodyear, one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world today and named after him.