Boston, CT: The Firm, Slack, Charles. Mangan, Gregg. On This Day in Connecticut History. Charleston, SC: History Press, Geer, William Chauncey. The Reign of Rubber. New York: The Century Company, Peirce, Bradford K. Similar W. Oystering in Connecticut, from Colonial Times to the 21st Century.
Other CT Humanities Programs. We could not locate your form. E-News Subscribe. Learn more about the programs of CT Humanities! His success was quickly noticed and he received international acclaim. A New York trade show even awarded him a medal for his solution to making India Rubber lose its stickiness. Charles Goodyear was understandably pleased until that was, he noticed a new problem. He observed that a weak drop of acid was enough to neutralize the alkali and cause the rubber to become soft again.
Disheartened Goodyear continued his experiments. On one occasion he applied some nitric acid to one sample of rubber.
This had a strange effect on the rubber making it smooth and as dry as a cloth. This surface cure was considerably better than anyone had ever made before. Throughout this time, Charles was experimenting heavily with nitric acid and lead oxide.
Exposure to these kinds of chemicals was starting to adversely affect his health. He almost suffocated from the vapors produced in his laboratory. Thankfully he survived but the episode resulted in a fever that also almost claimed his life.
Charles's new success attracted the attention of a New York businessman. Goodyear was advanced several thousand dollars to begin production. The company started to make clothes, life preservers, rubber shoes and other rubber goods. They also had a large factory with special machinery, built at Staten Island, where he moved his family and again had a home of his own. Sadly, the financial panic in wiped out his backer and the embryonic business and left Charles and his backer penniless.
Charles's next move was to travel to Boston. Here he became acquainted with J. Haskins of the Roxbury Rubber Company. They would become very close friends over time. Haskins would lend Goodyear some money and offer help and support for the inventor. He also became acquainted with one Mr. He was also very kind to Goodyear and ready to listen to his plans and offer assistance. Chaffer noted that much of Goodyear's issues with rubber could be the solvent he was using. He invented a machine to help mix the rubber through mechanical rather than chemical means.
The goods that were made in this way were beautiful to look at, and it appeared, as it had before, that all difficulties were overcome. Goodyear also, around this time, developed a new technique for making rubber shoes. He even received a patent which he sold to the Providence Company on Rhode Island.
But, as before, a method to process rubber so it could withstand hot and cold temperatures and acids was still yet to be discovered.
So any rubber goods produced were constantly growing sticky, decomposing and being returned to the manufacturers. Vulcanisation is a chemical process whereby the physical properties of natural or synthetic rubber are improved. Vulcanised rubber has much higher tensile strength than untreated rubber and has great resistance to swelling, abrasion and is elastic over a great range of temperatures.
The most basic method of accomplishing vulcanization is to use a mixture of sulfur and heat on rubber. The process was discovered in by Charles Goodyear after many years of trial and error.
His experiments also noted important functions of certain additional substances in the process. One such material, called an accelerator, can cause vulcanization to proceed much more rapidly at lower temperatures. Reactions between rubber and sulfur are not fully understood but within the final product. Sulfur is not dissolved or dispersed in the rubber, rather it appears to become chemically combined.
This appears to occur mainly in the form of cross-links, or bridges, between the long-chain molecules of the rubber. Modern practices of vulcanization occur between temperatures of to degrees Celcius. Sulfur and accelerators are also added. Modern rubber also usually has carbon black or zinc oxide added. These two materials don't just act as extenders, but also improve the quality of the final rubber.
Anti-oxidants are also commonly included to retard deterioration caused by oxygen and ozone. Certain synthetic rubbers are not vulcanized by sulfur but give satisfactory products upon similar treatment with metal oxides or organic peroxides.
Several years earlier, Charles Goodyear has started a small factory in Springfield, Massachusetts. He moved his primary operations there in This factory was run mainly by Charles' brothers Nelson and Henry. At last, Charles found that steam under pressure, applied for four to six hours at around degrees Celsius , gave him the most uniform results. Charles' brother-in-law, was a wealthy wool manufacturer who also became involved in Goodyear's business.
His brother-in-law became interested after Charles had told him that interwoven rubber threads would produce the fashionable puckered effect that was popular in men's shirts.
This would help rubber become a worldwide success. Charles Goodyear continued to make the process practical. I , in Springfield, the process was sufficiently perfected enough for him to take out a patent.
The first vulcanization of rubber is considered one of the major "firsts" that contributes to the City of Springfield's nickname, " The City of Firsts. In , Goodyear's brother Henry introduced mechanical mixing of the mixture in place of the use of solvents. Goodyear sent several samples of his heat and sulfur treated gum to British rubber companies in an attempt to drum up overseas business.
These samples were sent without any further details. One sample found its way into the possession of a famed English rubber pioneer, Thomas Hancock. Adding sulfur to the vulcanization process gives the rubber better strength, elasticity, and durability.
Natural rubber is most like chewing gum or Play-doh in its natural state. When stretched, it does not stretch back. When the rubber is compressed, it will carry a dent. The vulcanization process allows the rubber to crosslink, or harden. Use of rubber dates back to 1, BC, the era of the Aztecs, who extracted it from trees and used the heat from their hands to form it into balls.
Their ancient ball courts are still on display today at ruins throughout Mexico and South America. However, the first pioneer of rubber in the industrial age was Charles Goodyear, for whom the famous Goodyear tire company is named after.
Goodyear was a self-described inventor who allegedly came up with the idea for vulcanizing rubber on a visit to a general store. He was looking at a life vest, which at the time, was made of natural rubber, and asked the clerk what it would take to make a better vest. Often described as eccentric, Goodyear devoted his life and fortune, selling all his worldly goods, to pursue the goal of making rubber from trees into a useful material.
Although British scientist Thomas Hancock was awarded the first patent on vulcanizing rubber in in the United Kingdom, Goodyear was awarded the American patent just a few weeks later.
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