The National cyclopædia of American biography : being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, edited by distinguished biographers, selected from each state, revised and approved by the most eminent historians, scholars, and statesmen of the day . sale of which he derived the meansof subsistence for himself and family. About thisperiod (1831 or 1832) the manufacture of gum-elastic,commonly called India-rubber, was begun in t
The National cyclopædia of American biography : being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, edited by distinguished biographers, selected from each state, revised and approved by the most eminent historians, scholars, and statesmen of the day . sale of which he derived the meansof subsistence for himself and family. About thisperiod (1831 or 1832) the manufacture of gum-elastic,commonly called India-rubber, was begun in theUnited States, and he became anew and more stronglyinterested in developing it for varied and practicaluses. The special obstacle he had to contend withwas the ditficulty in treating the rubber, which was soaffected by extremes of heat and cold, that it meltedin the one case and stiffened in the other. One com-pany had made large quantities of shoes and othergoods, in the fall and winter of 1833-34, and hadsold them at good prices, but in the succeeding sum-mer the greater part had melted, and $30,000 worth ofgoods had been returned to them decomposed, andemitting so oflensive an odor as to render it neces-sary to have them buried in the earth. Strenuouseffort had been put forth to obviate this difficulty,but without success. To that object Mr. Goodyearnow gave his life, and the story of his career is one. of pathetic interest. His experiments were con-ducted in Philadelphia, Pa., in New York city, andin towns, in the extremity of poverty,himself and his family hterally living from hand tomouth, and more than once upon what was virtuallythe charity of friends, sometimes selling the chil-drens books and pieces of household furniture tomeet the calls of hunger. He met with no real en-couragement of success for the first four years ofhis investigations, which were not seldom carried onin prison. Then came the disappointment of hopeswhich Jiad been excited, with t
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