28. Patience

It has been said, "For years Charles Goodyear thought of nothing but rubber. He experimented on it, borrowed and begged for it, and bored his friends with his rubber talk. He wore it, went to prison for it - pawned his wife's clothes and sold his children's school books for rubber. He starved, and entered law suits, even crossed the ocean - all for rubber. It was his life. But all these troubles encountered by Goodyear fade into insignificance when we realize what his discovery has meant to mankind - the tremendous industry and employment it has created.

Rubber is one of the basic materials of the automotive transportation system and the foundation of hundreds of other industries producing thousands of articles, from surgeon's gloves to life rafts.

Failure

I believe most of us know something about Goodyear's experiments. When he first found out about rubber, the difficulty with the material was, of course, that it became sticky in warm weather.

Many people had tried to discover means of getting around this. They put rubber between cloth and tried mixing all sorts of things with it to cure this stickiness. Goodyear, starting from there, in 1833 began his patient search by the cut-and-try method. Three years later, he thought he had found the secret when he discovered that sulphuric acid would vulcanize the surface - in fact, it wasn't too bad for very thin articles. But in the summer heat 150 large bags he had made for the Government melted and he had to start all over again.



Short Stories of Science and Invention A Collection of Radio Talks by Charles F. Kettering INDEX		*28. Patience* It has been said, "For years Charles Goodyear thought of nothing but rubber. He experimented on it, borrowed and begged for it, and bored his friends with his rubber talk. He wore it, went to prison for it - pawned his wife's clothes and sold his children's school books for rubber. He starved, and entered law suits, even crossed the ocean - all for rubber. It was his life. But all these troubles encountered by Goodyear fade into insignificance when we realize what his discovery has meant to mankind - the tremendous industry and employment it has created. Rubber is one of the basic materials of the automotive transportation system and the foundation of hundreds of other industries producing thousands of articles, from surgeon's gloves to life rafts. I believe most of us know something about Goodyear's experiments. When he first found out about rubber, the difficulty with the material was, of course, that it became sticky in warm weather. Many people had tried to discover means of getting around this. They put rubber between cloth and tried mixing all sorts of things with it to cure this stickiness. Goodyear, starting from there, in 1833 began his patient search by the cut-and-try method. Three years later, he thought he had found the secret when he discovered that sulphuric acid would vulcanize the surface - in fact, it wasn't too bad for very thin articles. But in the summer heat 150 large bags he had made for the Government melted and he had to start all over again.