Charles Goodyear
Charles Goodyear (1800-1860)
Born in New Haven, Charles Goodyear attended school in Naugatuck and, in 1826, started the first retail domestic hardware store in the US with his father, inventor and businessman Amasa Goodyear, in Philadelphia. Bankrupt four years later, Charles and his family endured poverty as he doggedly pursued a new venture: the stabilization of rubber for commercial use. In 1844, after establishing the Naugatuck India-Rubber Company, Goodyear patented his vulcanization process—a discovery that has made possible a range of indispensible commercial products, from car tires to sneaker treads. Despite this success, Goodyear battled patent infringements and debt until his death in 1860. He is buried in New Haven and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1976.
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Charles Goodyear and the Vulcanization of Rubber
Obsessive dedication transformed rubber into a viable commercial material and made the town of Naugatuck one of its leading manufacturing sites in the 1800s. …[more]
