Goodyear discovered a new method for making rubber shoes and got a patent on it, which he sold to the Providence Company, in Rhode Island.

The secret of making the rubber so that it would stand heat and cold and acids, however, had not been discovered, and the goods were constantly growing sticky and decomposing and being returned.

In 1838 he, for the first time, met Nathaniel Hayward, who was then running a factory in Woburn.  Some time after this Goodyear himself moved to Woburn, all the time continuing his experiments.  He was very much interested in Hayward’s sulphur experiments for drying rubber, but it appears that neither of them at that time appreciated the fact that it needed heat to make the sulphur combine with the rubber and to vulcanize it.

The circumstances attending the discovery of his celebrated process is thus described by Mr. Goodyear himself in his book, “Gum Elastic.”  It will be observed that he makes use of the third person in all references to himself: 

“In the summer of 1838 he became acquainted with Mr. Nathaniel Hayward, of Woburn, Mass., who had been employed as the foreman of the Eagle Company at Woburn, where he had made use of sulphur by impregnating the solvent with it.  It was through him that the writer (Charles Goodyear, who makes use all through his book of the third person) received the first knowledge of the use of sulphur as a drier of gum elastic.

“Mr. Hayward was left in possession of the factory which was abandoned by the Eagle Company.  Soon after this it was occupied by the writer, who employed him for the purpose of manufacturing life preservers and other articles by the acid gas process.  At this period he made many novel and useful applications of this substance.  Among other fancy articles he had newspapers printed on the gum elastic drapery, and the improvement began to be highly appreciated.  He therefore now entered, as he thought, upon a successful career for the future.  A far different result awaited him.

“It was supposed by others as well as himself that a change was wrought through the mass of the goods acted upon by the acid gas, and that the whole body of the article was made better than the native gum.  The surface of the goods really was so, but owing to the eventual decomposition of the goods beneath the surface, the process was pronounced by the public a complete failure.  Thus instead of realizing the large fortune which by all acquainted with his prospects was considered certain, his whole invention would not bring him a week’s living.

“He was obliged for the want of means to discontinue manufacturing, and Mr. Hayward left his employment.  The inventor now applied himself alone, with unabated ardor and diligence, to detect the cause of his misfortune and if possible to retrieve the lost reputation of his invention.  On one occasion he made some experiments to ascertain