October i, 1910.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



The Last Goodyear Rubber Inventor. 



IT will be news to many people in the trade that up to within 

 the last month there has been living one of the earliest 

 workers in india-rubber— a Goodyear who was in close 

 touch with the discoverer of vulcanization. Tliis was General 

 Ellsworth D. S. Goodyear, who died on September 3, at North 

 Haven, Connecticut, in which town he was born, .\pril 28, 1827. 

 General Goodyear was the eldest of seven sons of Bela Good- 

 year, and a descendant in the sixth generation from StL-phen 

 Goodyear, first deputy governor of New Hampshire. His great 

 grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier and he and four 

 brothers fought in the Civil War of 1861. one brother, Walstein 

 Goodyear, being killed in battle. Bela Goodyear, here mentioned, 

 was a brother of .-Vmasa, whose son Charles became noted in 

 connection with rubber. 



At the age of 16 years the subject 

 of this sketch became employed in 

 the office of a New Haven newspaper. 

 In 1846 he visited New York, with 

 a letter to his cousin, Charles Good- 

 year, through whose influence he 

 hoped to enter some newspaper office. 

 Instead, however, he entered the em- 

 ploy of the distinguished rubber man, 

 connected with whom were the lat- 

 ter's brothers. Nelson and Henry B. 

 Goodyear. His work in rubber, 

 which covered 14 years, it is not now- 

 possible to mention in detail. 



While residing in Newark, New 

 Jersey, in connection with a rubber 

 factory, Mr. Goodyear had acquired 

 some knowledge of military tactics, 

 and at the outbreak of the Civil War 

 he recruited Company C, of the Tenth 

 Connecticut Volunteers, which he 

 served as captain for three years. 

 Later he was successively promoted 

 to be major and lieutenant colonel, 



and he was in command of the regiment at the beginning of 

 1865. He was severely wounded before Petersburg, Virginia, 

 and Congress made him a brevet brigadier general "for especial 

 gallantry in the assault on Fort Gregg." Following the war 

 General Goodyear was for many years connected with the New 

 Haven custom house, after which he remained in the quiet of 

 home, cared for by a loving family. 



General Goodyear is mentioned by his family as having been 

 employed in rubber work in factories in Harlem and elsewhere 

 in New York City, as well as Newark and Stapleton, Staten Is- 

 land. He is referred to as having been "the first superintendent 

 of the Goodyear Hard Rubber Factory on Staten Island. His 

 last employment in the rubber business was with the Beacon 

 Falls (Connecticut') Rubber Co. He resigned his position with 

 them about i860, owing to ill health," [There was a Beacon Dam 

 Co., at Beacon Falls, succeeded in 1859 by the old .\merican ?Iard 

 Rubber Co,] He is regarded as having contributed in an im- 

 portant way to several inventions in rubber, including a process 

 for making hollow rubber balls which became standard. By the 

 way, the annual report of the United States patent office for 1854 

 contains this information : 



io,68q. Iniprovemt-nt in Prnce<;ses for Tre.itinR India-rubber. E. D. S. 

 Gondycar. Stapleton. New ^'ork, assignor 10 T'li Xew York Rubber 

 Co. March 28, iSjj, 



"The improvement refers to the manufacture of hollow articles 

 from india-rubber, and consists in filling such ware, as balls, etc.. 



to a certain extent, with water, which being, during the process 

 of vulcanization, converted into steam, e.xtrcises the necessary 

 inside pressure to impart any desired pattern to the exterior 

 face of the article. 



"Claim. — The introduction of water or any other liquid into 

 the interior of articles which require expansive force for their 

 perfect formation against the interior surface of molds, said 

 liquid to be converted into steam, substantially as. and for the 

 purposes, specified. [No illustration.]" 



It is claimed for General (joodrich that he had a part in the 

 invention of hard rubber, with which he experimented while at 

 Newark. The following memorandum on the Subject he left 

 among liis papers : 



Manufacturers of rubber had long been trying to <kvise some means 

 h .' w hich rubber could be hardened sufficiently to be made useful as a 



substitute for u-lialcb(me. After ex- 

 perimenting with chemicals of one sort 

 and another, I fo'.niil while studying 

 iit Liebig's "Chemistry" the subject 

 of th.e properties C'f sulpliur that sul- 

 [)hur melted a second time at .?lo* 

 of heat, and c^iolci in •-hellac form. 



It occurred to me that heie might 

 be the solution of the hard rubber 

 problem, and upon making the sug. 

 gestton to my employer. Henry B. 

 Goodyear, he arranged with the en- 

 gineer to have the si earn pressure 

 iiiglt enough drring the night to rer.ch 

 310°. I prepared six one pound pack- 

 ages of gum. adding to the first two 

 ounces of sulphur, to the second four 

 ounces, and to the others in successioit 

 six, eight, ten. and twelve ounces. 

 Tliese mixtures were rolled .nto sheets 

 about Is inch thick, placed between 

 some blight sheets of tin greased with 

 lard, wrapi)ed in rubber cloth, the 

 whole put into a small steam boiler 

 useil for experimental purposes, and 

 subjected to 310- of heat, at which 

 point it was kept for eight hours. 

 When the package was eagerly opened 

 the sheets were found to be of vary- 

 ing degrees of hardness; those of the 

 lesser amounts of sulphur were flex- 

 ible, while the sheet composed of one 

 pound 01 gum and eight ounces of 

 sulphur was tlie best of the lot. 



Henry B. Goodyear took it to a 

 pearl button factory near by and had 

 several disks cut ' out and polished. 

 This was the foundation of the patent, 

 and the great button business as well 

 as the thousand and one other uses to 

 applied the world over. Because of the 

 failed to be used as a substitute for 



^^** 



The Late E. D. S. Goodyear. 



which hard rubber is now 

 brittleness of the material 

 whalebone. 



The date of tlie experiments here referred to is not stated, but 

 it will be remembered that the original hard rubber patent was 

 granted in 1851 to Nelson Goodyear, with a reissue in 1858 to his 

 brother Henry B., after the death of Nelson. 



General Goodyear left other memoranda relative to his work 

 in rubber which The India Rubber World hopes to use in time. 



A BRITISHER ON AMERICAN MOTORS. 



THE important London journal Autocar has interviewed Mr. 

 F. R. Sims, of England, on his return from the United 

 States, where he traveled extensively with a view to making 

 himself acquainted with the present condition of the American 

 automobile industry. Mr. Sims was asked : 



"Then, the stated outputs which have struck our business peo- 

 ple with astonishment are not so astonishing after all?" 



"No, certainly not, and the figures have not been overstated. 

 I traveled about 6,000 miles during my stay, and visited nearly 

 every important motor factory in the States." 



Questioned in regard to the progress of the manufacture of 

 motor trucks for commercial purposes, Mr. Sims stated that this 

 interest was going ahead very strongly. He thought that 25,000 

 motor trucks carrying up to five tons would be turned rut this 

 year and absorbed by the trade. 



