104 GOODYEAR ON GUM-ELASTIC. 



end. Jerry sat down to his labor of mixing gum before the fire, 

 as usual, and on attempting to get up again a few minutes after, 

 he found that he was not only cemented to his seat, but that his 

 legs were cemented together. On being extricated from his 

 improved trowsers, to the no small merriment of the bystanders, 

 he subsequently manifested no further inclination for inven- 

 tion. 



This experiment was a convincing proof that adhesiveness 

 was a property which belonged to the gum, and was not the 

 consequence of imperfect manufacture. 



The manufacture of shoes was carried on during the winter 

 of 1835 — '36, in the small cottage which served also as a family 

 residence. 



The service which the shoes rendered, when put on trial, was 

 by no means satisfactory, but it was thought that their construc- 

 tion would be so improved as to make them durable, if the gum 

 did not decompose. In order fully to test the quality of the 

 gum, before submitting the shoes to public trial, they were 

 stored ; and on the return of warm weather they were found to 

 be one mass of melted gum. 



The failure of these experiments was a signal one, and the 

 trial to the experimenter was greatly aggravated from the fact 

 that he had previously given his friends sanguine assurances of 

 his success. They now became disheartened, and declined 

 lending him further assistance for such purposes, and those who 

 afforded his family supplies signified they could do so no longer. 

 At this period he was unable to meet his current expenses; he 

 therefore sold, for the payment of those who had afforded him 

 assistance, the little furniture he possessed. 



Having placed his family at board in a retired place in the 

 country, leaving as collateral security, for the rent of his cottage, 

 among other things, the linen spun by his wife, he went to 

 New York to continue his experiments. During his absence 

 these articles were sold at auction for the payment of rent. 

 The loss was, at that time, cause of much regret, and the 

 memory of the time is still cherished, when the daughters of New 



