122 GOODYEAR ON GUM-ELASTIC. 



The narration of a few incidents will give a brief but correct 

 idea of the discouragements, of which there was, during those 

 two years, a constant repetition in one form or other. 



During the winter of 1839 — 40, a year after the writer was 

 fully satisfied of the real value of his discovery, the greatest dis- 

 couragements were met with. 



During one of those long and severe snow-storms, which 

 in New England sometimes occur, when even those who 

 are blessed with health are confined within doors, he found 

 that his family were left without food or fuel. His feelings 

 were, that the face of nature was a fit emblem of his con- 

 dition — cold and cheerless ; but the recollection of a kind 

 greeting received some time previous from an individual who 

 resided some miles distant, and nearly a stranger, induced him, 

 enfeebled by illness,, to make the attempt to reach his house 

 through the storm. After being by turns exhausted by walking 

 against the driving snow, and rested upon its drifts, he reached 

 the dwelling of this individual,* and stated to him briefly his 

 condition, and the hopes he entertained of success from his dis- 

 covery, if he should ever be able to convince others of the facts 

 relating to it. He was cordially received, and not only supplied 

 with a sum adequate to his immediate wants, but also furnished 

 with facilities for continuing his experiments on a small scale. 



The greater part of these facilities were applied during the 

 winter in the manufacture of a set of military equipments, for 

 specimens, with the intention of vulcanizing them as soon as an 

 apparatus could be obtained for the purpose. Long before there 

 was an opportunity of doing this, he found that the composition 

 of the goods had so fermented that they could not be vul- 

 canized. This was a result which it is now known will com- 

 monly occur, when gum-elastic is worked with a solvent, and 

 compounded with lead and sulphur, unless it is vulcanized soon 

 after it is manufactured. Thus he had lost the labors of the 

 winter without eflfecting the object of obtaining the specimens 



* O. B. Coolidge, Esq., Woburn, Mass , to ■whom a tribute of gratitude is due for the timely re- 

 Tief afforded. 



