1800 – 1860
Charles Goodyear
United StatesMaterials & Metallurgy
Background
An American self-taught chemist and manufacturer who pursued usable rubber for decades in poverty.
Contribution
Discovered vulcanization — heating rubber with sulfur to make it stable and elastic — around 1839, patenting it in the U.S. in 1844.
Popular credit vs. the record
Thomas Hancock patented vulcanization in Britain slightly earlier (1843); the two are often cited as independent, with priority disputed.
Associated inventions
Collaborators & contemporaries
Sources & further reading
Each citation names the publisher and the exact reference title.
- Encyclopædia Britannica — technology & biography topic articlesEncyclopædia Britannica · Encyclopedia
- Smithsonian — National Museum of American HistorySmithsonian Institution · Museum
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