This continued to increase until it seemed but a question of a few
years until he would be a very wealthy man. Between 1829 and 1830 he
suddenly broke down in health, being troubled with dyspepsia. At the
same time came the failure of a number of business houses that
seriously embarrassed his firm. They struggled on, however, for some
time, but were finally obliged to fail. The ten years that followed
this were full of the bitterest struggles and trials to Goodyear.
Under the law that then existed he was imprisoned time after time for
debts, even while he was trying to perfect inventions that should pay
off his indebtedness.
Between the years 1831 and 1832 he began to hear about gum elastic and
very carefully examined every article that appeared in the newspapers
relative to this new material. The Roxbury Rubber Company, of Boston,
had been for some time experimenting with the gum, and believing that
they had found means for manufacturing goods from it, had a large
plant and were sending their goods all over the country. It was some
of their goods that first attracted his attention. Soon after this
Goodyear visited New York, and went at once to the store of the
Roxbury Rubber Company.
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