It was about this time that
it occurred to Mr. Chaffee that much of the trouble that they had
experienced in working India rubber might come from the solvent that
was used. He therefore invented a huge machine for doing the mixing
by mechanical means. The goods that were made in this way were
beautiful to look at, and it appeared, as it had before, that all
difficulties were overcome.
Goodyear discovered a new method for making rubber shoes and got a
patent on it, which he sold to the Providence Company, in Rhode
Island.
The secret of making the rubber so that it would stand heat and cold
and acids, however, had not been discovered, and the goods were
constantly growing sticky and decomposing and being returned.
In 1838 he, for the first time, met Nathaniel Hayward, who was then
running a factory in Woburn. Some time after this Goodyear himself
moved to Woburn, all the time continuing his experiments. He was very
much interested in Hayward's sulphur experiments for drying rubber,
but it appears that neither of them at that time appreciated the fact
that it needed heat to make the sulphur combine with the rubber and to
vulcanize it.
The circumstances attending the discovery of his celebrated process is
thus described by Mr.
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