Goodyear himself in his book, "Gum Elastic." It
will be observed that he makes use of the third person in all
references to himself:
"In the summer of 1838 he became acquainted with Mr. Nathaniel
Hayward, of Woburn, Mass., who had been employed as the foreman of
the Eagle Company at Woburn, where he had made use of sulphur by
impregnating the solvent with it. It was through him that the
writer (Charles Goodyear, who makes use all through his book of
the third person) received the first knowledge of the use of
sulphur as a drier of gum elastic.
"Mr. Hayward was left in possession of the factory which was
abandoned by the Eagle Company. Soon after this it was occupied by
the writer, who employed him for the purpose of manufacturing life
preservers and other articles by the acid gas process. At this
period he made many novel and useful applications of this
substance. Among other fancy articles he had newspapers printed on
the gum elastic drapery, and the improvement began to be highly
appreciated. He therefore now entered, as he thought, upon a
successful career for the future. A far different result awaited
him.
"It was supposed by others as well as himself that a change was
wrought through the mass of the goods acted upon by the acid gas,
and that the whole body of the article was made better than the
native gum.
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