The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obsession and the Struggle for a Rubber Monopoly

by Richard Korman

Long before the Robber Barons made America into an international economic power, a generation of visionary inventors gambled on innovations they hoped would bring them riches. Chief among them was Charles Goodyear, who, in the 1830s, began his obsessive quest to find the recipe for rubber, a material he believed would change the world. In chasing his dream, Goodyear entered a Dickensian underworld, miring his family in poverty, spending extended periods in debtors' prison, and provoking powerful enemies who were also determined to understand and control this miracle substance. His victory in a triumphant lawsuit argued eloquently by Daniel Webster made Goodyear into an American industrial legend, but never released him from his tragic obsession and the pain it caused those close to him. In "The Goodyear Story," Richard Korman has written a fascinating biography that also provides a panoramic view of America in the first light of its industrial revolution. Drawing on newly discovered archival records, Korman tells a suspenseful story of scientific experimentation and legal struggle in creating a portrait of an eminent American whose eccentricity anticipates the new economy pioneers of today.

222 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up expecting to be inspired. I thought it would be a story of hope and vision and courage and optimism. Those themes are present, but they don't shine in brilliant color. It's very much the opposite. The atmosphere is immanently dark.

Goodyear’s life was marked by conflict and controversy. It’s not even agreed that he was actually the one to have had the breakthrough insight that heat was the secret to curing rubber. It was admittedly discovered by accident, but the accident may have been his colleague’s, only to have Goodyear wrest it from him and take it as his own. The facts of the matter aren’t clear.

This issue, and other patent lawsuits, had Goodyear in court almost perpetually.

He was also continually in debt. He was so indebted that any commercial success he had went to paying off creditors, leaving him in need of raising new debt. On and on the vicious cycle went. Many of them went unpaid. He was imprisoned multiple times for failure to pay off his loans and his employees were often never paid their wages. It cost his family greatly, living a life of such poverty that they had to hunt for their own food during one tumultuous period.

It even seems that his closest companion was the Grim Reaper. He lost several children in their infancy and other members of his immediate family in a series of tragedies.

His work with rubber left him sick his whole life. The dangers of the chemicals he was working with weren’t known at the time, but it’s pretty clear in retrospect that he had severe lead poisoning that left him physically crippled.

He even self-identified with Job. Goodyear was a devout man who believed greatly in his mission for improving mankind and was convinced that rubber was the means by which it would be manifested. While often perplexed by the trials and tragedies in his life, he never wavered in his convictions. That is the positive. He was a man resolved.

But there are others who believed him a conman, and thus the memory of Goodyear is complex. Was he a visionary or fraud? Is that even a fair question? Are they mutually exclusive? I don’t know.

If the author’s intent was to draw out this ambiguity, then the book certainly succeeds.

Other readers may not be so troubled by the subject. The story is well told and there are moments of great drama to be enjoyed, but I was frankly left a bit rattled by the whole thing so I was unable to revel in them.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at a library sale on a whim, because my late grandfather worked for Goodyear Tire for 40+ years. I was surprised to find it relatively interesting (3.5 stars, maybe). Although a lot of the scientific parts of the story went over my head, I was caught up in the story of Charles Goodyear's difficult and often tragic life. His obsession with his rubber experiments led to neglect of his family and they often lived in poverty, borrowing often from many different people. He was in debtor's prison at least four times. He lost a wife and several children (I lost count, actually; I know it was the mid-19th century when infant/child mortality was far more common, but I was still stunned by the amount of loss). He suffered from ill health himself (likely due to handling lead during his experiments). And he was involved in several legal disputes over the patenting of his rubber processes. The epilogue is where the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. come in and I was surprised (and a little disappointed) to discover that Goodyear Tire and its famous blimps had no connection at all to the Goodyear family; they merely appropriated the name for "added cachet". However, they have always honored and respected the famous inventor.

[Steven Mao · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty dry account of the invention of rubber and most plastics, which is an interesting story, but the author doesn't quite manage to hold the reader's interest.