Life Charles Goodyear example essay topic

1. Life Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1800. Charles was the oldest child in his family and had four brothers and a sister. He married Clarissa Beecher in 1824. The y had 6 children, Ellen, Cynthia, Sarah, a un- named child, Charles Jr., and William. Three of there children died from disease.

Sarah died at 3 Yr., an unknown child died at 2 months and son William died at 3 Yr. Most of his life with his first wife and children were in poverty. He remarried after the death of his first wife to Fanny Wardell of London England. Charles died on July 1, 1860 himself a poor man, the way he spent almost all his life. 2. Education & Training Charles had an average education.

He went to high school but not college. He did do an apprenticeship in New York in a hardware store. Charles was very influenced in his early childhood by his fathers interest in inventing things. His father experimented with new types of pitchforks, etc.

Charles did not have much education but was always thinking of new inventions. 3. Work In 1821, he worked with his father in a hardware business. This business failed in 1830 The y tried to expand to quickly causing them to go bankrupt. Then he used his talents to the commercial improvements of India rubber and inventing new things. India rubber was not used in industry because of the adhesives of the surface.

It was too sticky when hot and too brittle when cold. Goodyear spent most of his life in search of inventing a way to make rubber stable and usable. 4. Discoveries & Achievements Natural or India rubber was of limited usefulness to industry. Rubber products melt e in hot weather, froze and cracked in cold, and adhered to everything.

One day, one of Good years early experiments was that he discovered that lime made rubber softer and workable. But his big breakthrough was when he accidentally dropped some rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove. Goodyears discovery of what came to be known as vulcanization strengthened rubber so it could be applied. Goodyear achieved very little recognition fo r inventing the vulcanization process before he died. He had a few companies using his process and was earning some money. He was satisfied knowing that his dream of stabilizing rubber had come true.

Today the Goodyear Medal perpetuates the memory of Charles Goodyears invention of the vulcanization process, and is awarded to honor individuals for outstanding inventions. 5. Effect of his Work Charles Goodyears major effect on today is the use of rubber for a wide range of products including tires. Rubber is also used for other things such as... mouse balls and for the little buttons on TV clickers. (thank good ness for rubber) Without rubber we would still be wearing leather (ect.) soled shoes. In 1844, vulcanization was patented vulcanization strengthened rubber so it could be used for a variety of industrial uses, including automobile tires eventually. Rubber also helped make one of my favorites, snowmobile tracks so I can go snowmobiling with my dad at our camp in Vermont.

I dont know what I would do without rubber. Rubber changed ways of transportation. Today almost everyone uses rubber every day somehow. 6.

Interesting Facts Charles Goodyear was jailed on many occasions because he had overdue debts that he could not pay. Charles Goodyear didnt invent the tire yet he has one of the biggest tire companies in the world named after him. Charles Good year had other inventions besides vulcanization he also invented along with his father improved pitchforks.