Product Description
Natural rubber (also known as "India rubber" or "caoutchouc"), the milky sap of rubber trees, is not a very practical commodity. It melts in hot weather or cracks and freezes in cold weather. In 1839, Charles Goodyear came across a process, vulcanization, that made rubber so useful it changed the world we live in. If Goodyear's journey toward discovery was arduous, holding on to his patents, rights and wealth was more grueling, and less successful. Companies infringed on his patents with abandon. His discovery did not lead to fortune as much as to misfortune. Even with Daniel Webster at his side and a victory in a major patent infringement action, the tide of piracy continued unabated. The U.S. Commissioner of Patents noted that "no inventor, probably, has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known ... as 'pirates.'" Yet, in the end Goodyear could still see beyond the horizon, saying: "A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps." Vulcanization allowed much of the Globe to reap the benefits of rubber.Award-winning author Daniel Alef tells Goodyear's absorbing tale of success and failure, highs and lows, a true mid-19th century Greek tragedy. [1,800-word Titans of Fortune article]
