The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obession and the Struggle for a Rubber Monopoly [Hardcover]

Richard Korman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2002

Richard Korman has written a fascinating biography of an inventor, Charles Goodyear, harnessing a new technology that also provides a panoramic view of America at the onset 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 trials of new economy pioneers of today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Goodyear was an entrepreneur who actually made good on the ever-popular claim that his company would change the world. Korman, senior editor of Engineering News-Record, dryly traces the life of the rubber pioneer and American industrial legend in this part scientific history lesson and part American business story. Goodyear (1800-1860) became an inventor not out of any great scientific thirst; he was self-taught and wanted to make money. He earned success, but endured continual patent monopoly battles and numerous trips to debtors' prison as he steadfastly and compulsively held onto his dream of using rubber to change just about every aspect of life. (According to Korman, Goodyear frequently wore a coat made of rubber in his early inventing days to underscore the versatility of his product.) Korman waxes scientific at times, offering in-depth descriptions of how Goodyear cooked rubber and sulfur compounds, yet his technical discourses are not so esoteric that they will turn away amateurs. His book is also valuable for its accurate portrayal of factory life in the 1830s and '40s; his accounts of the aproned men who chopped rubber with axes and knives and the machines that ground it are lively examples of industrial age America. Although Korman doesn't emphasize it often, his book serves as inspiration for entrepreneurs of any age.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

Mr. Korman handles all of this material with skill and a wide knowledge of the business practices of the times. -- Washington Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (April 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893554376
• ISBN-13: 978-1893554375
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating, true-life tale of science, May 16, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obession and the Struggle for a Rubber Monopoly (Hardcover)

The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obsession And The Struggle For A Rubber Monopoly by Richard Korman (Senior Editor, Engineering News-Record, McGraw-Hill) is the amazing and informative biography of Charles Goodyear, the man who in the 1830's began his efforts to create rubber -- a material, in his belief, which would forever alter the world and the course of human civilization. His dream cost so much that his family lived in poverty and he suffered in debtor's prison. Yet his dream was not only to make rubber, but also to reap the wealth of controlling its creation and distribution; when others tried to lay claim to the manufacture of his miracle, only a lawsuit as argued by the famous Daniel Webster could settle the dispute once and for all. The Goodyear Story is a fascinating, true-life tale of science, business, and the striving of human nature against great odds and adverse circumstances.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read!, April 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Goodyear Story: An Inventor's Obession and the Struggle for a Rubber Monopoly (Hardcover)

Korman hits a home run with his portrait of the inventor Charles Goodyear and his self-destructive mania surrounding finding a way to make rubber a useful industrial product. The craziness continues when Goodyear claims the credit for the invention (and the royalties) as his own.

The book is a time-traveling glimpse into industrial revolutionary America and England and the swirling energy surrounding the changes happening at the time.

A must for ambitious business people and basement tinkerers!