1800 Charles Goodyear – US inventor of a process for vulcanising rubber. Goodyear's process made millions of dollars, but not for him. Widespread infringements on his patents, together with poor luck in business, left him deep in debt at his death in 1860. In its natural form, rubber is sticky, and gets runny when hot, and stiff when cold. Goodyear accidentally discovered that when rubber is mixed with sulphur and heat-treated, it loses its adhesiveness but keeps its elasticity, even at extreme temperatures. He called his process vulcanisation
1813 Alexander Parkes – British chemist and inventor of another process to vulcanise rubber, that was different from Goodyear’s. Parkes is better known as the inventor of an electroplating method, and as the inventor of xylonite (celluloid), which he patented in 1855
This was a BIG day for rubber.
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