ch pleased with the samples of rubber goods that he saw in
Goodyear's room, and when the doctor went to Europe he took them with
him, where they attracted a great deal of attention, but beyond that
nothing was done about them. Now that he appeared to have success, he
found no difficulty in obtaining a partner, and together the two
gentlemen fitted up a factory and began to make clothing, life
preservers, rubber shoes, and a great variety of rubber goods. They
also had a large factory, with special machinery, built at Staten
Island, where he removed his family and again had a home of his own.
Just about this time, when everything looked bright, the great panic
of 1836-1837 came, and swept away the entire fortune of his associate
and left Goodyear without a cent, and no means of earning one.

His next move was to go to Boston, where he became acquainted with J.
Haskins, of the Roxbury Rubber Company, and found in him a firm
friend, who loaned him money and stood by him when no one would have
anything to do with the visionary inventor. Mr. Chaffee was also
exceedingly kind and ever ready to lend a listening ear to his plans,
and to also assist him in a pecuniary way. It was about this time that
it occurred to Mr. Chaffee that much of the trouble that they had
experienced in working India rubber might come from the solvent that
was used. He therefore invented a huge machine for doing the mixing
by mechanical means. The goods that were made in this way were
beautiful to look at, and it appeared, as it had before, that all
difficulties were overcome.

Goodyear discovered a new method for making rubber shoes and got a
patent on it, which he sold to the Providence Company, in Rhode
Island.

The secret of making the rubber so that it would stand heat and cold
and acids, however, had not been discovered, and the goods were
constantly growing sticky and decomposing and being returned.

In 1838 he, for the first time, met Nathaniel Hayward, who was then
running a factory in Woburn. Some time after this Goodyear himself
moved to Woburn, all the time continuing his experiments. He was very
much interested in Hayward's sulphur experiments for drying rubber,
but it appears that neither of them at that time appreciated the fact
that it needed heat to make the sulphur combine with the rubber and to
vulcanize it.

The circumstances attending the discovery of his celebrated process is
thus described by Mr. Goodyear himself in his boo