e; in the latter instance, the specimen that was charred was in
like manner disregarded by others.

"It may, therefore, be considered as one of those cases where the
leading of the Creator providentially aids his creatures, by what
are termed 'accidents,' to attain those things which are not
attainable by the powers of reasoning he has conferred on them."

Now that Goodyear was sure that he had the key to the intricate puzzle
that he had worked over for so many years, he began at once to tell
his friends about it and to try to secure capital, but they had
listened to their sorrow so many times that his efforts were futile.
For a number of years be struggled and experimented and worked along
in a small way, his family suffering with himself the pangs of the
extremest poverty. At last he went to New York and showed some of his
samples to William Ryder, who, with his brother Emory, at once
appreciated the value of the discovery and started in to
manufacturing. Even here Goodyear's bad luck seemed to follow him, for
the Ryder Bros. failed and it was impossible to continue the business.

He had, however, started a small factory at Springfield, Mass., and
his brother-in-law, Mr. De Forest, who was a wealthy woolen
manufacturer, took Ryder's place, and the work of making the invention
practical was continued. In 1844 it was so far perfected that Goodyear
felt it safe to take out a patent. The factory at Springfield was run
by his brothers, Nelson and Henry.

In 1843 Henry started one in Naugatuck, and in 1844 introduced
mechanical mixing in place of the mixture by the use of solvents.

In the year 1852 Goodyear went to Europe, a trip that he had long
planned, and saw Hancock, then in the employ of Charles Macintosh &
Co. Hancock admitted in evidence that the first piece of vulcanized
rubber he ever saw came from America, but claimed to have reinvented
vulcanization and secured patents in Great Britain, but it is _a
remarkable fact_ that Charles Goodyear's French patent was the first
publication in Europe of this discovery.

In 1852 a French company were licensed by Mr. Goodyear to make shoes,
and a great deal of interest was felt in the new business. In 1855 the
French emperor gave to Charles Goodyear the grand medal of honor and
decorated him with the cross of the legion of honor in recognition of
his services as a public benefactor, but the French courts
subsequently set aside his French patents on the ground