o begin a search which might
lead him on in poverty for years and end nowhere. But, having seen the
need for perfect rubber, the thought had come to him, with the force of
a religious conviction, that "an object so desirable and so important,
and so necessary to man's comfort, as the making of gum-elastic
available to his use, was most certainly placed within his reach."
Thereafter he never doubted that God had called him to this task and
that his efforts would be crowned with success. Concerning his prison
experiences, of which the first was not to be the last, he says that
"notwithstanding the mortification attending such a trial," if the
prisoner has a real aim "for which to live and hope over he may add
firmness to hope, and derive lasting advantage by having proved to
himself that, with a clear conscience and a high purpose, a man may be
as happy within prison walls as in any other (even the most fortunate)
circumstances in life." With this spirit he met every reverse throughout
the ten hard years that followed.

Luckily, as he says, his first experiments required no expensive
equipment. Fingers were the best tools for working the gum. The prison
officials allowed him a bench and a marble slab, a friend procured him
a few dollars' worth of gum, which sold then at five cents a pound, and
his wife contributed her rolling pin. That was the beginning.

For a time he believed that, by mixing the raw gum with magnesia
and boiling it in lime, he had overcome the stickiness which was the
inherent difficulty. He made some sheets of white rubber which were
exhibited, and also some articles for sale. His hopes were dashed when
he found that weak acid, such as apple juice or vinegar, destroyed his
new product. Then in 1836 he found that the application of aqua fortis,
or nitric acid, produced a "curing" effect on the rubber and thought
that he had discovered the secret. Finding a partner with capital, he
leased an abandoned rubber factory on Staten Island. But his partner's
fortune was swept away in the panic of 1837, leaving Goodyear again
an insolvent debtor. Later he found another partner and went to
manufacturing in the deserted plant at Roxbury, with an order from the
Government for a large number of mail bags. This order was given wide
publicity and it aroused the interest of manufacturers throughout the
country. But by the time the goods were ready for delivery the first
bags made had rotted from their handles. Only th