Why, that
is as great and momentous a phenomenon occurring to men in the
progress of their knowledge, as it would be for a man to show
that iron and gold could remain iron and gold and yet become
elastic like India Rubber. It would be just such another result.
Now, this fact cannot be denied; it cannot be secreted; it cannot
be kept out of sight; somebody has made this invention. That is
certain. Who is he? Mr. Hancock has been referred to. But he
expressly acknowledges Goodyear to be the first inventor. I say
that there is not in the world a human being that can stand up
and say that it is his invention, except the man who is sitting
at that table."
The court found for the plaintiff, and this decision established
for all time the claim of the American, Charles Goodyear, to be
the sole inventor of vulcanized rubber.
This trial may be said to be the dramatic climax in the story of
rubber. It celebrated the hour when the science of invention
turned a raw product--which had tantalized by its promise and
wrought ruin by its treachery--into a manufacture adaptable to a
thousand uses, adding to man's ease and health and to the
locomotion, construction, and communication of modern life.
When Columbus revisited Hayti on his second voyage, he observed
some natives playing with a ball.
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