He was
trying to harden the gum by boiling it with sulphur on his wife's
cookstove when he let fall a lump of it on the red hot iron top.
It vulcanized instantly. This was an accident which only Goodyear
could have interpreted. And it was the last. The strange
substance from the jungles of the tropics had been mastered. It
remained, however, to perfect the process, to ascertain the
accurate formula and the exact degree of heat. The Goodyears were
so poor during these years that they received at any time a
barrel of flour from a neighbor thankfully. There is a tradition
that on one occasion, when Goodyear desired to cross between
Staten Island and New York, he had to give his umbrella to the
ferry master as security for his fare, and that the name of the
ferry master was Cornelius Vanderbilt, "a man who made much money
because he took few chances." The incident may easily have
occurred, though the ferry master could hardly have been
Vanderbilt himself, unless it had been at an earlier date.
Another tradition says that one of Goodyear's neighbors described
him to an inquisitive stranger thus: "You will know him when you
see him; he has on an India rubber cap, stock, coat, vest, and
shoes, and an India rubber purse WITHOUT A CENT IN IT!"
Goodyear's trials were only beginning.
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