Charles Goodyear

Charles Goodyear is an American businessman and inventor of vulcanized rubber. Deyle found that although rubber has excellent properties such as elasticity and waterproof, it becomes sticky when it is hot and hard when it is cold, making it difficult to be widely used. Since childhood, I was determined to seek improvement methods and conducted a lot of investigations and experiments. Regardless of poverty and ridicule, after more than ten years of repeated research, it was finally discovered in 1839 that natural rubber and sulfur powder could be mixed and heated to transform rubber into a highly elastic material that is not sticky when it is heated and does not harden when it is cold. Goodyear was the first to open the door to large-scale development and use of elastic polymer materials, and his contribution is recognized as an epoch-making milestone in the rubber industry and even polymer materials. The American Chemical Society established the Goodyear Medal, which is awarded annually to international scientific and technological workers who have made significant contributions to rubber science and technology.