what is vulcanization of rubber

#vulcanizing #vulcanizationofrubber
In the mid- 1800s, the discovery by Charles Goodyear of the vulcanization of the rubber industry, a process that allows the rubber to withstand cold and heat.
Goodyear dedicated his life and sacrificed his family's wealth and health to the commercial enhancement of rubber, part dreamer, part entrepreneur.
Goodyear was born in Naugatuck in 1800 when Goodyear had decided that after his father's New Haven hardware business went bankrupt, he went into rubber goods in the 1830s.
Rubber seemed to be a "miracle material" at that time.
There was no stopping Goodyear.
He worked with a wide range of materials, spending several hours hunched over his work, surrounded by poisonous fumes.
When he found that nitric acid smoothed out and rubber made it less sticky, Goodyear thought he found the answer.
He was awarded a contract to make rubber mailbags from the US Post office in Boston and melted in hot weather.
Goodyear accidentally combined rubber and sulfur in a hot stove while working at the Eagle India Rubber Company.
A lot of the rubber didn't melt, to Goodyear's surprise. And it hardened when he raised the heat.
Goodyear would need several more years to remake the chemical formula and perfect the method of sulfur and rubber combination at high temperatures.
He patented the process in 1844, that’s the same year he established the Naugatuck India-Rubber Company in Naugatuck.
Vulcanization was named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, by Goodyear.