"In the winter between 1838 and 1839, Charles Goodyear labored at a rubber factory in the small mill town of Woburn, Massachusetts, some 10 miles north of Boston. He conducted experiments combining caoutchouc, the natural latex of the Pará rubber tree, with sulfur, nitric acid, and lead oxide. Goodyear was trying to solve a problem that all rubber producers had at the time-the substance melted in the heat and cracked in the cold. Commercially, it was useless."
"But the weary inventor eventually had a stroke of luck. In his own words, he "was surprised to find that the specimen, being carelessly brought in contact with a hot stove, charred like leather." By accidentally dropping a mix of rubber and sulfur onto a stovetop, Goodyear had come across the process of vulcanization, which stabilized the latex against both heat and cold."
Charles Goodyear worked in a Woburn, Massachusetts rubber factory in the winter of 1838–1839, experimenting with caoutchouc combined with sulfur, nitric acid, and lead oxide to solve rubber's tendency to melt in heat and crack in cold. An accidental contact of a rubber-and-sulfur specimen with a hot stove charred it like leather, revealing vulcanization, which stabilized latex against extreme temperatures. Vulcanization enabled a global rubber boom and the manufacture of tubing, gaskets, padding, and, after the automobile's invention, tires. Michelin originated as a French tire company in 1889 and began publishing travel guides in 1900 to encourage driving and tire sales. Boston is paying the Michelin Guide to evaluate its restaurants.
Read at Slate Magazine
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