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Person

Charles Goodyear

A man with gray hair and a serious expression wears a black suit jacket over a white shirt with a dark bow tie and a brown vest.

American inventor (1800-1860) who discovered the vulcanization of rubber after a decade of self-funded experimentation that left his family destitute. Trained as a hardware merchant, not a chemist, he conducted his work in borrowed kitchens and rented factory corners. He won his US patent in 1844 but lost the equivalent rights in Britain to Thomas Hancock. He died in New York owing roughly two hundred thousand dollars.

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