While the rubber industry in America seemed destined for failure, Charles Goodyear had not lost faith. He had no scientific training, but by 1835, he had spent two years experimenting with rubber and was completely obsessed with it.

He experienced a sudden curiosity and wonder about this mysterious material. "There is probably no other inert substance," he said later, "which so excites the mind."

Goodyear was determined to solve the problems inherent in natural rubber. With no formal training in chemistry, his work was based on trial and error, experimenting with different methods of processing and additives such as magnesia.

Goodyear, who was by then obsessed with rubber, was not discouraged. He began experimenting, mixing dry powders into the rubber in order to make it less soft and sticky.

He had spent five years, since going bankrupt in hardware, trying to make something useful from natural rubber, which is gooey in the summer and brittle in the winter. His idea had been to coat it with a powder to make it less sticky, but by dropping the mixture onto the stove he had invented "vulcanization" (Vulcan, Roman god of fire) and created the elastic form of rubber upon which we increasingly depend.

He experimented endlessly, kneading various chemicals into the raw rubber.

Charles Goodyear however became fascinated with this material, and spent his life trying to find a way to process and use it. He went broke, and went to debtors prison before he even started working on rubber. His family suffered much in his quest to find the secrets of rubber.