This story of Charles Goodyear and his discovery of the rubber vulcanizing process is not the fictional success tale of an inventor rising from rags to riches. Money meant nothing to this man but fresh opportunity to explore; to carry on costly experiments to find new and broader uses for his beloved product.

Along in the late 1830's a stranger came to New York to see Charles Goodyear. "How shall I recognize the inventor?" he asked. He was told. "If you see a man with a rubber coat on, rubber shoes, a rubber cap and in his pocket a rubber purse with not a cent in it, that is Goodyear."

Charles Goodyear by that time had already earned a reputation, characterized by the phrase "India Rubber Maniac," but, more important, he had acquired an unswerving faith in the utility of rubber and in his ability to reveal it.

From the time when Goodyear in 1834, first became interested in the application of rubber to everyday uses, he was a man financially bankrupt, in poor health and lacking a single friend able to loan him enough money to keep him out of debtor's prison.

In jail at Philadelphia, he begged and borrowed enough with which to begin his experiments with the sticky substance that had become a stench in the business world.

Temporary success was invariably followed by reverses. Despite the setbacks, the pressure of friends and acquaintances, and finally his own family to persuade him to give up his insane experiments and take up a useful occupation, his perseverance overcame all obstacles.

When manufacturing of rubber articles at last became a flourishing business and Goodyear was able to sell licenses to his patents, he was beset by endless infringements. One of his court trials became famous when he hired the best lawyer of the day, Daniel Webster, to prosecute his case.

Charles Goodyear represents the type of American whose persistence has opened the way to this nation's industrial and commercial greatness.

From the dust jacket