13. Charles Goodyear knew the inside of Philadelphia’s debtor’s prisons
Charles Goodyear is known as the man who discovered the process of vulcanizing rubber. This rendered it useful in a variety of applications. But many do not know he began these experiments while in debtor’s prison. It was neither his first term of imprisonment for debt, nor his last. In the 1820s, rubberized garments enjoyed a brief burst of popularity, but in hot weather, they melted, became unbearably smelly, and were often buried. Goodyear attempted to develop a valve for rubber life vests in the 1820s, but the manufacturers of the vests went bankrupt. He returned to his home in Philadelphia, where he was imprisoned again, over a debt to a local merchant. While in prison he acted on the advice of the life vest manufacturer and studied the means of improving latex-based rubber for year-round use.
Goodyear had no training in chemistry, and little in mechanics, but he had plenty of time while imprisoned. It took him five years of hit-and-miss research to discover the secret of vulcanization, which caused rubber to retain its properties in cold and hot weather. But he never discovered the secret of financial stability. In 1855, Emperor Napoleon III of France awarded Goodyear the Legion of Honor for his contributions to science and industry. The Emperor learned, to his chagrin, that Goodyear was at that time in a French debtor’s prison near Paris. Throughout his life, Goodyear found himself at the mercy of his creditors, and several terms in prison for debt marked his career. At his death in 1860, he owed creditors more than $200,000. The company which bears his name was founded almost 40 years later, by Frank Seiberling in Akron, Ohio.