famous inventions Archives

Here are some facts about Charles Goodyear

Charles Goodyear is best known for developing vulcanized rubber. The vulcanization process hardens rubber, making it suitable material to use for tyres.
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was named after him.
He was born in 1800, in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and he died in 1860 in New York.
He sold his furniture to fund his experiments with India rubber. He was desperately looking for a way to make the rubber lose its stickiness.

He discovered that rubber dipped in nitric acid helped to keep the rubber hard, and Andrew Jackson (the 7th President of the United States) was so impressed he wrote to Goodyear to congratulate him.
He was once nearly suffocated in his lab by poisonous gases.
In 1839, Goodyear discovered that combining rubber and sulfur, and heating the mixture would cause the rubber to vulcanize. During the 1840s he continued to work on the process.
In 1852, a court case took place to see whether Thomas Hancock had come up with the process of vulcanization independently in Britain, or whether he’d copied Goodyear. It was decided that both men had invented the process.
In 1976 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
He married Clarissa Beecher in 1824, and they had five children.
Before he began to experiment with rubber, he was a partner in a button-making and agricultural implement manufacturing business.
The Charles Goodyear Medal is awarded to those who are most innovative in the rubber industry.
He is buried in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven.

Check out some facts about other famous inventors.

Here are some facts about the Wright brothers.

The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were American engineers, inventors and bicycle makers. They are famous for inventing, constructing and flying the first aeroplane (or airplane) in the world.

Orville was born in 1871 in Ohio, and Wilbur in Indiana, in 1867. They left school to start a printing business, and then in 1892, opened a bicycle sales and repair shop in Ohio.
A toy flying machine gave the brothers an interest in flight and aerodynamics. They designed and built several model gliders, and experimented with a wind tunnel.
The first flight of the brothers’ Flyer, their plane, took place on December 17th, 1903 in the North Carolina sand dunes. The site was chosen for its soft landing spots, regular breezes and privacy.
The fourth flight they made that day lasted 59 seconds and covered about 280 metres. The brothers tossed a coin to decide who would fly the machine first.

Wright Brothers

The Wright Flyer was just over six metres long, with a wingspan of 12 metres. The plane weighed 274 kg and was capable of flying at almost 50 kilometres per hour.
In 1909 the brothers created the American Wright Company. They became world famous, made longer test flights and flew in front of the King of England.

Orville Wright died in 1948; Wilbur in 1912 aged just 45. Their last home in Dayton, Ohio is now on the US register of Historic Places, and is one of 15 aviation related sites in the area.
The Wright Brothers’ Flyer is in the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, although for many years Wilbur refused to donate it. In 1969, Neil Armstrong took a small piece of it to the moon.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina commemorates the brothers’ achievement. A life size replica of the brothers’ 1903 plane can be seen at the site.

Tag: famous inventions