Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Goodyear grew up in a modest household where his father ran a hardware business.

Charles’s early life showed little sign of the monumental discovery he would later make; his health wasn’t great and he missed a lot of school.

Nonetheless, he had a curious mind and an unusually tenacious spirit. After working as a partner in his father’s business, financial troubles pushed him to explore new opportunities. It was in the 1830s that he first became nothing short of obsessed with the potential of natural rubber.

At that time rubber was notoriously unreliable. In summer heat it became sticky and melted into a gluey mess.

In winter it froze, cracked, and turned brittle.

Despite these flaws, a “rubber boom” swept through America, inspiring entrepreneurs to use it in clothing, shoes, and waterproof goods. The promise was huge, but so were the failures. Rubber shoes (known in the US as “gum-boots”), capes, and coats were often foul-smelling and shoddy to the point of being useless.

The whole industry teetered on collapse. Goodyear remained undeterred.

Goodyear was a man who pursued ideas with an almost self-destructive intensity. He sold furniture, pawned belongings, and even spent time in debtors’ prison, all while continuing his experiments.

He mixed rubber with magnesia, lime, nitric acid and anything else he could lay hands on.

At various points in his life, he turned his kitchen, his boarding house and even his jail cell into a makeshift lab.

Friends, relatives, and creditors begged him to stop, but he refused.

His breakthrough came in 1839, and like many great discoveries, it happened partly by accident. Goodyear had been experimenting with rubber treated with sulphur when a piece of the mixture accidentally fell onto a hot stove.

Instead of melting, the rubber charred but retained its elasticity. It was tough, resilient and resistant to both heat and cold.

After years of blind pursuit, Goodyear had found the principle behind vulcanisation: heating rubber with sulphur to create a stable, durable, weather-proof material.

Vulcanised rubber revolutionised numerous industries. For footwear it was nothing short of transformative. Wellington boots, which had originally been made with calf-skin leather, could now be manufactured in rubber that remained flexible, waterproof and incredibly durable.

This made them practical for farmers, soldiers, labourers and outdoor workers of all kinds. Although the best-known manufacturer of rubber boots was later Hiram Hutchinson in France (using Goodyear’s patents), it was Charles Goodyear’s discovery that made the modern “welly” possible.

Despite the global impact of his invention, Goodyear never achieved wealth. Patent battles drained what money he earned, and he was frequently undercut by competitors.

He died in 1860 still deeply in debt, unaware that his work would become indispensable to modern life. Today his name is remembered not through personal fortune but through the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company which was founded decades after his death and named in honour of the man who unlocked rubber’s potential.

Charles Goodyear’s life remains a testament to perseverance, visionary thinking, and the stubborn belief that even the most unpromising material can change the world if one refuses to give up on it.