Here’s the thing. Today is Charles Goodyear’s birthday. His name gives him away, right from the go of things. Thanks to Chuck, we have good tires, of course. We also the Goodyear Blimp flying around all over the world.
I have to sidebar here a moment. Most of us know that when we see the Goodyear Blimp, we are looking at one of many blimps, in a whole big fleet of airships, operated by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. They are mainly used for advertising purposes. But they also give us super duper aerial views of those live sporting events. If we have a friend at the game, we can say, “Hey. I saw you on TV,” and mean it. Blimps aren’t so fast. They top out at 50 mph. They are long, though. One hundred and ninety two feet (192’).
Okay. Back to Charles Goodyear, the guy. He was born on this date, in the year 1800. In little New Haven, Connecticut. I don’t know what he wanted to be when he was a little boy, but he grew up to be a chemist and inventor. He vulcanized.
Now, I’m not a Trekkie. But do you think Charles Goodyear had something to do with the creation of Star Trek? Do you think he mapped it out in some diary somewhere, and somehow Gene Roddenberry got a hold of it? Somewhere along the line?
As, I mentioned about Goodyear, he was an inventor, and he developed a process to vulcanize rubber in 1839. Hence, the tire company. He did all this by accident. He was working for five years, trying to make rubber more stable. And then, one day, the fire gods were with him. He found that heating it, at high temperatures, was the road to rubber success.
It should not surprise you then, that Vulcan is the Roman God of Fire. The Greek God of Fire is Hephaestus. Thankfully, Mr. Spock was not a Hephaestus. Being a Vulcan suited him. When Spock did that squeezy thing on people’s necks, technically, they were getting vulcanized. I wonder if they had a hot flash before they passed out.
Anyway, the connection seems highly suspect to me. I think Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was taking liberties with Goodyear’s discovery. But seriously. Charles Goodyear’s life was filled with a series of misfortunes. He made a wealthy start in the hardware business, but became ill with digestive problems, and everything in his work began to fail. Then, his interest in the rubber market began, and he made incredible progress in figuring out the process for making it usable in our world. Despite all his hard work, he had patent problems and disputes. It was up and down, up and down, for him. Finally, in 1860, he was making a trip to see his dying daughter. When he arrived in New York, they told him he was too late. His daughter had already died. He collapsed right on the spot, was taken to a nearby hotel, and then he was gone too. Sad end to his story.
But, despite the ups and downs of his wealth, he was among six individuals selected for induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, in 1976. He posthumously received several other inventor-type distinctions.
But. I wonder if, instead of tires, he had focused on making rubber balls. Maybe then, things would have bounced back. As it is, most people think tire stores are highway rubbery.
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“The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain.”
― Nikola Tesla, My Inventions
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“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
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“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Case of Identity
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