Finally, in 1839, when he was on the point of giving up in
despair, he accidentally came upon the solution. He was
experimenting in his kitchen, a place which, through lack of
funds, he was often forced to use as a laboratory. Part of a
mixture of rubber, sulphur and other chemicals, with which he was
working, happened to drop on the top of the stove. It lay there
sizzling and charring until the odor of the burning rubber called
his attention to it. As he stooped to scrape it off the stove he
gave a start of wonder as he noted that a change had come over the
rubber during its brief contact with the stove.

To his surprise the mixture had not melted, but had flattened out
in the shape of a silver dollar. When it had cooled enough to be
handled, he found that it bent and stretched easily, without
cracking or breaking, and that it always snapped back to its
original shape. Strangest of all, it was no longer sticky.
Apparently half the problem was solved. Whether his new mixture
would stand the cold he had yet to find out, so he nailed it on
the outside of the door and went to bed. Probably he slept but
little and was up early. At any rate he found the rubber
unaffected by the cold.

Then he knew that he had made a real discovery and he named the
process "vulcanizing" after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
"Vulcanizing" means mixing pure rubber with certain chemicals and
then applying heat. On this process, which is by no means simple,
the great rubber business of the world has been established.
Practically everything made of rubber, or of which rubber is a
part, has to go through the vulcanizing process, whether it is a