described as “a man with an India-rubber coat on, India-rubber shoes, an India-rubber cap, and in his pocket an India-rubber purse and not a cent in it.” Failing of success in New York, he settled in Roxbury, Mass., where E. M. Chaffee placed at his disposal the plant of the Roxbury rubber company, and for a time he prospered, selling rights under his patents; but the nitric-acid process cured only the surface of the material, and the goods were valueless except in the form of thinnest cloth. His bright prospects vanished, his property was sold, and once more he was penniless. He was strongly urged to discontinue his experiments, but a persistent faith in the ultimate success of his efforts led him to persevere. Meanwhile he found that Nathaniel Hayward (q. v.), in his employ, was in the habit of sprinkling sulphur on the surface of the rubber and drying it in the sun. The effect produced was similar to that obtained by nitric acid, and, believing himself to be on the verge of an important discovery, he continued his experiments. Early in 1839 he found that the application of considerable heat to the sulphured article would cause it to become pliant in cold weather, to have its elasticity increased at all times, and its offensive odor much diminished. After years of patient work, during which he strove to determine the exact conditions under which the most favorable results would ensue, though at times he was so reduced that he sold his children's school-books to purchase new material, he finally, after being aided by his brother-in-law, William DeForrest, obtained, in 1844, his patent for vulcanized rubber. He continued till his death to improve the process of vulcanization and to extend the uses to which the improved material could be put. As he was unable to comply with certain of the requirements of the law of France, his patent was declared void in that country, and he was equally unfortunate in England. There his method was superseded by that of Thomas Hancock, who “re-discovered” the process after receiving information from Goodyear, with whom he was carrying on negotiations for the introduction of rubber into England. He acquired about sixty patents, and the original vulcanizing patent was extended in 1858, but an application in 1867 was refused, owing to the persistent opposition of those who, during his lifetime, grew rich by infringing on his rights. The benefits conferred on humanity by Goodyear's patents have been nowhere more conspicuous than in connection with the military service during the civil war. The great council medal of the world's fair held in London in 1851 was conferred on him, and he also received the grand medal of the world's fair held in Paris in 1855 together with the cross of the legion of honor, which was presented to him by Napoleon III. Although he died in debt, he lived to see his material applied to nearly 500 uses, and to give employment to upward of 60,000 persons. Dr. Leander Bishop says: “In the art of modifying the curious native properties of caoutchouc and gutta-percha, and of moulding their plastic elements into a thousand forms of beauty and utility, whether hard or soft, smooth or corrugated, rigid or elastic, American ingenuity and patient experiment have never been excelled.” See Bradford K. Peirce's “Trials of an Inventor” (New York. 1866), and Parton's “Famous Americans of Recent Times” (Boston, 1867).
GOOKIN, Charles, deputy governor of
Pennsylvania. He bore the title of colonel, and was
deputy governor of Pennsylvania under William
Penn from February, 1709, till May, 1717. He was
selected because of his thoughtful demeanor and
supposed wisdom, but it was afterward learned
that he was deranged. Until the session of 1714,
harmony prevailed between the assembly and the
governor. The remainder of his term of office
was stormy. On 15 Feb., 1714, the day for the
convening of the assembly, the weather was severe,
and a quorum failed to assemble. This embittered
him, and when, on the following day, an organization
was effected, he roundly abused the
committee sent to him, and drove them from his door.
He once removed all the chief justices of New
Castle county for doing their duty in an action
against his brother-in-law, leaving the county
without a magistrate for six weeks. At another
time, when the judges of the supreme court at
New Castle refused to permit a certain commission
of his to be published in court, he sent for one of
the judges and kicked him. The breach made by
his eccentricities widened until 1717, when, on
petition of the council, he was removed. One of
William Penn's letters says: “His grandfather, Sir
Vincent Gookin, had been an early great planter in
Ireland in Kings James I. and Charles I. days.”
GOOKIN, Daniel, soldier, b. in Kent, England,
about 1612; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 19 March,
1687. He came with his father to Virginia in
1621. During the Indian massacre of 1622, Gookin,
with thirty-five men, held his plantation, at
what is now Newport News, against the savages.
In May, 1644, in consequence of his doctrinal
sympathies with the Puritans, he removed to
Cambridge, Mass., where he was soon afterward
appointed a captain of militia and a member of the
house of deputies. In 1651 he was speaker of the
house, and in 1652 elected a magistrate. In 1656
he was appointed by legislative enactment
superintendent of all the Indians who acknowledged
the government of Massachusetts, an office which
he retained until his death, although he became
unpopular because of the protection which, as a
magistrate, he extended to the Indians. He zealously
co-operated with John Eliot in his efforts
for their spiritual instruction. King Philip's war
led to the passage of several measures against the
Natick and other Indians, who had submitted to
the English. Gookin was the only magistrate who
joined Eliot in opposing these measures, and
consequently subjected himself to reproaches from
his fellow-magistrates, and insult in the public
streets. He visited England in 1656, and was
authorized by Cromwell to invite the people of
New England to colonize Jamaica, then recently
conquered from Spain. He went to England
again in the following year, returning in 1660 in
the same ship with the fugitive regicides, Goffe
and Whalley, whom he aided in protecting. He
was one of the licensers of the Cambridge printing-press
in 1662. In 1681 he was made major-general
of the colony. He took an active part on the side
of the people against the measures which terminated
in the withdrawal of the colonial charter in
1686. He died so poor that John Eliot solicited
from Robert Boyle a gift of £10 for his widow.
His “Historical Collections of the Indians of
Massachusetts,” written in 1674, was published by the
Massachusetts historical society in 1792. He was
also author of a “History of New England,” never
published, the fate of which is unknown. — His
grandson, Nathaniel, clergyman, b. in 1688; d. in
1734, was graduated at Harvard in 1703, and
ordained in 1710. He published three sermons on
the occasion of the earthquake in October, 1727;
to which were added an account of the earthquake,
and of some remarkable thunder-storms.
