These days it is hard to believe that anyone could make fundamental chemical discoveries in their shed. But in the late nineteenth century, the beginning of the golden age of chemical engineering, a growing understanding of chemistry coincided with entrepreneurial opportunities for making money out of the invention of new materials. It was also easy and cheap to get hold of chemicals, sales of which were mostly unregulated. Many inventors were operating from their homes—and, in the case of Goodyear, from debtors’ prison. Once his rubber proved itself, the demand for the protection, comfort,
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