American chemist and engineer generally credited to have developed vulcanised rubber though there are reports of it being in existence for centuries. On 15 June 1844, Goodyear received a US patent (# 3633) for perfecting the process of vulcanisation of rubber, though Thomas Hancock had a patent pending for the same process 8 weeks before.
Vulcanised rubber had been used by Mesoamericans as far back as 1600 BC.
