SEYMOUR — The story of Connecticut’s Charles Goodyear and his long quest to invent commercially useful rubber will be the focus of a Seymour Historical Society program on Sunday, May 18, at 2 pm.

Tires, garden hoses, shoe soles, industrial belts, pencil erasers and more. These days, we take rubber products for granted. But well into the 19th Century, rubber was considered too unstable for most commercial uses because it decomposed easily and melted at high temperatures.

In this program, guest speaker and researcher John Cilio will describe how Charles Goodyear rose from a clerk in his father’s Naugatuck hardware store to become a self-taught chemist who eventually discovered the secret to stabilizing rubber — a process called vulcanization.

Along the way, Goodyear dealt with poverty, failed experiments, and patent issues — but his eventual success helped launch the industrial revolution of the 1800s and transform Naugatuck into an important industrial center. Even today, the city’s main street is called Rubber Avenue.

Newtown's connection with the rubber industry also began nearly 200 years ago. Goodyear was born in New Haven; his sister married a Sandy Hook resident. Goodyear spent many years experimenting with rubber in his brother-in-law's factory in the Glen — the former Fabric Fire Hose Company on Glen Road — and during the 1850s, the Goodyear Rubber Company developed the process for the vulcanization (treating crude or synthetic rubber or similar plastic material chemically to give it useful properties as elasticity, strength and stability) of rubber at this site.

A $5 donation is requested per person for the Seymour Historical Society program. The program is free for SHS members.

The historical society is located at 59 West Street, near Trinity Episcopal Church. Doors will open at 1 pm for those who wish to view the museum’s exhibits.

For more information, call 203-888-7471, visit SeymourHistoricalSociety.org, or email President@SeymourHistoricalSociety.org.