With the idea of extending his invention Mr. Goodyear visited England in 1851, where he found that Thomas Hancock, of the house of Macintosh & Co., had forestalled him, although not the inventor. A peculiar provision of the English patent law, which gives the patent to the first introducer, permitted this. Nothing daunted, however, he organized a magnificent exhibit for the Great International Exhibition held in Crystal Palace at Hyde Park, London, in 1851. This exhibit cost him $30,000, and he called it the Goodyear Vulcanite Court. It comprehended an elegantly constructed suite of open rooms made of hard rubber ornamented with handsome carvings, and furnished with rubber furniture, musical instruments, and globes made of rubber, and it was also carpeted with the same material. For his exhibit he received the “Grand Council Medal,” which was one of the highest testimonials of the exposition. This exhibit was afterwards moved from London to Sydenham, where it was exposed and used as an agency for some years for the sale of rubber goods. [Illustration: FIG. 161.--MACHINE FOR GRINDING AND WASHING CRUDE RUBBER.] Mr. Goodyear had obtained a French patent for his invention, and at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, in 1855, he fitted up at an expense of $50,000 two elegant courts with India rubber furniture, caskets and rich jewelry, and for this exhibit he had conferred upon him by the Emperor Napoleon the “Grand Medal of Honor” and the “Cross of the Legion of Honor.” It was a singular instance of the irony of fate that the decoration of the “Cross of the Legion of Honor” should have been conveyed to him while imprisoned for debt in “Clichy,” the debtors’ prison in Paris. The lofty courage of the man was well illustrated at this time in his reply to his wife’s solicitous inquiries as to how he had spent the night while in prison. He said, “I have been through nearly every form of trial that human flesh is heir to, and I find that _there is nothing in life to fear but sin_.” The declining years of his life were full of sorrow, pain and affliction, and at his death in 1860 his estate was $200,000 in debt. He lived long enough, however, to see his material applied to nearly five hundred uses, giving employment in England, France and Germany to 60,000 persons, and producing in this country alone goods worth $8,000,000 a year. [Illustration: FIG. 162.--MAKING RUBBER CLOTH.] The greatest of all applications of rubber are to be found in the manufacture of boots and shoes. The number of attacks of cold, rheumatism, and death-dealing diseases from wet feet, that have been averted by the use of rubber shoes, can never be estimated, but perhaps it is safe to say that the rubber shoe has done more to conserve the health of the human family than any other single article of apparel.