Nathaniel Hayward

Nathaniel Manley Hayward (January 19, 1808 – July 18, 1865) was a US businessman and inventor best known for developing the process of vulcanization and for his collaboration with Charles Goodyear Hayward met Goodyear in 1837 and shared with him the discovery he had made, almost accidentally, while working at a rubber factory in Roxbury, Connecticut. He bought some mills in Stoneham, Massachusetts, from Elisha S. Converse, which later became a small settlement called Haywardville.

Hayward's former home in Colchester, Connecticut, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.