Newspapers / Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / Aug. 15, 1965, edition 1 / Page 6
Part of Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
££» \ m Passenger Cars: Safer, Longer-Wearing Tires THESE AUTOMOBILES symbolize the 76 million vehicles on our streets and highways and the ever-increasing market they represent. In 1900 auto mobile registrations totaled 8,000 in the United States. From that year when the company was founded to the present, the company has successfully kept pace with the needs of the growing numbers of owners of automobiles and other vehicles. IM STANDARD EQUIPMENT on 1961 passenger cars was the new De Luxe Champion tire with "all action" tread, designed to give up to 36 per cent more mileage than previous original equipment tires. Announced in 1960, the tire gave the average motoring family extra tire mileage in a year equivalent to a cross-country trip. Beginning in 1908 with a- small chemical laboratory in the corner of the first plant, the company has invested many millions of dollars in laboratories and testing facil ities. Today’s motorists are driving on safe, long-wearing tires because of the work of Firestone technical people who originate the designs and compounds for tires, control the methods by which they are manufactured, and test materials and products before, during and after service. Harvey S. Firestone founded the company in 1900 in Akron, Ohio, to sell solid rubber buggy tires made by other firms. That year he intro duced the first solid rubber side- wire tire. Not satisfied with the quality of the tires available to sell, Mr. Firestone started his own factory in 1903 with 12 employees to make buggy tires, and later horseshoe pads. * * =K SINCE THEN there has been a steady stream of new Firestone tire developments, constant expan sion of facilities and entry into many new fields. Today you can buy new Firestone tires nearly everywhere in the free world. Between 1900 and 1905 auto reg istrations rose from 8,000 to 77,000 in the United States and Canadians were beginning to register motor vehicles. The first mass production had been started by Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford was aban doning expensive touring cars for low-priced runabouts. The automo bile was no longer a luxury. The autos required tires with more resiliency and wider treads than the narrow solid tires. The first pneumatics used were single tube bicycle tires, but tires with inner tubes were soon adopted, the highly inflated tube providing a sturdy yet elastic body of com pressed air to sustain the outer casing and cushion shocks. The early tubed pneumatics, clinchers, were inferior. Motorists endured punctures, blowouts and exasper ating tire changes. Mr. Firestone put his staff to work to remove the clincher prin ciple. A wire cable was inserted in the bead, and the tire was clamped to the wheel by bolted rim flanges, the clincher pinching hooks being eliminated. The result was the first mechanically fastened straight-side tire, developed in 1904. OTHER HIGHLIGHTS of the company’s early history in tires were the introduction of the univer sal rim to accommodate either the straight-side or the clincher tire, development of the first commer cial demountable rim, and intro duction of the first angular non-skid tire tread. The first experiments in the use of cord fabric for automobile tires as a replacement for square-woven fabric were conducted by the com pany in 1915. Firestone perfected a method of insulating tire cords against internal heat by its now famous “Gum - Dipping” process, developed the industry’s first low pressure balloon tire. Through the years, the company has resisted invalid patent monopo lies by winning patent suits involv ing demountable rims; tire building machinery; machinery for building tires by the flat-band process, a method of applying cord fabric to a drum in endless bands; and lastly, tubeless tires. In 1959 Firestone observed its 50th anniversary in auto racing, and received a special commemo rative plaque from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where Firestone tires were on the winning car in the first race in 1909. In 1911 the first 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held there, with the winner on Firestone tires. On this great prov ing ground for tires. Firestone tires were on the winning car in 1965 for the 42nd consecutive time. (The race was not held during World War I and World War II years.) Firestone has used this great speed and endurance proving ground for testing developments later applied to passenger car and other tires. The balloon tire was used in the 1925 race when Peter De Paolo went 500 miles at an average speed of 101.13 miles per hour, the first driver to break the 100-mile-an- hour mark. Mr. Firestone’s last great thrill of accomplishment at Indianapolis before his death on February 7, 1938, was in the 1937 race when Wilbur Shaw set a new record of 113.580 miles per hour and was lavish in his praise of Firestone tires and “the man who builds them.” Floyd Roberts in 1938 continued the trend toward higher speed tires when he went the route at Indian apolis at an average speed of 117.2 miles per hour. An innova tion in the 1938 tire was the use of tread stock on the two outside plies to give the tire more strength. This and other changes in the Firestone Champion racing tire were important factors in the de velopment of high-speed tires for World War II aircraft. FIRESTONE was the first com pany to make tires of rayon cord, in 1933. In search of cord materials other than cotton, Firestone lab oratories conducted research in the use of synthetic silk, rayon and other cellulose products in the 1920’s. Tests continued during the early Thirties and in 1933 Firestone built airplane tires with rayon cord which were tested at Wright Field in 1934. In October, 1934, satisfac tory rayon cord was received from a supplier and successfully built into heavy duty truck tires. The first production tires of ray on cord were made in February, 1937, and in 1938 Firestone intro duced the Firestone Imperial passenger car tire with rayon gum- dipped cord fabric, a ply material of the highest known degree of strength and flexibility, giving min imum internal heat. Just prior to the war, Firestone Steel Products Company developed a wide rim wheel that reduced the unsprung weight of race cars by 60 pounds. This weight reduction increased the speed potential of cars. America’s motorists were in troduced to the rim in 1940 after. ■thousands of successful test miles had been run both in the Memorial Day race and on a special test program. The rim provided two important safety features, increased traction and greater stability in turns. In 1941, rubber companies decided to put their products on the line in a special test on the nation’s first superhighway, the Pennsyl vania Turnpike. A series of tire tests was conducted, all in excess of 100 miles per hour. The com pany’s speedway research paid off when at the conclusion of the tests it was revealed that the Firestone product was the only tire to com plete the series of tests satis factorily. * * * AT THE OUTBREAK of World War II, industrial mobilization was a critical problem. To speed the pro duction of high-speed fighter plane tires, Firestone’s race tire formula was turned over to the govern ment. Race construction was then ordered for all aircraft tires. Synthetic rubber became a by product of the war. To offset ad verse publicity which circulated when the new rubber first came on the market. Firestone, with the co operation of the Federal Govern ment and the American Automobile Association, conducted a series of high-speed tests on the Indian apolis track. The track, closed for the duration, was circled 200 times by Wilbur Shaw at an average speed of more than 100 miles per hour. The 500-mile durability ru’i proved the quality of synthetic rubber and paved the way for the dozens of synthetics which are used in today’s tires. Synthetic rubber first was used in racing tires in 1946 for the first postwar Memorial Day 500-mile race. SIMULTANEOUSLY with the work of reconversion after World War II, research and development programs were enlarged and inten sified. This was especially true in the field of developing a tubeless tire, a program initiated during the war as a means of conserving rubber. The company was succesful in developing a tubeless tire that was blowout-safe and puncture-proof- For several years Firestone devel opment engineers worked on this project, and in January, 1951, the company announced that it producing this tire, since then even more improved and called the mium Quality,” a premium-priced tire. While this first of Firestone s now complete line of tubeless p^®' senger car and truck tires being developed, the compai^^ started a second program to de velop a tubeless tire that could be sold at a non-premium price, or a the price of the conventional tire and tube. (Continued) f?rm BARNEY OLDFIELD, one of the earliest American speed drivers, called Firestone tires his "only life insurance." 6
Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 15, 1965, edition 1
6
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75