Newspapers / Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.) / Jan. 1, 1982, edition 1 / Page 2
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THE NEW YEAR ‘More than anything else’ • • Progress has been made this past year. We must make further im provements during 1982. I ask that we all dedicate ourselves to improved product quality in this new year. Improvement in the quality of our product will mean more to our future than anything else. Our supplying the kind of product our customers want and expect, goes a long way toward securing our steady operations and jobs. P.R. Williams Factory Manager • Gastonia msx years GASTONIA Mason M. Shannon December 1981 Section Supervisor 35 Years 15 Years TC Twisting Christine Davis Accounts Payable Loom Knotter Kathleen Bland Senior Accounts-Payable Bessie Hardin Clerk Respooler Operatqr Quality Control Isaac Hutchins Edna P. Owensby Frame Mechanic Inspector 20 Years (in TC Twisting) TC Twisting TC Twisting Jane B. Dobbins James R. McMillan Section Supervisor Supervisor Jack H. Hardin Lorene P. Rogers Weaver Cleaner TC Weaving James Williams Fabric Baler 10 Years Quality Control Carroll M. Cloer Department Manager 5 Years Payroll Ethel Jenkins Payroll Clerk TC Twisting Millie G. Aiken Twister Cleaner Ernest A, Gcirdin Bean & Yarn Handler Died • Eula Bradley (Mrs. Clay ton) Wilson, 71, Dec. 13. She re tired in 1974 as supervisor of factory payroll, Gastonia. Her Firestone work record of 39 years reached back to the company's beginning days in Gastonia and transition of plant property ownership/operation in 1935. Mrs. Wilson worked for Loray Converting to radials • • Firestone has a 6234-million corporate-wide capital program for fiscal 1982. Of this amount, $91 million will be invested in the company’s North American Tire operations — most of it going toward conversion of bias-ply capacity to radial production in plants at Albany, Ga., and Oklahoma City, Okla. These projects will be in process over the next few years, and when done, will essentially complete Fire stone’s conversion to production of radials. The company’s capital expenditures for fiscal ’81 (ended Oct. 31) was a little less than $200 million. The North American Tire operations '82 capital spending is going to — •Improve Firestone’s competitive position in do mestic and international tire markets. •Cut costs and increase efficiency in the company’s worldwide operations. Firestone Fibers & Textiles Company division oper ates under the North American Tire group. Mills and the successor com pany, Manville-Jenckes, stayed on when Firestone begEui operating the plant in May 1935. She was the last of the “transition people” to retire. Among survivors are her hus band, Clayton Wilson, and a sis ter, Myrtle Collette, a Firestone (Accounting) retiree. North Carolina In January • Central Carolina Boat Show, Greensboro (Exhibit Building). 28-31: Antiques Show & Sale, Wilmington (Hilton ball room), 29-31. ‘Man of the Year’ Wire from Danville for tires A building project to add pro duction space to the Firestone Danville (Ky.) Wire & Steel plant was begun in late 1981. It was seven years ago that pilot pro duction of steel for tire reinforce ment began at Danville. It was the first plant to be announced in the U.S. tire industry. In 1973, Firestone/Gastonia was the major weaving operation for the company's steel fabric for tires. Later, the Bowling Green (Ky.) plant wove wire for a while. Production at both Gastonia and Bowling Green was discontinued in the mid-1970s, when calendering of wire for radials took the place of weaving steel. Today, synthetic fabrics pro duced in Firestone Fibers & Tex tiles plants are combined with the steel, such as produced at Dan ville, in building steel-belted radial tires. Kentucky • January events: Fleamarkets at Louisville (fair grounds), 29-30: Lexington (Lex ington Center), 22-24. JACK FAILE "This would not have been possible except for the love and devotion you have for people and your con stant desire to make life today better than yester day. . said James B. Call, commending Jack W. Faile for having received The Salvation Army “Terri torial Man of the Year Award" for 1981. The twister bobbin changer with 38 years service at Firestone/Gastonia has been a soldier of the Gas tonia Corps more than 18 years. He was selected from 51 candidates to represent the NC-SC division and was chosen for the Southern Territory Award from a group of 11 divisional candidates. COMMISSIONER A. R. Pitcher, Commander of the Southern Territory, came from Atlanta in December to present the award and plaque. In a letter to Mr. Call at Firestone, Divisional Com mander Maj. David Holz wrote: “We thought you would be interested in having this information (on Faile and the award) concerning one of your valuable employees." Jack takes a leading role in the work of the Gastonia SA Corps. As president of the Men's Fellowship Club, he is involved in many people-helping projects. Through the years he has been a leader in Boy Scouts, and a teacher in Sunday School. For the past 23 years, he has taken a week vacation from Firestone to help in the local Corp's Christmas program — planning, directing and working in dis tribution of toys and food for needy persons. Jack, his wife, Mary, and daughters Becky and Judy live on Rt. 2. Dallas. A son, Eddie, is a Salvation Army officer in San Antonio, Texas. Jack's work at Firestone is part of the Faile family story at the mill. His brother, Doyle L. Faile (tape- bonder in TC Twisting), has worked at Firestone since 1947. A sister, Edith Bryson (cleaner in TC Twisting), has been here more than 5 years. Their mother, Mrs. Bessie Faile, retired from the old Spinning De partment in 1964. World’s first engineered fiber copied the silkworm Fibers existing in natural form: Flax, wool, straw, bark, grasses, cotton, silk, and rushes. From ancient times these were the main stuff of textiles. Some of these natural ma terials — notably silk, cotton and wool — are still major fibers in world use. A revolutionary development in the long story of textiles came in the late 1800s, when a process for making “artificial silk" was de veloped in France. Watching the silkworm at work led some scientists and experiment ers to copy the basic principle of the natural process. So, they came up with a “miracle mix" that led to a “wonder cloth" and cill sorts of other products. COPYING the silkworm at work was possible with the spinneret, basic mechcinical means of form ing all fibers chemically-produced. The first “eirtificial silk" was made in France in 1891. Count Hilare De Chardonnet led research that pro duced it. The material was derived from cellulose, a carbohydrate which is the chief component of the cell walls of plants. The first raw form- was ground-up hemlock pine and DeChardonnet in France led in “copying the silkworm.” spruce, to which was added some cotton. The mix was cooked in chemicals until it had the look and consistency of honey or syrup. It was carried in pipes and forced out through minute holes in metal thimble-like cups called spinnerets. The developers noticed that the air did not quick-dry the thin fibers, as it does when the worm spins silk. Further experiments led to a chemical bath that successfully hardened the fibers. Still, it took years more to develop ways to pro duce quality fiber and yarn in imitation of the silkworm. On December 19, 1910, the American Viscose Company of Marcus Hook, Pa., started com mercial production of "artificial silk." Fourteen years later, the industry coined the name Rayon for the product. The world’s first engineered fiber is produced from regenerated cell ulose that is almost completely free of Impurities. The raw material is chemically converted to rayon, just as chemicals produce all the syn thetic fibers that came later. VISCOSE and Cuprammonium, the main types of rayon, differ in the way the cellulose is processed and regenerated. But their proper ties are much alike. Cuprammonium is well suited for fine denier to go into apparel and other products: vis cose may be larger diameter. Rayon used for tire reinforcement is produced from very high-purity cellulose sheets and is aged some what longer than rayon for other products. This gives longer molecu lar chains in the fiber's construction. After it’s spun, tire cord-rayon is drawn slightly to add strength, so rayon for industrial purposes — for example: Tires, hoses, and V-belts — are engineered to higher strength than are fibers for apparel. Rayon began talking over from cotton as tire reinforcement in the mid-1930s, and was the only ‘engineered’ fiber until nylon came into general use in the late 1940s. Firestone first used rayon cord in tire construction in 1933. Its volume in the total tire market today is quite small, compared with Firestone used rayon cord in tire construction for the first time in 1933. The spinneret — one of textiles’ greatest advances, along with the spinning jenny, power loom and others. Spinneret makes possible all production of ‘m£m’-made and synthetic fibers. the leading true synthetics such as nylon and polyester. The division Gastonia head quarters is Firestone Fibers & Tex tile Company's only plant processing rayon today. Normal output of total production is about 2 percent pro cessed into tire-cord fabric.
Firestone News (Gastonia, N.C.)
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Jan. 1, 1982, edition 1
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