PAGE FOUR MARCH 10,1954 Win Consolation Prize m FOLLOWING one of the exciting basketball games in industrial competition here, Co-Captains Gladys Hamrick, left, and Llew Adams manage a smile as they hold the Runner-up Trophy which their team picked up in the Gastonia Industrial Basketball Tournament. They lost the final tourney game to Shelby in a 63-61 overtime thriller and thus barely missed getting the Championship Trophy. ^^Flaming Five^ Bowlers WINDING up a perfect season (24-0 win-loss record), the Spinning 1st shift duckpin bowlers, above, recently annexed the league playoff championship in plant-wide competition. The players, who call themselves the “Flaming Five,” are, left to right, Joker Jolly, Lewis Clark, Mull Ramsey, Dock Reynolds, and Moses Player. All-round Athletes LITTLE League Basketballers—These lads are doing their share to make Firestone Textiles a contender (and often a winner) in every Little League sport offered in Gastonia. Many of the faces seen here are as familiar on the diamond, bowling alleys, etc., as they are on the basketball playing floor where they presently hold second place in league competition. In the front row, left to right, are: Roger Lunsford, Jerry Westbrooks, Kenny Bolick, Sammy Honey cutt, David Jacobs, Ronnie Lovingood, and Billy Ledford. Second row: Robert Ramsey, Steve Buchanan, Jack York, Bobbie Tate, Roland Conrad, Jr., Steve Smith, and Adrian Summey. Called “Dura-Trac”. . . . Steel Wire Now Used In Truck Tire Retreads A new retreading process for 9 molding heavy-duty steel wire in to the tread contact area of truck tires has been perfected by The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, according to an announcement by J. W. Hodgson, Manager, Treading and Repair Sales. Hailed as one of the greatest ad vancements in retreading history, the wire-equipped new treads, call ed “Dura-Trac,” will provide great er traction and improved protec tion against road failure. The Dura-Trac wire, having a heavy gauge steel alloy base and designed in a zigzag pattern, may be used in any rib design truck tire without altering or changing the design in any way. In the retreading process, the wire is looped into the matrix rib and butted. The tire is then placed in the mold and cured in the nor mal manner. The tread rubber, when heat and pressure are applied in the mold, flows around the wire and “sets” it permanently into the tread stock. Increased traction is accomplish ed by the hundreds of steel grip ping points per rib foot of tread. While the tire is rolling free, the tread rib is relaxed and the wire points do not contact the surface of the road. When brakes are ap plied on the truck or when the vehicle is accelerating or skidding, the tread rubber stretches and the steel wire claws reach out and bite into the road surface. piRESTO^^E In The News (Editor’s Note: In this column, “Firestone in the News,” the Fire stone News will quote news and comments about Firestone, its people and its products, as they appeared in the national magazines and newspapers.) In the “Akron Beacon Journal” for December 13, 1953, Joseph E. Kuebler, Business and Industrial Editor, quoted the president of the Packard Company as stating that tubeless tires will be offered as optional equipment on new cars in 1954. One of the top lines of Packard will be equipped with this premium white wall casing if the customer wishes, and at the start only Firestone’s tubeless product will be available. “Once a product gets on the optional list,” he said, “there is a good chance that eventually it will become regular equipment. “Packard’s move is highly sig nificant to the tire industry,” wrote Mr. Kuebler. “The belief right a- long has been that if one car maker broke the ice and made the tubeless tire available as optional equip ment, it wouldn’t be long before its competitors would do likewise.” From an article, “What’s New in Rubber?” in a recent issue of “Reader’s Digest”: AIR-BELLOWS rubber springs, developed by Firestone, replace metal springs in a new General Motors bus, producing an unbe lievably soft, smooth ride. Air pressure is maintained from the bus’s compressed-air brake sys tem. Because air increases its re sistance the more it is compressed, there is no limit to the spring’s ability to absorb loads and jolts; it never “hits bottom.” Tests by GM engineers indicate that the new sjpring, made of super-tough syn thetic rubber reinforced with ny lon tire fabric, will last the life of the bus. NEWLY retreaded “Dura-Trac” wire truck tire being removed from mold. The presence of the heavy steel wire embedded in the tread is easily seen. The Dura-Trac wire retreads, exclusive develop ment of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, provide increased traction and added protection against road failures. Four Important Freedoms FREEDOM to W