august 25, 1955 ^$10110 PAGE THREE
AERIAL VIEW OF CITY—In the southwest corner of Tennessee is the FIRESTONE IN MEMPHIS—The Memphis plant is the largest unit manu-
city of Memphis situated on high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. facturing tires and tubes in the world-wide Firestone organization.
Memphis
i Is Site Of Firestone Plant
By Nick Pinter, Editor, Firestone Southerner
Memphis-on-the-Mississlppi is the site of the
Company’s plant in Tennessee. One of the largest
and most modern tire and tube manufacturing plants
in the world, this plant is the largest unit manufac
turing tires and tubes in the Firestone organization.
The selection of Memphis, Tenn, for a new Fire
stone plant in 1935 may be attributed to the city’s
central location in the Southwest market. Late in
1936, Raymond C. Firestone went to Memphis to
serve as President and General Manager of the new
plant and on January 18, 1937, the first tire was
manufactured.
Mr. Firestone directed the operations at the
plant until March, 1949, when he returned to Akron
as Vice-President and is now Executive Pice-Presi-
dent of the parent organization.
The original plant had a floor space of approxi
mately 450,000 square feet. Since then a succession
of expansion programs has more than tripled the
size of the plant.
Employment, too, has increased until today
3,700 men and women employees make it the largest
industry in Memphis and one of the largest in
Tennessee.
TIRE PRODUCTION facilities include equip
ment for hundreds of different sizes of trucks,
tractor, farm implement, earthmover, military and
passenger tires and tubes ranging in size from
4.00-15 to 18.00-25. The smallest tire produced
weighs 11 pounds; the largest weighs 775 pounds.
During World War II, manufacture of war pro
ducts at the plant required the employment of many
additional men and women, with enrollment reaching
a peak of 6,500 in 1943. Products being made were
machine gun belt links, aircraft fuel cells, gas masks,
inflatable rafts and boats, and Navy raincoats, in
addition to millions of tires and tubes for military
vehicles.
THE MEMPHIS tire plant has an outstanding
record of safe operation and now holds the world
%
1
GIANT WAFFLE IRON—A Memphis
employee removes a tire from one of the
giant molds which cure and vulcanize all
types of tires.
t"
RUBBER BARREL—A green or uncured tire resembles a
barrel until huge hydraulic presses force it into the shape of a
tire.
COTTON CARNIVAL—The Memphis
Cotton Carnival is held in May. One of the
parade floats symbolizes the gayety of the
festival.
safety record for the entire rubber industry. The
record was established in January, 1954, when the
plant completed 7,721,421 consecutive man-hours of
work without a lost-time accident.
In 1949 the plant received recognition by setting
a world record among tire plants. Its contributions
to company-wide safety activities have helped make
Firestone the only company in the rubber industry to
receive the National Safety Council’s Award of
Honor eight times in the last ten years.
Approximate annual payments for wages, sala
ries, employee benefits and other items for employees
total $22,500,000. In iiddition the plant purchases
annually in Memphis other services and materials
valued at approximately $2,000,000.
On an average day, 20 freight cars and 33 trucks
move out of the plant loaded with finished products
for customers.
Memphis is described as a city of business,
culture and hospitality. A thriving city with a popu
lation of 396,000, Memphis is the world’s largest
hardwood lumber market with hundreds of square
miles of hardwood forest in the area.
Nearly one-fifth of the nation’s cotton crop is
grown in the territory and nearly one-third of the
U. S. crop is marketed in Memphis. In the past 20
years a diversified argriculture has come to the
Mid-South.
ONE OF THE industrial centers of the nation
the city has more than 800 manufacturing plants.
It is a city of wide streets, 48 parks, art and
natural history museums, 22 hospitals and nine col
leges and universities.
But Memphis is more than buildings, homes,
businesses and streets. Twice it has been the “Na
tion’s Safest City.” It has also won national awards
for its health and welfare work and for its noise
abatement campaigns. For three years it was pro
claimed the “Nation’s Cleanest City” in competition
with 3,000 other American cities.
This, then, is Memphis, an industrial city with
civic pride and many cultui'al advantages.
THE HARBOR—Project provides the
city with a deep, still-water harbor. When
completed it will afford 9,000 acres of in
dustrial plant sites.