OCTOBER, 1957
PAGE 7
SERVICE MILESTONES
Eight Join 20-Year Roster;
Others Mark Anniversaries
There were a number of employees here who went on
their jobs for the first time in September of 1937. This year,
as September rolled around, seven men and one woman of
that group were still at their tasks on the production lines.
They are: Lewis P. Reel, Frank W. McDonald, John
Wilton Herring and Carl B. Rape of Carding; John W.
Freeman of Spinning; Henry Sparrow of the Shop; and John
W. Hartgrove and Lelia L. Rape of Quality Control.
To add to their pride of long
time employment, each has been
presented with a lapel pin and a
gold watch—tokens of the Com
pany’s appreciation and recog
nition for their devoted service.
While the 20-year roster was
increased to 273 in September,
there were 24 others who re
ceived service pins for 15, 10 and
5-year periods of employment.
That list includes—
Fifleen Years
Phoebe M. Pearson, Shop;
Ralph W. Costner and Joseph M.
Haney, Spinning; James G. Dob
bins, Rayon Weaving; James Me.
Blaine, George W. Honeycutt
and Jack L. Kennedy, Cotton
Weaving.
Catherine Fletcher and Leslie
H. Hovis, Rayon Twisting; Wil
liam G. Smith, Quality Control;
Minnie Kilby, Industrial Rela
tions.
Ten Years
Martha L. Kendrick, Main Of
fice; Hildred McCurry, Mildred
Allen Smith and Evelyn M.
Eaker, Spooling; Bertha Ellis,
Rayon Weaving; Kelly Starnes,
SYC Weaving; George M. Chalk,
Shop; Clyde D. Rainey and
Charles Adams, Warehouse;
Louella I. Queen and Grady H.
Taylor, Quality Control.
Five Years
James T. Wright, SYC Weav
ing; Katie M. Shields, Winding.
Nylon Treating Unit Here
Has Akron ‘Big Brother’
ACMI Official Cites Future
Of Opportunity In Textiles
The A.merican textile industry
can look with pride to its color
ful heritage, and to its future
of abounding opportunities. So
declared Halbert M. Jones, First
Vice President of the American
Cotton Manufacturers Institute,
in a talk before a group of tex
tile communicators in Charlotte
September 18.
Mr. Jones addressed some 65
editors and others concerned
with textile plant publications in
the Southeastern states, at the
opening session of a workshop
at Hotel Charlotte. The day-long
meeting, sponsored by the
ACMI, attempted to acquaint
the sponsoring organization with
the textile plant publication as
a means of “telling the textile
story” and to improve public re
lations and publicity programs
in the industry.
In introductory remarks to a
series of panel discussions, Mr.
Jones said that leading textilists
of the country share the convic
tion that the immediate years
ahead will be the most prosper
ous ‘the industry has known un
der peacetime conditions.
“Growth in research and de
velopment has enabled better
methods of production and cost-
cutting,” he pointed out.
He noted that opportunities in
textiles are greater today than
ever. This is due largely, he ex
plained, to the fact that many of
the “glamour” fields of the
scientific age have become over
crowded with skilled technicians
and other workers—leaving tex
tiles open to a wealth of demand
for trained personnel.
Marjorie Falls—
News Reporter
Marjorie Falls is one of four
persons reporting on happenings
in the Warehouse and Cotton
Office.
Outside her duties in the Cot
ton Office, Marjorie finds time
to keep up her interest in home-
making. She is an avid horse
back riding fan. Her horse, Jim,
is a five-gated animal.
Marjorie lives with her hus
band, Ralph Falls, and their six-
month-old son, Ralph, Jr., at
their home on Route 2, Clover,
S. C.
Members of the Falls family
attend Holy Trinity Lutheran
Church.
Marjorie, a graduate of Dallas
High School, came to Firestone
during the past summer, from a
job as office secretary and re
ceptionist for a Gastonia phy
sician.
ARRIVALS...
Danny Keith Anderson ar
rived September 9 at Gaston
Memorial Hospital. His parents
are Willard Anderson, Carding;
and Mrs. Anderson.
The new son of Wylie Carver,
yarn weigher, and Mrs. Carver,
arrived in late summer at Gas
ton Memorial Hospital.
His Job On The Good Earth
Leaves Touches Of Beauty
☆ ☆ ☆
Veteran employee Frank Brown of the grounds
maintenance service is a fortunate man. For his
job is one of the most meaningful and rewarding
to be found in and around the plant. So much so,
that of all the things that might be recorded of
his experiences, the most fitting tribute would
be—
In life he plucked a weed and nurtured a rose.
For more than 20 years, Frank has been faith
fully at the task of cultivating the shrubs and
flowers and helping to keep the grounds around
the mill at their best appearance.
Spring, summer and fall are his busiest sea
sons, but there is still much to be done during the
winter months. Because his is the year-round
program of cultivating, fertilizing, mulching,
trimming and pruning, and sowing grass seed.
The grounds maintenance artist recalls that
his first job at Firestone came unsolicited, when
Bill Panther, now retired, asked him on the
street if he’d like to have a job. Frank’s first as
signment was rolling wheelbarrow loads of mixed
concrete, to pour the first sidewalks in the mill
village.
After that, he helped keep in repair the Com
pany-owned houses and grounds. It was on that
job that he began setting shrubbery, planting
flowers and nurturing them. When the village
houses were sold to employees, he turned his
full attention to the grounds around the plant.
At his 918 North Boyce street home, Frank
leaves the artistic touches to his wife, while in
his spare time he keeps alive his interest in
hunting and fishing.
The largest nylon heat-treat
ing unit in the world has been
installed at the headquarter's
plant of the Company in Akron,
Ohio. Before completion of the
new unit. Firestone processed
most of its nylon cord at the
Gastonia plant, where a similar
safety-tension, gum-dipping unit
for synthetic fabrics has been
in operation since 1955.
The units at Gastonia and
Akron are designed to give ny
lon cord special characteristics
for the production of extra high
quality tires. The gum-dipping
process enables the Company to
make tires that meet Firestone’s
high standards of quality, J. E.
Trainer, executive vice presi
dent, pointed out.
“Installation of the Akron unit
is part of an over-all program to
maintain extra high quality
standards and constantly to im
prove those standards,” Mr.
Trainer said.
“This new electronically-con
trolled cord tensioning and gum-
dipping unit enables us to turn
out more special treated gum-
dipped nylon to make tires that
are safer, stronger and longer-
lasting.”
MORE THAN 90 feet tall, the
Akron unit contains 20 fans, 16
heaters and 14 drive motors.
Standard 55-inch widths of
fabric, containing as many as
2,000 cords, pass through the
unit at the rate of 60 yards a
minute. As the cords travel
through the machine they are
impregnated with a chemical
“gum-dipping” solution, then
stretched and tempered in a
bank of powerful water-cooled
tension rolls and high tempera
ture, gas-fired ovens.
The gum-dipping process,
which impregnates the filaments
of the tire cord with chemicals
and liquid rubber, gives firm
adhesion between the plies and
to the tread. The process was
introduced by Firestone in 1920,
when cotton cords were used ex
clusively in tires.
Synthetic fibre cords cannot
be successfully gum-dipped un
less the excess stretch is remov
ed from them. This can be done
only by controlled tension at
precise temperatures.
IN NAVY — Daniel Smith,
former Carding employee, is
stationed at San Francisco,
Calif. The son of Dallas H. Smith
of Carding, he received his basic
training at Great Lakes, 111., and
spent a 19 day leave at home in
Gastonia before reporting for
duty at San Francisco last sum
mer.
Campbells Live
In Spartanburg
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Denver
Campbell are at home in Spar
tanburg, S. C., after their wed
ding at the Gastonia Pisgah AR
Presbyterian Church Septem
ber 14.
Mrs. Campbell is the daughter
of Edgar Sloan Foy, Shop lathe
operator, and Mrs. Foy, tie-in
hand in Twisting. She is a gradu
ate of Ashley High School, Gas
tonia, and Spartanburg General
Hospital School of Nursing.
Bloodmobile
—From Page 2
Mesdames Carl Rape, Rother
Henderson, James Cooper, E. J.
Mechem, G. A. Perry, Charles
Goodwin, Hugh B. Pursley, Jr.,
Charles Ledford, Henry Chas
tain, Ida Byers, Miss Kathleen
Edwards, James Moss and Alvin
Dill.
The 2-gallon, 1-gallon to 1-gal
lon and seven pints, and the
first time donors have been
photographed for this issue of
the plant newspaper. A list of
the other Firestone employees
who came to donate blood in
cludes:
Stella Cothern, Bobby Lee
Jones, Jack Faile, Edgar Foy,
Wilbur Posey, Wade Stiles,
Hansford Wilkes, George Dow,
Gene Carson, Frank Ledford,
J. D. Brewer, Joe Givens, Luther
Foy, David Nichols, Sam Guf
fey, J. B. Mitchell.
Horace Robinson, Crafton
Carpenter, John Fletcher, Bobby
Purkey, Isaac Moss, Milligan
Ramsey, Humbert Hardin,
Myrtle Bradley, Martha Kend
rick, Virginia Bradley, Arthur
Bradley, Zeke Mitchem, James
Kilby, Pansy Falls, Jerry Bar
ton, Eula Wilson, R. L. Shannon,
James Moss.
Robert Hager, Alvin Riley, L.
B. McAbee, Willie Haney, Deuel
Redding, Mary Ramsey, John
Warren, S. F. Bolding, Horace
Hughes, Nellie Stowe, Oscar
Hart, J. C. Barnes, W. O. Steph
enson, Dorothy Perry, Ollie
Liles, Loyd Smith, Odell Thom
as, Hurley Brooks, Carl Beam,
Neil Broadway, Pauline Stroup,
Willie Goble, Mattie Giles, Vesta
Lewis, Lucille Baker, Ray Eng
land, John Fender.
C. M. Ferguson, Sr., Ruby
Riley, Ransom Piercy, Ralph
Dalton, Tracy Whitener, Edward
Taylor, Dan Moss, Winfred Red
ding, Howard McCarter, Irving
Bull, George Hager, Cramer
Little, Charles Hamrick, Lewis
Clark, Thomas Gibson, E. P. Mc-
Arver, Charles McArver, B. T.
Hanna.
James M. Smith, Thurman
Davis, Margaret Rhyne, Claude
Seism, Jr., Mabel Mantooth,
Louise Duncan, Louise Dill,
Lewis Connor, Ethelda Robin
son, Pearl Ttate, Violet Painter,
Jessie Glover, Robert Cunning
ham, Ralph Deal, Floyd Whita
ker, Mildred Kelton, Robbie
Miller, Paul Gilbert, Virginia
Thomas, William Kilpatrick,
Grady Church, Virginia Brad
ley, Dorothy Couick, Mabel
Thomas, Claude Stewart.