PAGE 4
Tire$lotie SiJlwi
JANUARY, 1959
WARP AND FILLING
Of The Passing Scene
From Far-East Island: Lesson In Friendship
Bird Rode Freight To Warehouse
When Southern Pacific Rail
way freight car No. 106276 pull
ed alongside the Warehouse in
late 1958, there was an unex
pected passenger aboard. Ware
house manager Fred T. Morrow
noticed that a small sparrow
swooped down from behind the
waybill board on the end of the
car.
Investigation revealed a coarse
nest behind the billboard and
in a heavy corrugation of the
boxcar wall. Since it was off
season for hatching the young,
Warehouse personnel speculated
on why the little rider might
have come along for the trip. It
could have been a male bird
stricken with a wanderlust spirit
for something different in
traveling.
Likely it was an abandoned
nest which the bird had ap
propriated for the journey—be
gun somewhere between the
Golden State and Piedmont
North Carolina, for the car’s
point of origin was Hanford,
California.
Maybe the traveler was Back
Home after a jaunt into the Far
Country, because Warehouse
people noticed that the little
feathered friend wasn’t aboard
when the freight pulled out on
to the main line toward Spar
tanburg.
LA Plant Honored
Firestone’s West Coast plant
has received an award from the
Los Angeles Chamber of Com
merce recognizing “the note
worthy contribution of The Fire
stone Tire & Rubber Company
to a more beautiful community.”
The certificate was issued by the
Chamber of Commerce Com
munity Awards Committee in its
annual “Industry Can Be Beau
tiful” campaign. Awards are
made “to cooperating firms
whose old or new factory build
ings are so well designed and
landscaped as to merit special
recognition.”
The M. J, Nichols family had
a lesson in Far East geography
and a rich experience in in
ternational friendship when
Margaret Chiang of Formosa
(Taiwan) visited recently in the
Nichols home. Miss Chiang is in
her second year as a secretarial
science major at Sacred Heart
Junior College of Belmont. On
a week end during the year-end
holiday season, Margaret came
home with Betty Nichols, a fel
low student at Sacred Heart.
Betty’s father is a second hand
in Spooling. Her mother works
in the Cloth Room.
Margaret came to the United
States early last year. She
traveled by boat from Formosa
to San Francisco. From there
she came by bus to New York
and on to North Carolina in
order to get a good look at the
sights along the way.
In Formosa, Margaret’s father
is an educator, and her mother
is an x-ray technician.
The visiting student pointed
out that her native land is
China’s island province, lying
between the Philippines and Ja
pan, the China Sea and the Pa
cific Ocean. Shaped somewhat
like a sweet potato, the pictur
esque island was discovered by
Dr. Walter F. Tunks, for 23 years the
rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in
Akron, Ohio, wrote this article just a few
days before his death January 14, 1957. He
had retired as rector of St. Paul’s three
years earlier. Dr. Tunks went to Akron in
1930 at the request of the late Harvey S.
Firestone. This article on facing the ad
venture of the New Year is a fitting tribute
to the influence left behind by an outstand
ing religious and civic leader.
Adventuring
Into A New Year
By Walter F. Tunks
As we face the adventure of the New Year,
we are accustomed to speak of the uncertainty
of the future. None of us can tell what a day will
bring forth, and we say to ourselves it is prob
ably a good thing we cannot see too far ahead.
With “Sputniks” flying over our heads, and in
tercontinental missiles threatening to destroy
our civilization, our sense of uncertainty has been
greatly increased.
But it is comforting to reflect that the future
is not altogether veiled in the mists of uncertain
ty. Come what will, some things we can depend
upon with reasurring confidence!
Whatever tomorrow brings, the planets will
still swing in their accustomed orbits. No road we
may travel can be utterly new or lonely with the
same old friendly stars shining down upon it.
The quiet ways of Nature will go on undisturbed
by anything human nature can do. Spring in
tremulous beauty will follow the long night of
winter. Summer will call us to the loveliness of
the out-of-doors. The harvest moon will shine
over well-filled barns and Nature's golden store.
Whatever happens to us tomorrow, there will
be beauty to see, the innocent laughter of chil
dren to keep us young and hopeful, friends to
share our joys and sorrows and make us grateful
for all they have meant to us over the years.
There will always be the blessing of old
familiar tasks. The homes in which we live, the
shops in which we work, the schools in which
we teach, the churches in which we pray are all
treasured parts of our experience, all the more
precious because of the duties they impose. Work
is man’s greatest blessing if it calls forth our
best effort.
Old ideals will still beckon us as we journey
across the New Year, however imperfectly we
achieve them. Few of us are satisfied with our
selves the way we are. Tomorrow always brings
us the hope of being better—doing better! In the
end we will be judged not by what we have
achieved, but by the ideals for which we have
never ceased striving. “A man’s reach should
exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”
Whatever lies ahead of us, God will prove a
never-failing help in the time of trouble. We
can bank on that with comforting certainty. We
never walk alone! No experience will ever find
us without His loving care. Sorrow may come,
but it can enrich us, if in the darkness, we have
found God’s strengthening hand in ours.
No, the future is not all uncertainty. All along
the road of tomorrow the beauty of Nature will
bless us, the companionship of old familiar
friends will steady us, and the strength of a lov
ing God will gird us. With those certainties we
can face the future unafraid.
Portuguese navigators and nam
ed Formosa, because the word
suggests “beautiful land.” In its
13,890 - square - mile area there
live some 10 million people.
Taipei, the capital, has almost a
half million population.
THE LAST stronghold of Na
tionalist China, Formosa is to
day a focal point in the whole
restless Far Eastern situation.
The island, returned to China
from Japan after World War II,
has since then been involved in
the changing fortunes of China.
“My homeland is one of much
beauty — of mountains, dense
forests, rocky coasts and water
falls,” explained Margaret.
“From its forests comes a great
er portion of the world’s supply
of camphor, and there are a
number of other important ag
ricultural and mineral prod^
ucts,” she said.
Manufacturing methods on the
island range from the modern
equipment of flour mills, sugar
refineries and iron works, to
the centuries-old system of lift
ing water to the rice paddies by
a paddle wheel, turned by
human foot power.
Margaret hopes to return to
her native island, where she
plans to put to use her educa
tion acquired in this country.
☆
☆
☆
Miss Chiang {left center) in
the M. J. Nichols home. Mem
bers of the Nichols family are
(from left): Johnnie, Mr. Nichols,
Betty, Mrs. Nichols, and Joe.
Milling Process A Link
In Quality Tire-Making
All along the road of tomorrow there will be
beauty to see. And there will be the joy of old
familiar tasks and of new experiences. Janice
Medlin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Med-
lin, suggests the spirit of adventure for a New
Year. Her mother is employed in Winding at
Firestone.
Preparation of the bales of
rubber, and the compounding
and mixing processes, have been
explained in foregoing articles.
We come next to the milling
process in the building of qual
ity Firestone tires.
As the final batch leaves the
Banbury mixer, it passes
through a series of mills where
it is roUed and converted into
a continuous sheet not more
than one-fourth of an inch thick.
This sheet then passes over a
cooling conveyor and by the
time it reaches the loading sta
tion, temperature of the stock
must be cooled to less than 110
degrees F.
At the loading station, samples
are taken and sent to the mill
room control laboratory. After
a specified aging period it is
ready for the next operation.
As stock is needed in calender
ing, tread making or other de
partments, loads of the specific
compound are transported from
stock storage to the warm-up
mills.
HERE STOCKS from two
more skids of the same com
pound are blended thoroughly.
The blended stock is plasticized
and warmed up by passing
through a series of 84-inch mills
before being ribboned off into
a continuous strip and conveyed
to calendering, tread tubing or
other similar operations.
Samples are again taken at
the warm-up mills and tested by
miU room control. In the warm
up operation, careful attention
must be given to the blending
and plasticity of the warmed-up
stock to guarantee that process
ing operations which follow will
be uniform.
As part of the milling opera
tion the mill man checks for
possible stock contamination and
also watches for any abnormal
buildup in temperature during
the milling process. Excess heat
is the greatest enemy of the
stock.
Lack of uniformity in blend
ing and milling of the stock will
affect the properties of tread or
fabric and can result in scrap
material. Close attention and
care is required to turn out ma
terial that will maintain Fire
stone’s high-quality products.
Students Visit
At Firestone
Seventh - grade pupils from
Yadkinville, N. C. public school
toured the plant here in late
1958. The youngsters — 33 of
them—were with their teacher,
Frank Wilson, whose father and
mother are employed here. Les
ter Wilson is in Spinning; Mrs.
Wilson, in Twisting (cotton).
The Yadkinville seventh-grade
teacher is a graduate of Gard-
ner-Webb College and Ap
palachian State Teachers Col
lege. This is his third year of
teaching at Yadkinville.
In addition to his teaching
duties, Mr. Wilson is pastor of
South Oakridge Baptist Church
in Yadkin county.