Newspapers / Firestone news. / March 1, 1960, edition 1 / Page 2
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Company Planning Expanded Facilities To Help Meet World Demand For Rubber PIPES form an unusual pattern at Firestone's Orange (Texas) butadiene plant which supplies butadiene, a liquid gas, for pro duction of synthetic rubber. The multi-million-dollar structure at Orange was completed in 1957. Ray Brock, designer of the world’s first jet-driven race car, has announced plans for a try at breaking the British- held land speed record of 394.2 miles an hour. This record was established in 1947 by John Cobb of Eng land, at the Booneville (Utah) Salt Flats. Mr. Brock, technical director of Hot Rod magazine, said that Dr. Nathan Ostich, Los Angeles physician, would drive the jet car at attempted speeds beyond 500 mph. The record run will be made at Bonneville in August. Specially-designed tires and wheels have been developed by the Firestone company for the jet-powered vehicle. Its tires are capable of speeds up to 600 mph. THE OSTICH machine, in construction since late 1958, has a design capability speed of more than £00 miles an hour. Its engine is a GE turbojet of the type used in B-36 bomber planes. Streamlined body of the car March, 1960 Page 2 is 28.5 feet long and 4 feet in diameter. The tube, covered with aluminum, fits snugly around a cage-like steel frame work which houses the power plant. Dr. Ostich, a speed hobbyist with 10 years of driving experi ence on the Salt Flats, will ride in a cockpit between the front of the engine and the nose cone. Brock pointed out that jet power alone makes possible speeds of which the turbo car is capable. “To attempt such speeds with the conventional piston engine is impractical,” he said. “A pis ton-type engine with power of the jet would need to be much larger and vastly more com plex.” Tires are the most critical components of the American challenger car. Builders of the jet machine conferred with Fire stone in 1958, inquiring if tires could be made to withstand speeds of 500 mph and more. COMPANY engineers, draw ing on Firestone’s 50 years of racing experience, went to work to design a tire for speeds up to 600 miles an hour. In late Janu- plantations in Brazil, Gautemala and the Philippines. Besides this, an extensive replanting program, designed to replace older trees with high-yielding stock, is nearing completion on the Liberian plantations. Fire stone last year produced 84 mil lion pounds of rubber from its own plantations in Liberia. Other American interests now have started plantations to help protect the vital supplies of na tural rubber. But, rubber trees require seven to eight years to reach tapping age. It will be that long, in most instances, be fore the effect of new plantings will be felt in the world rubber markets. These plantations, then, will only partially meet the de mand for rubber which will be created in the next ten years. The gap between consumption and natural rubber production must be filled with synthetic rubber. Production of synthetic will likely more than double during this period. In 1955, 58.5 per cent of the total rubber consumed in the United States was synthetic. To supply more and better prod ucts for expanding markets, the Booklet On Water Available Free “Our Growing Water Prob lems”, a publication which deals with the complex issues of pub lic water resource management for diverse and conflicting needs, may be obtained in single copies free from Educational Servicing, National Wildlife Fed eration, 1412 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington 12, D. C. ary, these tires were undergo ing study in the company’s tire- test laboratory. They are 48 inches in diameter, with a 9- inch cross section. The tires are of nylon cord U. S. consumption of synthetic jumped to 66 per cent last year. Synthetic Rubber Output Growing With Firestone Firestone plants at Lake Charles, La., and Akron, Ohio, have stepped up production ca pacities to 230,000 long tons of styrene-butadiene type rub ber per year. These two installa tions and the company’s buta diene plant at Orange, Texas comprise the most highly-de veloped synthetic rubber opera tion of a single company. Styrene-butadiene rubber has proved superior to natural rub ber in passenger car tires. But natural rubber or its equivalent synthetic proves most effective in heavy-duty tires. To fill this need, Firestone scientists during the past ten years developed the two new synthetics, Coral and Diene. These will play an important role in Firestone’s program to increase rubber production dur ing the 1960s. Coral, developed in 1954, is a replacement for construction. Wheels are designed and fab ricated from aluminum forgings by Firestone Steel Products Company. Disc brakes will be used on natural rubber. Development of a synthetic with the essential properties of natural rubber that could be used for heavy-duty truck tires had been one of the major goals of rubber research for many years. Truck tires made of this synthetic were tested by U. S. Army Ordnance, and met or exceeded all military requirements. These results were significant because they prove that the na tion no longer need be depend ent on imported natural rubber in an emergency. Diene, developed by Firestone research in 1958, is a rubber extender. Tests show it has im proved crack resistance, satisfac tory running temperatures and greatly improved skid resistance. To produce these types of rub ber, Firestone recently announc ed plans to build a new plant in Orange, Texas, site of the company’s Petrochemical Cen ter. The plant will be able to produce either Coral or Diene rubber—switching from one to the other, as demand requires. all four wheels for slowing the car from speeds under 175 mph- High-speed braking'will be ac complished by a ribbon-type parachute housed in the tail-sec- tion of the vehicle. 7,000,000 LONG TONS BY 1970 Higher standards of living and increasing population will push world rubber consumption to seven million long tons by 1970, industry economists have predicted. And unless the production of both natural and synthetic rubber is increased sharply by that time, a serious shortage of this vital material could develop. Shortly after these predictions “Firestone’s Coral rubber dup- were made public, president licates the molecular structure Raymond C. Firestone observed: “On the basis of these esti mates and to help meet the growing demands, our company —one of the world’s largest pro ducers of rubber—plans to con tinue its expansion of both na tural and synthetic rubber pro duction facilities.” The company president added that the organization had also developed a new synthetic which could make the United States entirely independent of natural rubber if the need arises. of natural rubber and our Diene is an extender which can be used to supplant a large portion of the natural rubber used in tire production.” Analysis of rubber consump tion and production over the next ten years indicates that na tural rubber production will level off at about two million long tons per year. Liberia First Venture In Rubber Production Firestone, which started its 90,000-acre rubber plantations in Liberia in 1924, has started new WORLD RUBBER USAGE 7000 Z BOOO ? 3000 NATURAL YEAR 54 CHART shows forecast demand for rubber. To meet this de mand, Firestone continues expansion of its rubber plantations and synthetic rubber-producing facilities. FIRESTONE TIRES, WHEELS Pioneering Jet-Racing Car Out For Record In August MODEL—Brice Warren of Twisting (synthetics) shows a photographed model of the Ostich ma chine which is constructed around a surplus jet engine from a B-36 bomber. Car has Firestone- built wheels and tires. Brice, one of Gastonia's leading hot-rodders, is president of the local Road Angels club. JET SEAT—Dr. Nathan Ostich of Los Angeles sits in the driver's compartment of the partially- assembled race car with which he hopes to break the world's land speed record this summer. Ray Brock (right), technical editor of Hot Rod maga zine, is the driver's advisor for the racing project.
March 1, 1960, edition 1
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