SER VICE MILESTONES
April Brought 25-Year List
The coming of April brought a list of 22 persons at Gas
tonia with service records of a quarter century in length.
This first “crop” of 25-year people is photographed on this
page. While these were marking anniversaries, several
others were completing long-term service also. The list;
Hudy N. Webb Paylon Lewis Robert H. Wrighi R. L. Tompkins Eula B. Wilson Blanton Bryant
Carding Carding Cloth Room Buyer Payroll Shop
L. F. Atkinson Ellis G. Bullman H. A. Cauthen
Shop Shop Shop
W. G. Henson Troy C. Jones
Shop Shop
W. A. Johnson
Spinning
n
Robert Passmore Artie O. Ammons Willie B. Ward Eli Webb James A. Pryor W. O. Stephenson
Shop Night Shift Supt. Spinning Spinning Twisting (syn) Twisting (syn)
These Employees
Represent 550
Years’ Service
t
i
Paul Thornton Claude R. Taylor George T. Dill L. T. Thompson
Twisting (syn) Twisting Weaving (cotton) Warehouse
THOSE POWER MOWERS
They Bite—And Sometimes Blow Up!
Twenty Years
Hobert Aldridge, Twisting
(synthetics); A. V. Riley, Indus
trial Relations; Novella James,
Beatrice McCarter, Payroll; A. C.
Kessell, Quality Control.
Fifteen Years
Lela H. Panther, John W.
Sills, Spinning; Robert Beaver,
Roger Stringfellow, Twisting
(synthetics); Johnnie Byrd,
Weaving (cotton); Thurman
Clark, Quality Control; Thomas
A. Grant, Industrial Relations;
Elton L. Still, Twisting (cotton).
Free Vehicle Check
—From page 1
inspection available to our em
ployees because of our continu
ing interest in keeping them
safe, both on and off the job.”
With this statement, Mr. Fire
stone recalled that the company
has the best on-the-job safety
record in the rubber industry.
It has received the National
Safety Council’s highest com
mendation, the Award of Hon
or, on a company-wide basis
nine times since 1945.
Slogan for 1960
“Join the Circle of Safety—
Check Your Car—Check Your
Driving — Check Accidents” is
slogan for this year’s national
two-month program which be
gan May 1, and will involve
more than 1,000 communities in
the states which are not re
quired by law to have periodic
motor vehicle inspection.
In the nationwide program of
1959, one out of every five ve
hicles inspected needed immedi
ate attention to one or more of
the ten items affecting safe driv-
Company Growing
—From page 1
mately $120,000,000 for specific
projects,” Mr. Firestone said.
Included in Firestone’s plans
are five new plants. Tire manu
facturing facilities are now un
der construction in Calgary, Al
berta, Canada, and Bethune,
France. Synthetic rubber plants
will be built in Port Jerome,
France, and Bareilly, India; and
a new plant will be completed
this year at Orange, Texas, for
the production of Coral and
Diene man-made rubber.
Other new facilities are being
built at the company’s Hope-
well, Va, installation for the
manufacture of synthetic fibers
and polypropylene.
expansion and moderniza
tion programs are under way at
all Firestone’s North American
tire plants and are scheduled to
Ten Years
Emma A. Moore, Edna K.
Passmore, Edward A. Crisp,
Arvel J. Greene, Thomas A.
Fowler, Twisting (synthetics);
J. G. Tino Jr., Nylon Unit; Ollie
G. McDonald, Lona L. Taylor,
Weaving (synthetics); R o x i e
Newton, Industrial Relations;
Ruby McAllister, Cloth Room;
Jeanette Brock, Production Of
fice; Charles L. Hart, Beaming-
Quilling; Jerry Howie, Roy M.
Chastain, Shop; Thomas J. Ross,
Warehouse.
Five Years
Walter E. Brooks, Sammy O.
Bunton, Carding; Rosella C.
Dover, Spooling; Luther M.
Grindstaff, Corene M. Petty,
Bessie Hardin, Twisting (syn
thetics).
ing condition.
Of the 808 cars and trucks
processed in check lanes at Gas
tonia last spring, 237 were found
to have one or more mechanical
or other defects.
Items to be checked this year
are brakes, front and rear lights,
steering, tires, exhaust system,
glass, windshield wipers, rear
view mirror, and horn.
A windshield sticker will be
placed on each vehicle which
passes inspection on all ten
points. Vehicles which do not
pass inspection may be repaired,
then brought back for approval.
J. W. Maples, director of
manufacturing, is heading the
committee for Firestone’s safe
ty-check program.
A. V. Riley, assistant Industri
al Relations manager, is chair
man of the Gastonia committee.
be completed yet this year. In
cluded in these are plants in Ak
ron, Ohio; Pottstown, Pa.; Mem
phis, Tenn.; Des Moines, Iowa;
Los Angeles, Calif.; and Ham
ilton, Ontario, Canada. Also
scheduled for expansion and
modernization is the textile
plant at Woodstock, Ontario,
Canada.
Other U. S. facilities scheduled
for expansion are the Pottstown
plastics plants; steel products
plants in Akron and Wyandotte,
Mich.; The Electric Wheel Com
pany, a Firestone division in
Quincy, 111.; synthetic rubber
plants in Akron and Lake
Charles, La.; and the World
Bestos Corporation, a division of
Firestone in New Castle, Ind.
Foreign plants to be expanded
and modernized are those in;
Brentford, England; Buenos
Aires, Argentina; Sao Paulo,
Brazil; and Valencia, Venezuela.
The power lawn mower, most
loved gadget of many a house
holder these days, can be a
blessing in the form of a labor-
saving device; or it can be a
curse of life and limb.
It all depends on how you use
it.
Each year surveys at sum
mer’s end record the toll of ac
cidents. Last year, close to 800
power-mower misfortunes show
ed near 70 per cent caused by
direct contact with the machine,
30 per cent caused by objects
hurled by the mower.
Most common accident results
from carelessness in starting
mowers, when operators get the
mower started with one or both
feet under the back or side of
the machine.
The second most common ac
cident comes when the operator
mows on a hill or incline and
loses footing so that the machine
romps over his feet. The lesson
here; Mow sideways along in
clines.
Another oft-recurring cause of
serious accidents comes from ob
jects slung out by the whirring
blades. Some common types of
mowers can throw loose objects
at speeds up to 170 miles per
hour. The lesson here; Clear
lawn of all rocks, pebbles, nails,
bones, wires, sticks and other
debris before the mowing job
begins.
Of course the main rule of
safety is common sense proper
ly exercised.
To these reminders, add the
following from Plant Safety;
1. Learn how to stop the
engine in a hurry.
2. Never re-fuel when engine
is hot, and always refill it out
of doors. Store gasoline in an
approved container.
3. Along with safety shoes,
wear safety glasses when op
erating a rotary mower.
4. Keep small children and in
experienced persons out of the
way.
5. Disconnect spark plug wire
Dr electric circuit when you work
on the bottom side of machine.
Take care in turning mower
over. Stay away from moving
parts.
6. If operating an electric
mower, do not cut when grass
is wet. Keep mower and power
cord in safe condition. Ground
motor properly,
A power lawn mower packs a
lot of punch. Handle it with all
the care and respect due any
useful but dangerous piece of
machinery.
Cornell Teacher
On Plant Visit
The associate professor in the
college of home economics at
Cornell University toured the
Gastonia plant in late April, for
a look at tire fabrics and sales
yarn production. Miss Frances
Spratt’s visit to Firestone Tex
tiles was one of a series of edu
cational tours of industries dur
ing a six-month leave from her
teaching duties at the Ithaca,
N. Y. school.
The plant visitor, a native of
Mount HoUy, is studying design
and construction of textile fab
rics during her sabbatical leave
from Cornell. She will return to
her teaching duties in Septem
ber,
Textiles Through The Ages . . .
In 711 A.D. the nomadic Moors of North Africa invaded
Spain. Besides their culture and religion, they took with
them the art of growing cotton. Along with plainer fab
rics, they wove the first sheer cotton goods and fine twill
ed fabrics such as corduroy and velvet. Tradition says
that early in the ninth century Moorish craftsmen wove
a mantle of embroidered cotton which their ruler pre
sented to Charlemagne, Emperor of the West.
The Moors' contribution to Western Europe in art, archi
tecture, medicine, science, and general learning is al
most incalculable. Fabrics they created became prized
examples of early textile art.
May 1960 Page 4
Volume IX Number 6
☆ ☆ ☆
Published by The Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company,
Firestone Textiles Division,
Gastonia, North Carolina.
Claude Callaway, Editor
Charles A. Clark, Photographer
?LANT REPORTERS
Carding—Edna Harris, Jessie
Ammons
Cloth Room—Margie Waldrep
Industrial Relation s—Flora
Pence
Main Office—Doris Corella
Quality Control—Sallie Craw
ford, Louella Queen, Leila
Rape
Spinning—L i 11 i e A. Brown,
Maude Peeler, Mary Turner
Spooling—Nell Bolick, Rosalie
Burger, Ophelia Wallace
Mechanical Department — Rosie
Francum
Twisting—Vera Carswell, Elease
Cole, Annie Cosey, Katie El
kins, Catherine Fletcher
Twisting (Sales)—Elmina Brad
shaw
Warehouse—M a r j o r i e Falls,
George Harper, Albert Meeks,
Rosevelt Rainey
Weaving (cotton)—Ruth Veitch
Weaving (synthetics)—Mary E.
Johnson, Irene Odell
Winding—Ruth Cloninger, May-
zelle Lewis