. September: mellowing month of the changing seasons,
Ideal for adventuring over turnpike or back road; attending
family reunions, fishfries — and remembering. And Septem
ber means country fairs, as much a part of our lives as apple
candied yams and the very auto tires which keep today’s
population ever on the go. A ‘sampling’ of fairs in the Caro-
iinas and Georgia and some other touring notes are in the
^I'avel article on page 4.
Playground Has Extended Season
Firestone Playground afford
ed recreation and cooling
splashes from the wading pool,
'benefiting West Gastonia young
sters right up to school-opening
time this year.
The company-owned facility
extended its summer season an
®xtra week, closing Aug. 27.
*^he playground in front of the
plant is turned over each sum-
to the Gastonia Parks and
Recreation Commission which
operates it in a system of more
Ten Years Ago ...
Firestone News in its Sept.
^956 issue was—
Announcing commercial pro-
^^ction of the company’s first
l3-inch passenger-car tries . . .
elling of establishment of Fire
stone’s 3,000-acre rubber planta-
than a dozen recreation facili
ties.
A watermelon party in mid-
August kept schedule as high
light of summers through the
years.
Two city-employed attend-
ants-instructors worked at the
playground the past season.
Arts-crafts instruction, a part
of the city general recreation
training program, was on the
summer schedule.
tion at Itubera, Brazil . . . Not
ing that employees of the Bil
bao, Spain, plant had coated
with foamed latex the huge
“whale” used in filming the
movie “Moby Dick” . . . An
nouncing Gastonia employees’
participation in “Harvest Har
mony” flower show at Spindle
Center Fair.
Tire$ton«
SEPTEMBER • 1966
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
The
Material
In Tire Plies
It’s The Most Important
Material of which tire plies are made is the
important thing — not the number of plies,
says James E. Cory, senior engineer in the com
pany’s field engineering department.
Talking of advantages of two-ply, four-ply-
rating passenger car tires over tires with four full
plies, he says “It’s possible to make a tire hav
ing four full plies of lightweight mosquito net
ting. Such a tire would be of very poor quality,
while a tire of two plies of material having cords
of proper tensile strengths and adequate num
ber per inch would be very satisfactory.”
“Heat buildup,” he said, always has been a
tire’s worst enemy. But recent advances in cord
material make possible high tensile strengths.
With these materials, manufacturers are able to
reduce the number of plies, lessening the mass
and dropping operating temperature of tires.
THIS improvement is a major contribution to
safety.
Mr. Cory often displays the cross-sections of
two tires which appear “flimsy” and limp as he
holds them up.
“Would you ride on tires that look like this?”
he asks. Most onlookers say “No.”
Cory goes on to say that the cross-sections are
from high-speed racing tires, one being Fire
stone’s famous Indianapolis tire and the other
from a Bonneville tire, used in land-speed-
record attempts at several hundred miles per
hour.
The engineer also has safe-driving advice for
motorists: Borrow some practices from profes
sional race drivers.
“Professional drivers thoroughly check their
vehicles, including the tires, before a contest.
Yet, thousands of motorists in this country start
long trips on tires that are bald, cut, under-inflat-
ed or otherwise unsafe.
“Also the race driver checks track conditions
to see how his car handles and how brakes are
working, so he can know the different traction
characteristics of the track, and alert himself of
other possible hazards.
“Wouldn’t our highways be safer if all drivers
took these precautions?” he asks.
• Engineer Cory shows thin sidewall section
was cut fom a Firestone Indianapolis lire, while
section with thick sidewalls was from a special
tire for taxis doing low-speed city driving. At
turn-pike speeds, a tire as bulky as the heavier
one would fail because of excessive heat it
would create.
Your United Fund
Open your eyes and look for some man
or some work for the sake of man, which
needs a little time, a little friendship, a
little sympathy, a little toil . . . Search
and see if there is some place where you
may invest your humanity . . .
—Albert Schweitzer
Your opportunity to invest in humanity is in the
greater Gastonia United Fund financial campaign be-
S^i^ning in early October. The roundup for financial
f^Pport of 28 community services needs your contri-
^^ion. A “fair-share” gift will go further than you’ll
®Ver realize, toward the United Fund’s year-round
^^ogram of “people uplift.”
Yelton Back From South America
Thomas Yelton, recently re
turned from a six-year tour of
duty in South America, was in
late August assigned to the
management staff of the Gas
tonia plant.
The Yelton family returned
from Brazil in late summer,
where Thomas had completed
his assignment as manager of
the company’s textile plant at
Sao Paulo.
He joined Firestone at Gas
tonia in early 1960. A native of
Rutherfordton, N. C., he is a
graduate of Clemson University.
Good Ideas
Can Make History
Ninety years ago this month,
John McTammany of Cam
bridge, Mass. applied for a pat
ent on America’s first player
piano. Think of the pleasant
contribution he made to our
way of life.
P. W. Pratt of Abington, Mass.
patented a water-sprinkler sys
tem Sept. 17, 1872 — another
idea that made history.
You have ideas, too. They’re
all around. Put them down on a
The Yelton family went from
Gastonia to South America in
1960, when Thomas was ap
pointed manager of the Fire
stone textile plant at Llallavoll
near Buenos Aires, Agentina.
His service finished there, he
was advanced to manager at the
Sao Paulo plant.
suggestion blank. Share them
with your company. If adopted,
your reward will be money for
the suggestion, a share in the
difference the idea will bring
about, and the good feeling that
you’ve done something worth
while.
^^OKING around
CAMP FIRESTONE
^ Hilltop Park
j,A few miles from Camp
I'estone on Lake James is
of the Southeast’s new-
J and most varied resort-
j^'^i'eation complexes. Seven
^^vils Recreation Park was
1 this summer on its
Q^^^^-acre mountaintops just
Nc 105 midway between
and Linville.
Off vacation community
spectacular views of
^^dfather Mountain coun
try. It has rental cottages,
camping and picnic areas,
and a freshwater lake for
boating, fishing and swim
ming. A chairlift to a pin
nacle offers commanding
views through the autumn
season, converts to service
at a ski run in winter.
Heart of the development
is a huge visitor center, hav
ing a snack bar, grocery and
gift shop with mountain-life
displays, and a large assem
bly hall for folk-dancing and
other activities. Burro rides,
oxcart trips and wading are
among children’s fun activi
ties.
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