• • Some heliopsis stems
and their empty seedpods
near a parking lot at the
Gastonia plant are weath
ered garments of another
winter past. The stems were
27TH
AWARD
Safety Performance
Every Spring the past 27 years, Firestone Textiles
Company at Gastonia has been recognized by the Gas
tonia Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina
Department of Labor for outstanding achievement in
industrial safety.
Latest of the awards, the
27th citation, was presented
in April at the annual Cham
ber of Commerce Safety
Awards banquet. Firestone
was at the top of the roster
for having been awarded the
honor the most times since
1947 when the State Labor
Department began the pro
gram.
N.C. Commissioner of Labor
Billy Creel made the award to
Firestone “on behalf of all the
people at the Gastonia plant
whose safe work performance
earned it.”
THE 1974 awards to industries
and businesses in Gaston Coun
ty were based on an outstanding
accident-free record for the year
1973, or on a record that was 50
percent better than the 1972
average in safety performance
in the various industry-business
categories.
Firestone’s safety record was
better than 50 percent of the
record in the whole of North
Carolina’s textile industry.
The Firestone honors through
out the years have been sym
bolized by award plaques gen
erally at five-year intervals,
with inscribed bars for in-
between years.
THE 26th one last year was a
new-style plaque.
Up through 1972, the awards
in Gaston County were present
ed by the late Frank Crane, N.C.
Commissioner of Labor. Begin
ning with 1973, Commissioner
Creel started making the awards.
With that year, another long-
running program of awards was
begun, in a second quarter-cen-
tury of recognizing safe opera
tion in business and industry.
Six Retired At Gastonia
•• Luther R. Foy, working supervisor of the can
teen service, led with the longest service length of
the six persons who retired at the Gastonia plant as
of the end of March. He had worked 38 years and al
most 9 months.
Next to Foy in service length was Pauline A.
Hanna, cloth burler in Preparation, She closed out
her “textile career days” after 38 years and 8 months
on the job.
Then, Cramer L. Little, machine shop foreman,
who retired with 38 years and almost 4 months.
Floy J. Green, respooler operator in TC Twisting,
recorded 33 years and 7 months. And the record for
Ellene M. Neesmith: 25 years and 3 months. She re
tired as a respooler operator in TC Twisting.
Broadus Jackson, cleaner in TC Twisting, had an
even 21 years of service.
APRIL
1974
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
Ttt*e$tone
Textiles Company
BENNETTSVILLE • SOUTH CAROLINA BOWLING GREEN • KENTUCKY
☆ ☆ ☆
‘Big No. 1’ Rolling Strong
NEWEST
UNIT
Firestone’s newest fabric-treating unit. No. 1, at Bowling
Green is capable of processing fabric at 125 yards per min
ute. The only facility of its kind known to have the 400-kw
dielectric section, it features an installation 195 feet high,
set in 15,000 square feet of floor space.
This makes it one of the Kevlar production began operat-
ice-coated along with the
March 25 surprise light
snow. But came April—and
new growth, bringing an
other “greenup time” in the
unfailing processional of the
seasons.
world’s largest units of its kind.
Gayron Riddle is production
foreman.
The dielectric equipment
treats cords of fabric from the
inside out—a microwave opera
tion. Also unique of the new in
stallation which went into pro
duction late last year is a 10,000
cfm catylitic oxidation unit. It
controls pollution emissions
from the exhaust stacks.
IN OPERATION, the Bowling
Green unit is able to process up
to 40 million pounds per year of
nylon, polyester and DuPont’s
new Kevlar, originally designat
ed Fiber B. It is the first large-
scale facility in the industry for
treating Kevlar.
A high-strength yarn prin
cipally developed for tire fabric,
Kevlar had been supplied up to
recent months for textile and
tire plants from market-de-
velopment equipment. But Du
Pont’s new expanded facility for
FACTS About
Firestone
Firestone produces thou
sands of tires and other rub
ber products and thousands
more of diversified items in
59 U.S. and 55 foreign plants.
The 1974 compilation of “Facts
About Firestone” lists the com
pany as operating manufactur
ing plants in 29 countries; hav
ing thousands of dealers and
stores in the U.S.A., and sales
outlets in 135 foreign countries.
Worldwide, the company has
117,000 employees. Net sales for
1973 were $3,154,919,000.
Tires & Tubes • Firestone
produces 7,999 sizes and types
of tires for all kinds of wheeled
vehicles. These include domestic
and foreign passenger cars, bus
es, tractors, aircraft, race cars,
motorcycles, boat trailers, farm
implements, earthmoving and
recreation vehicles, wheelbar
rows and lawnmowers.
Tires are produced in 16 U.S.
plants and 33 foreign plants.
Diversified Operations • Tires
and tubes are principal items
manufactured, but Firestone
produces nearly 40,000 diversi
fied products in 43 U.S. plants
and 22 foreign plants.
Products for the automobile,
home, farm and industrial uses
include:
Rayon, nylon and polyester
yams and tire cord fabric; bead
wire and wire for tire cord; na
tural and synthetic rubbers,
More on page 2 •
ing at Richmond, Va, in Janu
ary.
Kevlar was recently assigned
the generic designation “aramid”
by the Federal Trade Commis
sion. It was introduced to the
tire market as Fiber B in 1970.
It tests at five times stronger
than steel, pound-for-pound; has
tremendous stretch resistance
and requires no special handling
in a tire manufacturing plant.
TIRES featuring Kevlar have
excellent tread life, durability,
ride and handling characteris
tics.
Firestone Textiles Company
first experimentally processed
Fiber B at Gastonia soon after
the new material was available
around three years ago. Since
then, the Bowling Green plant
has been processing it.
Firestone and other tire com
panies first evaluated Kevlar
as the reinforcing material for
belts of radial passenger tires.
From recent developments, the
the manufacturer considers
Kevlar a versatile material that
can be used in the belt and car
cass of radial tires, with po
tential application in most other
current tire designs.
Kevlar has other applications,
such as in automotive, marine,
electrical and sporting-goods
products.
Chemist In Treated Fabric
Michael Flanigan has been
appointed Divisional Chem
ist of Treated-Fabric Proc
essing with Firestone Tex
tiles Company. Division
president James B. Call an
nounced the assignment in
late March.
Flanigan, with the company at
Gastonia for the past five years,
is a native of Princeton, W.Va.
He has a B.S. Degree in Chem
istry from Concord College at
Athens, W.Va.
He joined Firestone as plant
chemist at Gastonia, to develop
chemical laboratory testing fa
cilities for the textile division
in 1968.
He was senior chemist of the
Gastonia fabric-treating opera
tions for three years, and for the
past two years represented Fire
stone Textiles Company in tech
nical services and development
in fabric treating to the com
pany’s foreign and domestic fa
cilities.
After graduating from Con
cord College, he worked nearly
four years for the DuPont com
pany as a chemist.
Flanigan will contmue work
ing at the Gastonia headquar
ters, dealing primarily with the
fabric-treating units at Gastonia
and Bowling Green.
• Michael
Flanigan,
Divisional
Chemist
Two BG Leaders
Jerry Shields, safety director
at Firestone’s Bowling Green
plant, is a new member of the
advisory board of Bowling
Green Chapter of the American
Red Cross.
Shields has been with Fire
stone since 1968. He and Mrs.
(Pat) Shields have a son, Kelly,
age 6.
Richard A. Webber, Bowling
Green Industrial Relations man
ager, has been named chairman
of the 1974-75 United Givers
(UGF) campaign.
The UGF of Bowling Green
and Warren County conducts its
COMMUNITY
SERVICE
annual funds drive in October
and into the first month of the
following year.
Money raised in the campaign
goes to the support of a dozen
community agencies.
In the 1973-74 funds-gather-
ing program, the UGF raised
$170,000 which is now at work
in support of 11 participating
‘people’ services.
Webber and his wife Judy
have two daughters, Carolyn,
11; and Sarah, 8. The Industrial
Relations manager has been
with Firestone since early 1968.