JULY
1974
GASTONIA
NORTH CAROLINA
'f'tresfone
Textiles Company
BENNETTSVILLE • SOUTH CAROLINA BOWLING GREEN • KENTUCKY
☆ ☆ ☆
HOWARD
Keeping Up
With Humidity
Taking account of the humidi
ty outside and in the fabric-
producing areas inside plant and
treating units helps in efficiency
of operation and quality control
of finished product.
This vital job, going on every
day the plant is in operation,
involves the skilled work of a
humidifier technician and regu
larly five helpers who attend
the automatic humidifier equip
ment. Sometimes the additional
part-time work of others is in
volved.
Earl Redding, Gastonia hu
midifier technician, has been on
Ihis assignment most of the 32
years he has worked at Fire
stone.
On a typical working day, he
makes temperature and humidi
ty readings at 36 stations twice
daily. The two outside stations
are in front and behind the
plant. Others are at places
Cub Scouts
Had Good Year
Pack 631 Firestone Cub
Scouts completed a successful
year in late spring. At a meet
ing ending the year on May 30,
Cubmaster Charlie Sweatt Jr.,
• Earl Redding wets bulb on
one side of gauge before swing
ing the measuring device in the
air to learn temperature-damp-
ness figures. He uses sliding
scale to find relalive humidity.
When not working at Fire
stone, Redding finds time for
things to do at home and to
serve as pastor of Love Valley
Baptist Church on Rt. 2, Kings
Mountain. He will have been
with the church 30 years in Sep
tember.
Mrs. Redding (Mildred) has a
3G-year service record with the
company at Gastonia. She works
in Payroll.
where people and machines
process materials from yam to
finished product.
READINGS are made and
noted on the prevailing weath
er, and actual temperature and
moisture content of the atmos
phere. Relative humidity is cal
culated on a psychometric scale.
Redding files the daily reports
with the Quality Control labora
tory and the machine shop.
More, Page 3 •
discussed events and programs
over the preceding 12 months.
A highlight of the year’s pro
gram was a trip with the pack
to Clemson, where members at
tended a football game.
At the end of the May meet
ing the Cubs enjoyed a party.
They played games and had re
freshments.
These Three
Came Back
Three men who retired
from Firestone Textiles
Company are back working
at Gastonia as members of
the plant protection service
staff of Security Forces, Inc.
Howard McCarter, Grady
Johnson and Charlie O. Stiles
work a limited schedule at Fire
stone and sometimes do other
jobs “on the side.”
Stiles first came to work at
the Gastonia plant in the 1920s,
more than 10 years before it be
came a Firestone operation. His
service with the present com
pany dates from 1941 to 1967.
He retired as a weaver in syn
thetics.
He is from a family that has
been well represented at Fire
stone through the years — at
Gastonia and at Akron. Charlie’s
brother Hershel worked at Gas-
1974.
Employees of The Firestone
Tire & Rubber Company shared
$135,702 in awards in the com
pany's suggestion program in
the six-month period ending
April 30 this year. This was an
average of more than $5,000 a
week.
John T. Cahoon, vice presi
dent for personnel and planning,
reported that during the first
half of the current fiscal year,
employees turned in 17,880 sug
gestions, an increase of 25 per
cent over the 14,234 ideas for
the same period last year.
tonia several years. Bertie, a
sister, retired at Gastonia, as did
a brother, Vaughn. Currently
employed are Ray and Cloyce,
Charlie’s nephews.
Grady Johnson retired seven
years ago, with 30 years on his
record He had several jobs in
production—one of these over
several years was doffing spin
ning. He was operator of a
freight elevator when he retired.
Howard McCarter began
OF ALL suggestions sub
mitted, 4,179 were adopted this
year, compared with 3,363 for
the first six months of the com
pany’s fiscal 1973—an increase
of 19 per cent.
Akron’s Plant I leads the tire
plants in number of suggestions,
with 1,235 submissions, of which
410 were adopted. Others in the
top five tire plants were Potts-
town. Pa., 1,104 suggestions, 432
adoptions; Memphis, Tenn., 1,058
suggestions, 221 adoptions; De
catur, 111., 864 suggestions, 184
adoptions; and Des Moines,
working at Firestone, Gastonia,
in the summer of 1935. At the
time he retired in 1972 he was
working in Spinning.
Howard’s wife, Beatrice, now
with 38 years service, is in Pay
roll. Howard’s brother, William
L. McCarter, is employed in TC
Twisting; and William’s wife,
Helen, is in the Cloth Room.
Howard’s grandson. Rusty Ford,
is working at Firestone during
summer vacation from school.
FIRST HALF OF 1974
Iowa, 837 suggestions and 201
adoptions.
Of Firestone’s diversified
products facilities, employees at
the Electric Wheel Company
plant in Quincy, 111, were lead
ers with 888 ideas, and 132
adopted.
Other high-ranking diversified
products plants were Hamill
Manufacturing Company, Wash
ington, Mich., 410 suggestions,
44 adoptions; Firestone Steel
Products Company, Spartan
burg, S.C., 351 ideas, 58 adop
tions; Firestone Steel Products,
Wyandotte, Mich., 224 sugges
tions, 56 adoptions; and Fires
tone Industrial Products Com-
More on Page 3 •
$135,702 For Suggestions
People of Firestone Textiles Company’s Gastonia and
Bowling Green Plants earned special mention for sugges
tions submitted and adopted during the first half of fiscal
treating
unit LATEX
GOING
UNDERGROUND
• • A 15,000 - gallon steel
tank was placed under
ground in front of the new
warehouse at No. 8 treating
unit, Gastonia, in June. This
allows storage of liquid latex
used in treating rayon fabric.
Previously, the latex had
been stored in 55-gallon
drums.
Storage tank and newly-
completed warehouse free
up considerable valuable
space in production and
warehouse areas of the Gas
tonia operation, said factory
manager P. R. Williams.
• • Through parking geeu: of crane operator in lowering stor-
cargo trailer, the huge tank age unit into its 'grave' at east
dwarfed workmen who directed side of No. 8 Treating Unit.