'Ttre^tone
Textiles Company
APRIL • 1977
Gastonia Bennettsville Bon'ltng Green
North Carolina South Carolina Kentucky
So, COLA
Helps A Little
What it costs to live just
keeps going up. The latest (Feb
ruary) report shows it had
climbed another percentage
point. The way it’s been going:
A representative outlay of goods
and services in 1967 (a reckon-
ing-point year) that cost $100,
today costs $177.10.
So, COLA (Cost Of Living Al
lowance) is here, as a way of
helping Firestone People keep
pace with inflation.
“Be glad you’re getting it.
But also be concerned that
you’re having to receive it,” said
James B. Call. The Firestone
Textiles Company president was
speaking of COLA “pass-
through-your-pocket money” in
a series of employee meetings
in March. COLA pay dates from
April 1, 1977.
Added to a person’s basic
earnings, COLA is figured on
the U.S. Department of Labor’s
current CPI (Consumer Price
Index). The pay it represents is
subject to withholding taxes.
Social Security takeout, etc.,
just like all other income.
Student Tour
Fourth and 6th grade students
of Marlboro Academy visited the
Bennettsville plant March 14,
accompanied by Mrs. B. W. An
derson, 6th grade teacher; and
Ron Evans, athletic coach and
economics teacher.
Plant manager C. W. Smith
talked briefly on tire cord fab
ric before the group went on a
tour of plant and facility. Guides
were several members of plant
management. The visitors were
served refreshments at a ques-
tion-answer session.
Working Up High
• William A. (Bud) Wentz
(left) of Shop helped Industrial
Piping workmen connect Ihe
first of two discharge stacks of
No. 8 fabric-treating unit. Then
one of the Industrial men at
tached drain pipes.
‘Smog Hog’ In ^ Going
• Installation of new pollution-abatement equipment of
Gastonia No. 8 Treating Unit was completed in March with
placing of two discharge stacks. Testing and limited opera
tion of the system had begun in January.
Major "working part" of ihe
cleaning equipment, trademark
ed "Smog Hog," was manufac
tured by United Air Specialists
of Cincinnati and installed by
Industrial Piping of Charlotte-
Pineville, N. C. Some sub-con
tractors helped in the project.
Precipitators (or pollution-col-
lecting units) work on the prin
ciple, for example, of a static-
charged comb that picks up bits
of paper “like a magnet.’” Or
like a stroked balloon that clings
EXPORTS
• •A growing volume of tire
fabric is shipped from Gastonia
Firestone Textiles Company to
outside-U.S. Firestone tire plants
and other customers. During last
fisctd year Gastonia exported
more than II million pounds
fabric, most of this going to Bra
zil, Canada, Chile. Kenya,
Ghana, Uruguay, Venezuela and
New Zealand.
Of the textiles division's three
domestic plants, Gastonia is
major exporter. Here, shipping
supervisor George Jackson Jr.
made an inventory check of
beams ready for overseas
travel.
to a windowpane.
E. H. (Chip) Hurst, plant pro
jects engineer, explains that the
Hog electrically charges objec
tionable particles (mostly in
smoke form) as it comes from
the unit ovens. This way, the
particulates are gathered on
thousands of vertical plates for
removal and disposal, before
they reach the environment
THE LARGE down-pipe that
brings discharges from the unit
to the precipitator cools the hot
gases before they enter the
cleaner.
Discharge stacks release heat
and water in vapor (steam). This
is what emits from the stacks
when atmospheric conditions al
low vapor formation. Caps of
the stacks condense, collect and
drain much of the vapor. On a
bright warm day, there would
be little or no steam showing
“at the top,” Hurst said.
S‘out Notc^s
The annual Scout Exposition
for the Bennettsville (SC) area
will he held at the Florence fair
grounds April 29 and 30.
Scouting units are being en
couraged to step up participa
tion in the “Save Our American
Resources” projects, particularly
in April.
At Camp Coker there will be
a troop leader development
course June 5-10. Scoutmasters
will send senior patrol leaders
or assistant patrol leaders for
this training. Explorer Olympics
for youth 15-21 years will be
May 13 and 14.
Firestone Textiles sponsors
Boy Scout Troop 631 of Ben-
nettsviUe.
Bud Wentz, pollution control technician, regularly monitor*
No. 8 panel inside top of unit. Schematic on panel show* whole
emissions-cleaning process; gauges and other indicators tell air
and water pressures and flow rate.
^Radials Roll More Freely...’
• Even though radials cost
about one-third more than bias-
belted tires the highway motor
ist can expect ‘the money’s
worth’: At least 33 percent bet
ter mileage from the radials.
Reason: Radials roll more freely
than other type tires and that
means less gas used.
These facts are from a recent
report on automotive operating
costs issued by the U.S. Depart
ment of Transportation. The
study learned that replacement
tires cost less than one-half cent
per mile over the 10-year life of
an automobile.
Radial tires can mean 5 to 7
percent more gas mileage than
with bias-ply tires in over-the-
road passenger-car driving, said
the DOT report. It agrees with
Firestone’s tire development
findings that radials save on
gas and ‘wear and tear.’ So, the
added tire mileage and reduc
tion in gas use make the radial
an economical investment.
DOT says that of a car’s op
erating costs, depreciation, re
pair and maintenance, parking,
gasoline and insurance are the
highest. Only oil and accessories
—such as floor mats and seat
covers—rank lower than tires on
a cost-per-mile basis.
Plant Visitors
Members of the Southcentral
Kentucky section of American
Society for Quality Control tour
ed the Bowling Green Firestone
Textiles facility, following a
dinner meeting at Greenwood
Holiday Inn in March.
Plant manager Thomas Yelton
explained to the visitors “what
goes on” in tire-fabric produc
tion.