I
Firestone U. S. Plants
A Directory
Boonesborough
PIONEER An arlisan shows
CRAFTS the 'how' of
yarn-dyeing as part of pioneer
crafts revival at Fort Boones
borough eight miles south of
Lexington, Ky., in a replica of
wooden stockade built in 1775
by settlers led by Daniel Boone.
Many of the old skills are dis
played during daylight hours.
Spring through Fall.
The fort itself is center of ac
tivities at Fort Boonesborough
State Park which has year-
round vehicle campground with
pavilion, modern facilities and
snackshop near the beach on
Kentucky River. (Photo: Ky.
Dept. Public Information). More
places and events in "For Fun &
Adventure" page 4.
Gastonia Five ‘Changed Careers’
Of those retiring at Fire
stone, Gastonia, July-Au-
gust, Ruth Veitch led in
service time—37 years and
10 months. She, last a weav
er in Chafer Weaving, retir
ed effective July 1. Her hus
band McClure is retired
from the Gastonia plant.
Also as of July 1, Ben
Byers finished his work
career of 26 years and 4
months. He was last a fabric
clerk in Warehouse. On Au
gust 1, Fay Walker and Bon
nie Fletcher began their re
tirement. Fay, a reclaimer
in TC Twisting has 37 years
and 9 months service. Bon
nie, a rewinder operator in
Preparation, has 20 years
and 10 months.
Bertie Grant, who retired
in May with 28 years, was
not listed with the others
who "went out" that month.
She was a weaver in Chafer
Weaving.
Claude Smith
(From
page 1)
He returned to the U.S. in
1968 to become production man
ager of the Bowling Green, Ky.,
textile plant. He moved to Gas
tonia in June of 1973 as tech
nical service manager of the tex
tile division.
In Bennettsville he was on the
executive board of Peedee Area
Boy Scouts and a member of
the board of directors of Marl
boro County United Fund. He
had been appointed chairman of
the 1977-78 UF campaign. Mrs.
W. D. Caldwell succeeded Smith
in this post upon his moving to
Milan.
• • With more than 110,000 employees
worldwide, The Firestone Tire & Rubber
Company has 119 manufacturing plants in
28 countries and sales outlets in 135 foreign
countries.
The company produces more than 7,900
sizes and types of tires and tubes in 16 do
mestic plants and 37 foreign plants in 21
countries. In addition, Firestone manufac
tures 40,000 diversified products, chemicals
and raw materials in 39 United States plants
and 27 overseas plants.
This listing is updated to June, 1977.
DOMESTIC PRODUCTION FACILITIES
TIRE PLANTS
Akron, 2,750 employees (two plants). Pass
enger car, truck, bus, aircraft, farm, rac
ing tires; repair materials.
Albany, Ga., 1,760 employees. Passenger car,
light truck, tractor tires.
Barberton, Ohio (Division: Seiberling Tire
& Rubber Company), 1,270 employees.
Passenger car, truck tires.
Bloomington, 111., 345 employees. Bias and
radial earthmover tires.
Dayton, Ohio (Division: Dayton Tire & Rub
ber Company), 1,800 employees. Passenger
car, truck tires.
Decatur, 111., 2,235 employees. Passenger car,
truck, farm implement tires.
Des Moines, Iowa, 2,775 employees. Passen
ger car, tractor, earthmover, truck tires.
Los Angeles, Calif., 1,540 employees. Passen
ger car, truck, recreational vehicle, earth
mover tires.
Memphis, Tenn., 3,170 employees. Passenger
car, truck, bus, tractor, farm implement,
earthmover, motorcycle tires.
Nashville, Tenn., 1,200 employees. Radial,
bias truck tires.
Oklahoma City, Okla. (Division: Dayton Tire
& Rubber Company), 1,480 employees.
Passenger car, truck tires.
Pottstown, Pa., 2,655 employees. Passenger
car, truck, industrial tires, tire tubes;
tread rubber, repair materials.
Russellville, Ark., 335 employees. Tire tubes.
Salinas, Calif., 1,565 employees. Passenger
car, truck tires.
Wilson, N. C., 1,570 employees. Passenger
car tires.
CHEMICALS & RAW MATERIALS
GROUP
Firestone Foam Products Company
East Providence, R. I., (headquarters), 65
employees. Administrative offices and
laboratories only.
Conover, N. C., 30 employees. Polyurethane
foam, furniture cushioning.
Corry, Pa., 155 employees. Polyurethane
foam, automotive and furniture cushion
ing and carpet underlay.
Elkhart, Ind., 50 employees. Polyurethane
foam, furniture cushioning, recreational
vehicles.
Milan, Tenn., 300 employees. Polyurethane
foam, furniture cushioning and carpet un
derlay.
Thomasville, Ga., 14 employees. Polyure
thane foam, furniture and bedding cush
ioning.
Firestone Plastics Company
Pottstown, Pa. (headquarters), 685 employ
ees. Vinyl resins, film and sheeting, syn
thetic latices.
Perryville, Md., 135 employees. Vinyl resins,
compounds.
Salisbury, Md., 60 employees. Printing, lam
inating and embossing of vinyl film and
sheeting.
West Caldwell, N. J., 85 employees. Vinyl
film printing, embossing and laminating,
self-adhesive films.
Firestone Synthetic Fibers Company
Hopewell, Va. (headquarters), 1,180 employ
ees. Synthetic fibers yarn — nylon and
polyester, nylon resins.
Firestone Synthetic Rubber & Latex
Company
Akron (headquarters), 350 employees. Syn
thetic rubber, latices.
Lake Charles, La., 880 employees. Synthetic
rubber, carbon black masterbatch.
Orange, Texas, 700 employees. Butadiene
monomer, synthetic rubber.
Firestone Textiles Company
Gastonia, N. C. (headquarters), 1,435 em
ployees. Tire cord and industrial fabrics.
Bennettsville, S. C., 135 employees. Tire
cord fabric.
Bowling Green, Ky., 900 employees. Tire
cord fabric.
Firestone Wire & Cable Company
Danville, Ky., 375 employees. Steel cord and
bead wire.
DIVERSIFIED PRODUCTS GROUP
Firestone Industrial Products Company
Magnolia, Ark. (Firestone Coated Fabrics
Company), 345 employees. Coated fabric
tanks, linings and inflatable boats, aircraft
and vehicular fuel cells.
Noblesville, Ind. (headquarters), 1,195 em
ployees. Molded extruded industrial prod
ucts. (More on page 4)
Lighter And Brighter: The Easier To See Vehicle Color And Your Safety
• Aunt Mamie despised bright yellow. Once she voted
‘flat against’ a prospect when she was on a nominating com
mittee to employ a new preacher at the church. He was in
a habit of wearing a bright yellow necktie. But gladly did
Mamie vote for the next candidate, being strongly influenced
by her liking for the parson’s green suit and brown tie.
Had Mamie been buying a car. All this is to say: When buy-
you can see where her color ing a vehicle, color is a major
preference would have led her
—to a grave mistake, safetywise.
So, on autos and color-for-safety,
Mamie could be more typical
than you’d think.
Say, you buy or trade for a
car, and considering color a safe
ty factor, what would you look
for?
Fire-engine red would be a
good bet, but fire-engine white
would be even better, according
to studies. Several cities have
painted firetrucks a shiny white
and equipped with flashing
lights.
PEOPLE choose the color of
a car for several reasons—from
habit (“I’ve just got used to that
one”), because of what color’s
in style at the moment, for prac
tical reasons (“It won’t show
dirt and will be easy to touch up
scratches”.) Others just take
what’s on hand without prefer
ence.
consideration for safety. And re
lationship of car color to visibil
ity is a definite safety factor.
That’s because the way your eye
sees an object depends much on
contrast to the object’s back
ground and the light reflected
from its surface.
Take red. It’s generally a safe
ty color because it stands out.
Yet sometimes its visibility is
poor because the human eye is
not sensitive to it under failing
light (twilight on the highway,
for example.)
Engineers at Daimler-Benz of
Germany did tests with a paint
manufacturer on relative visi
bility of car colors in differing
settings, as fog, bright sun, twi
light; and with several back
grounds like dusty roads, snow,
green countryside. Some things
the tests showed:
• Amount of light a vehicle
reflects is the most important
visibility factor under all driv
ing conditions
• No one color is best for
every condition
• The lighter and brighter
the car color, the easier to see it
• Color contrast-with-back-
ground principle works only
when there is enough light.
REFLECTED light allows you
to see an object, but sometimes
light can mislead. While gener
ally light-color cars are more
easily seen, the Daimler-Benz
studies found exceptions. In
brilliant sunlight there was no
real visibility difference be
tween light and dark cars. Pure
tones of a color ranked higher
in ‘seeability’ than ‘tempered’
tones of the same color.
As light fades, contrast that
depends on color also is reduced.
Eye-assaulting luminous orange
is highly-visible in all situations,
the studies showed. But it has
disadvantages—distracting, t i r -
ing, and is pretty quick to fade.
Of the generally-available car
colors, which are safest? The
studies showed that white is
first in all-around visibility, blue, bright red, light brown,
with bright yellow second, light green and dark tones of
bright orange next. After these gray, red, blue, brown, black,
top-visibility colors (in order); And the worst color for safety;
Dark yellow, light gray, light Dark green.
□N THIS LOT
EVERY FRIDAY AT DUSK
FIRESTONE
; OPEN-AIR
f PJ N E M A
THIS WEEK
On The Lawn ...
• Back in the late 1930s and
off-and-on up to the mid-1950s,
it was known as “The Blanket
Theatre.” Now, outdoor cinema
is back at the same place—on
the lawn between the site of the
old Firestone (Gastonia) dormi
tories and the playground.
The Friday night movies, be
gun in late June, wiU continue
through the summer. They’re
sponsored and presented by
Firestone Wesleyan Church. So
far, among titles with “a re
deeming message” are “The
Cross and the Switchblade,”
“Time to Run,” and “The
Enemy.”