April 1. 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



511 



From a small beginning in the manufacture of bicycle and car- 

 riage tires only, the scope of the business was broadened rapidly. 

 In 1901 pneumatic carriage tires became an important product, a 

 line of soft rubber specialties was added, and in 1903 golf ball 

 manufacture was begun. Meanwhile the automobile was coming 

 into prominence and the company became one of the leaders in the 

 manufacture of both pneumatic and solid tires for passenger and 

 commercial cars, a position which it has occupied ever since. 

 The company's products in 1904 included rubber tiling, druggists' 

 sundries and horseshoe pads. 



In 1911 Slime 3,300 employes were turning out daily 100,000 



company, was taken over in 1915 and operated as a department of 

 the latter company. Hose production that year reached 1,000,000 

 feet for one month, and pneumatic tires up to 48 by 12 for 5-ton 

 trucks were being made. Balloon manufacture was begun, and 

 after 1916 the company took a prominent place among the pro- 

 ducers of both the kite and dirigible types for use in the war. 

 Daily tire capacity was increased to 15,000 and later to 20,000, the 

 total output being more than 3,000,000 in 1916. Rim output also 

 increased rapidly. M present the company has about 20 per cent 

 of the automobile tire business of the country, and normally pro- 

 duces 80,000 filler soles a day. It has 72 branches in the United 



The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Akron Plant No. 1. Main Factory with General Offices in Center Foreground. 



poinids of products, including 3,500 automobile tires, 500 motor- 

 cycb tires and 30,000 pounds of solid tires. There were 55 

 branches in the United States and 11 in Canada, some separately 

 incorporated and many in buildings owned by the company. 

 Branches were opened in Me.xico City in 1912, also in Argentina, 

 Australia, and India in 1915, and the company has long devoted 

 much attention to foreign business. In 1910 the Goodyear Tire & 

 Rubber Co. of Canada, Ltd., was incorporated with $250,000 capital 

 and the Durham Rubber Co. at Bowmanvillc, Ontario, acquired. 

 In 1916 a new plant was built at Toronto. The present capitaliza- 

 tion of the Canadian company is $30,000,000, half common and 

 half preferred. In 1912 plans were made for a complete $1,000,000 



States, and branches or agencies in most important cities of the 

 world. 



Ever since its organization the company has been engaged in an 

 almost constant program of plant extension to take care of in- 

 creasing business. Factory additions were made in 1901, 1902, 

 1905, 1908 and 1911, when the plant with its increased factory, 

 warehouse, office and laboratory facilities covered a ground area 

 of 31 acres, had a floor space of 1,000,000 square feet and a power 

 plant of 7,500 horse-power. Four new factory buildings com- 

 prising 10 acres of floor space were erected in 1915, and the fol- 

 lowing year factory, warehouse, office, garage, restaurant and 

 reclaiming plant additions approximated 1,125,000 square feet, 



<«>!":'*.• 



The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Akron Plant No. 2. ' h tput PRiNriPALLv Mkcham. ai ( idims and Small-Sized Tires. 



rubber plant in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to take care of Soutli 

 American business and also to prepare crude rubber for use in 

 Akron. 



In 1912 the manufacture of rubber clothing was begun and the 

 following year mechanical rubber goods, such as belting, hose, 

 packing, tiling, matting, etc., had become important products. 

 Tire output reached 10,000 daily in 1914, 1,478,396 being sold 

 during the year. Branches discontinued retail business to dis- 

 tribute in wholesale quantities only. 



The cushion tire business of the Motz Tire & Rubber Co. of 

 Akron, 50 per cent of whose stock was owned by the Goodyear 



including a power plant of 12,000 horse-power. Last year a rim 

 plant 660 by 250 feet was erected, employing 500 workmen. The 

 plant now stands on LSO acres of land, has a comliined floor space 

 of about 90 acres and normally employs over 20,000 persons. 



Realizing the importance of raw material supply and costs, the 

 company in 1913 acquirrO control of the Killingly Manufacturing 

 Co. at Killingly, now Goodyear, Connecticut, equipped the plant 

 with new machinery and began the weaving of tire fabric, of 

 which it was using some 8,000,1X10 yards aniuially. In 1917 this 

 company was reorganized under the name of the Goodyear Cotton 

 .Mills with $5,000,000 capital. A new yarn mill an<l tenement houses 



