170 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1919. 



Mechanical Guous Pla 



THE RUBBER TRADE IN OHIO. 



By Our Regular Correspondent. 



FIEESTONES LATEST ADDITION. 



GROUND was broken about October 1 for a new mechanical 

 building for the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, which, 

 as shown by the illustration, will be a thoroughly modern, up- 

 to-date structure, 325 feet long by 315 feet wide, and costing 

 $400,000. 



The front section is three stories high and 25 feet deep, to 

 contain offices, locker rooms, wash rooms, shower baths, lunch 

 room, and cafeteria. Just behind, two bays, each forty-five feet 

 deep, with headroom under the trusses of thirty feet, are equip- 

 ped with two ten-ton traveling electric cranes. The remainder 

 of the buildings will consist of eight bays, each twenty-five feet 

 wide, with a height of fifteen feet under the trusses. At the 

 southwest corner is planned a forge shop 50 by 100 feet, and 

 along the south side of the 

 main building a storage and 

 loading platform eighty feet 

 long will be built. 



The roof is of sawtooth con- 

 struction with a northern ex- 

 posure that does away with 

 shadows. Ample ventilation, 

 both natural and artificial, is 

 supplied, since part of the 

 heating system can be used to 

 give plenty of cool air, and 

 can be operated in the sum- 

 mer as a ventilating system 

 to keep the air in constant 

 circulation.. The floor will be 

 of wooden blocks laid on re- 

 inforced concrete, a combination which, besides being best adapt- 

 ed to the requirements of a building intended for mechanical 

 purposes, is also easiest on the feet. 



The equipment is to tje in keeping with the modernness of 

 the building. The machinery will be actuated by individual 

 electric motors. This addition will be occupied by the elec- 

 trical, machine, pipe, car- 

 penter and tin shops, ?jid 

 almost 500 hands will be 

 employed there. It is in- 

 tended to be completed, 

 equipped, and occupied 

 early in the new year. 



NEW FIKESTONE RIM PLANT. 



Ground v/as broken in 

 October at .Akron for an 

 additional $1,000,000 plant 

 in the group of Firestone 

 factories. The new plant 

 will house the Firestone 

 Steel Products Co., which 

 annually produces approxi- 

 mately 1,500,000 demount- 

 able rims for pneumatic 



automobile tires and 65 per cent of the steel bases used in the 

 United States for solid truck tires. 



The Firestone Steel Products Co., at present occupies the 

 group of buildings which until 1910 housed the entire manu- 

 facturing facilities of the Firestone company. This group which 

 was then too small to meet the demands for Firestone tires, 

 is now too small to meet the demands for Firestone rims. 



Firestone rims were first manufactured in Cleveland, they 

 were of the demountable type and were soon adopted by many 

 motor car manufacturers. 



By 1910 large sizes of solid tires were coming into use and 



there was need of steel bases for them. As the demand 

 promised to grow steadily, Mr. Firestone installed a welding 

 plant as a department of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 

 where they were fashioned. Shortly afterward he decided 

 that the company should turn out its own rims for pneumatic 

 tires and enlarged the welding plant for the purpose. 



In 1916 the demand for rims passed the 1,000,000 mark, and 

 by May, 1918, the business had grown to such proportions that 

 Mr. Firestone decided to form a separate company to produce 

 rims and steel bases. The Firestone Steel Products Co. was 

 the outcome. 



The main building of the new plant will be 860 by 250 feet. 

 .\dvantage will be taken of every opportunity to give the work- 

 ers light and ventilation. The machinery throughout will be 

 of the most improved type. Immediately in front of the main 

 building will be a two-story office building, 170 by 40 feet. 

 It will be connected with the 

 main building by covered 

 bridges. A cafeteria for the 

 entire factory force will be 

 housed in the basement of the 

 same building. 



AKRON NOTES. 



The Mohawk Rubber Co., 

 .\kron, will place on the mark- 

 et a line of special pneumatic 

 truck tires as soon as its ad- 

 ditions to plant buildings and 

 equipment are completed. 

 Some sizes are already being 

 manufactured. 



E Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. 



New Plant of The Firestone Steel Products Co., Akron, Ohio. 



On November 16, The B. F. 

 Goodrich Co., Akron, through 

 its recreational department began the presentation of a pro- 

 gram of motion pictures in the recreation hall for Goodrich 

 employes and their families. 



The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has instituted a new system, 

 whereby it will assist its employes in starting and carrying 

 bank and savings accounts, by -attending to the details 

 of depositing each week, 

 in any bank, trust or loan 

 cumpany designated by its 

 workers, such proportion 

 of the weekly pay as each 

 one may wish to lay aside, 

 and placing in the pay 

 envelope a receipt showing 

 that the deposit has been 

 made. The banks open a 

 regular account, for each 

 depositor, with a pass book 

 in which each payment is 

 credited. 



This system is one which 

 must commend itself to 

 many thrifty and frugal 

 workers who by this method are relieved of the necessity of 

 going each week to make their deposits, and by which they are 

 committed to a systematic savings plan, or to feel assured of 

 regular payments of assessments in their building and loan as- 

 sociations. The system is one which might well be adopted by 

 other large industrial establishments. 



Among the organizations of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber 

 Co.'s employes at Akron, Ohio, the "silent" base ball team, made 

 up entirely of deaf mutes is noteworthy and is now well known 

 throughout northeastern Ohio. Last season the team had a 

 record of twelve victories out of sixteen games, a percentage 



