I ll ! 1, 1°14.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



_'.i 



GUIDING THE MOTORIST ON HIS WAY. 



HAVING .1 m< toi car is nol ..11 of motoring it is onlj om 

 of the requisites. Another requisite is to know how to 



ii want to go. 

 Of course, in former years it was impossible to tell when 

 came to the fork .it' the roads which went where, and it did nol 

 always occur thai some neighborly person familiar with the ground 

 happened along just at that moment to give the needed informa 

 tion. To be sure, the good read books which began to appeal in 

 the old bicycle days and multiplied when the n me in 



vogue were a material help, but -till the good road I ks tried 



to cover so much ground in such little space that they left a 

 great many puzzling corners entirely unattended to. And then, 

 ii is a great consumer of time, ti.it to say a most inconvenient 

 process, to take out a map at every cross mad and discuss what 

 particular point in the map fits the special place where you 

 happen to be. The sign post that not only points the way but 



tells the distance is a vast improvement over the road 1 k; 



and The B I Goodrich Co.. of Akron. Ohio, if it does not 

 exactly cover th< United States with these sign posts, has at 

 least in a d e i 

 very good start 

 towards it, for 

 its sign posts. 

 with their ex- 

 plicit directions, 

 now cover 40,- 

 000 miles of 

 American high- 

 way S. 



This idea of 

 giving the mo- 

 torist on t h e 

 mad just the 

 in formation he 

 n e e d s started 

 in a small way 

 some years ago 

 with the Good- 

 rich company, 

 but it has now 

 developed into 

 an extreme- 

 ly large and 

 very important 

 department. 



They now have three truck crews of trained men working in 

 different sections of the country under the direction of their 

 Touring Bureau. The type of sign decided upon after long and 

 careful experimenting is simple, effective and durable. It is 

 circular in shape, is made of porcelain enamel in three colors, 

 with arms pointing to destinations in as many directions as are 

 required. Each arm shows the town name and mileage thereto. 

 The enameled sign is erected on a ten-foot, creosoted post of 

 cedar or oak. Danger signs are placed at railroad crossings and 

 short turns, and every effort is made to assure safety to the 

 tourists. When one considers the extent of the territory covered. 

 the magnitude of the task is appreciated; but little by little they 

 are recording distances in all sections. As stated above, they 

 have already road-marked over 40.000 miles of highway and 

 expect to do many more. Their guide posts have been endorse. 1 

 by practically all of the State Highway Commissions and several 

 of these bodies have even gone so far as to erect on their own 

 initiative these same Goodrich guide posts along their more 

 traveled roads. Among these are the associations of South 

 Dakota, Wisconsin and Michigan. 

 To be sure, the basic purpose back of these road guides is to 



bring the < Inch tire to tin attention of the motorists. In 



-is, ii is an advertising device Bui it is .. whol< 



Raymi xii Beck, Chief of the Touring 



Bum m 



One of the Goodrich Guide-Posting Cm ■. - I recting \ 

 Road Marker. 



and effective sort of advertising, because it cannot fail to 

 the good will of tin purchasers. Nothing is quite such a relief 



to the tourist's 

 mind as ti 

 at the crossing 

 of the w aj s an 

 accural. ii 

 finger pointing 

 him just where 

 he wants t 

 and indicating 



just how long 



it will take to 

 get there. Here 

 is a photograph 



oi one of the 



G Irich guidi 



post trucks at 

 w -. irk. 



Another de- 

 partment of the 



i Irich Tour- 



■ tea", and 



one that is des 

 peratelj h a r d 

 worked in sum- 

 mer, is the de- 

 p a r t m e n t 



devoted to giving applicants specific information regarding any 

 piece of road in which they may he interested. The Bureau 

 often receives as many as 400 requests in a single day from 

 people who want to know all about a certain piece of road, 

 possibly in Maine, likely enough in Florida, or perhaps over on 

 the Pacific coast. In order to answer all these questions the 

 Bureau is compelled to he familiar with all the roads of im- 

 portance in the United States; and that is no small job, when 

 one recalls that the mail route roads of the United States alone 

 aggregate over a million miles. 



These requests lor special information not only come from all 

 over the country, but come from all kinds of people. The 

 Bureau does not inquire even whether they use Goodrich tires. 

 No questions are asked, no charge is made, and all get the 

 information they desire. Here is a photo-reproduction of Mr. 

 Raymond Heck, chief of the Bureau. The other portrait shown 

 above is that of Mr. !•'.. C. Tihiiets. who. as the general adver- 

 tising manager of tli. I Irich company, encourages and abets 



Mr. Beck in the highly valuable and exceeding!) humanitarian 

 work of throwing light on dark places and guiding the stranger 

 in the way he should go. 



E. C. Tibbets, General Advertising 

 Manager. 



