TYRE MANUFACTURE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19154, 10 November 1927, Page 16

TYRE MANUFACTURE.

♦- FIRESTONE'S SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE. One of the greatest industries of the present time is the making of motor tyres, and there is little doubt that, the great Firestone organisation holds the premier position in this rapidly growing industry. It is of late years only that the boom in the manufacturing of rubber goods has been apparent, and early in the present century, H. G. Firestone, a prominent American business man, organised the Firestone Corporation, which has grown to be the greatest rubber concern in the United States. Firestone owns and cultivates well over one million acres of rubber trees in Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, and it is largely from this huge estate that the factories controlled by the concern obtain the crude rubber. The extent of the plantations and works ot this amazingly progressive concern, and the methods employed in the manufacture of the different types of tyres and tubes, form a particularly interesting theme for the motion ° picture shown to motorists and enthusiasts at the Liberty Theatre yesterday morning. The picture commenced with scenes of the vast plantations owned and run by tlie Firestone Tyre Corporation, and showed the entire process of tyre manufacturing from the time the rubber,, was tapped from the trees in the plantations to the finished tyres and tubes. The actual manufacturing plant owned by Firestone is the largest in the world, some idea of the extent ot the business being obtainable from the fact that in 1927 over 50,000 tyres and tubes were produced daily. The rapid rate of manufacturing tyres is well demonstrated by the tact that the crude rubber is brought to the factories in the morning, and by night is turned out as the finished article. Few motorists realise, when buying tyres, that Dominion-made goods can be obtained. All Firestone tyres and tubes sold in the Dominions are made in a branch factory in Canada, and are therefore, Dominion products. This lowers the rate of duty, and has a very material effect on the retail price of the articles in the Dominion markets. The fact that Firestone goods are of British manufacture, and of excellent qualitv, makes for the great popularity "of their tyres and tubes. Vast quantities of the crude material have to be bought to fulfil the demands from the company's factories, and Firestone maintains no fewer than 20 different buyers' offices in the world's trade centre for crude rubber—Singapore. Each of these offices is under the control of experts, whose duty is to pick the best rubber and obtain monopolies of as much of the higher grades as possible. It is thus that the Firestone factories obtain their raw materials and thus that the world s markets are supplied with tyres as good as can be manufactured. The demand for dried crude rubber became so great that Firestone was under the necessity of obtaining some method bv which the rubber could be dried rapidlv. The old method took from 20 to 60 days, but the engineers of the company have perfected a process bv which the rubber is dried in from four to six hours. This drying plant was the first to be installed in any rubber producing country, and many other firms have followed the lead of Firestone. There is a great demand for the finished goods from the Firestone factories, and a number two plant is being' installed at the main factory. With this addition it is expected that the factories will be able to turn out at least 45,000 tyres and 50,000 tubes daily.

The company has its own cotton factory, and manufactures its own cordr ings for the tyres. The cordings are treated by chemical experts, and absolutely defy the action of anything corrosive such as acids. # Firestone was the first firm to use this system, and it has maintained a very high standard of work since its inauguration. Before being put on the open market, the tyres and tubes are subjected to the most severe road tests. After the road tests, the tyres which are used in the test are stripped layer by layer, and what faults are found are checked and eliminated from other tyres. In their endeavour to obtain the perfect tyre, the Firestone company has built over 2000 special pieces of machinery.

The most up-to-date tyre manufacturing firm in the world, and the biggest, Firestone has earned a reputation for its pioducts +o be envied, and the slogan of the firm, "Firestone tyres are better," is by no.means an exaggeration of the merits of the products. —9