A Brief Biography of Harvey Firestone

Harvey Firestone









The "Millionaires Club" out fishing
























Race Driver Ab Jenkins and Harvey Firestone on a Firestone equipped tractor










Firestone, Harvey Samuel (1868-1938), established the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company (now Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc.) in Akron, Ohio, in 1900. Emerging as of the leading manufacturers of car and truck tires after 1906, Firestone's firm played a key role in putting America on wheels. As a supporter of the "Good Roads Movement" and the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, Firestone was known as an independent competitive businessman, who cut prices whenever possible and who shunned industry agreements. Serving as president of his company from 1903 to 1926, and chairman of the board of directors until his death on Feb. 7, 1938, he is remembered not only for his executive abilities, but also as a philanthropist whose gift made possible the Firestone Library at Princeton University.
After starting out as a bookkeeper and patent medicine salesman, in 1895 young Firestone became employed at his uncle's Columbus Buggy Company. Later he was employed as a manager at the Consolidated Rubber Tire Company, a leading manufacturer of carriage tires. Buggy tires were made of solid rubber, but after starting his own company and faced with the opportunity of supplying automobile tires to Henry Ford beginning 1906, he quickly gained expertise in the design and manufacture of pneumatic tires. Firestone's keen interest in technical progress resulted in several improvements, especially in the area of truck tires. The demonstration of the superiority of Firestone pneumatic tires over solid rubber tires during the 1919 transcontinental military truck convoy convincingly showed that trucks could transport goods cheaply and with flexibility over long distances. Later, in 1931, Firestone became the first to market a practical air-filled tire for farm machinery.
In 1926, Firestone, troubled by trade restrictions on the importation of rubber from British colonies, purchased a plantation in Liberia to produce rubber. In 1926, he signed an agreement with the Liberian government to lease 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) of land for the development of rubber plantations. He also made large loans to Liberia and built for it a new and improved harbor. Firestone also led in investigating the rubber resources of the Philippines and South America, and he encouraged American investment in rubber-growing countries. That interest led Firestone to also promote a search for alternative sources for natural rubber in the United States, primarily in Florida.
Firestone's relationship with Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company extended beyond one focused on business matters. Along with Thomas Edison and Ford, Firestone was a member of the so-called "Millionaires" Club, a group that frequently went on highly publicized camping trips between 1918 and 1924. Later, Firestone's Ohio boyhood home would be moved to Ford's Greenfield Village museum, and Henry Ford's grandson would marry Harvey Firestone's granddaughter. Thus, an agreement to supply tires for the Ford Model T at the beginning of the automobile age ultimately blossomed into the forging of long-standing family ties.
John A. Heitmann
University of Dayton

Autonomous Vehicles and the Future of American Car Culture

Today in the NewYork Times there was an interesting article entitled "Collision in the Making Between Self-Driving Cars and How the World Works." (1/24/2012, p. B6). Google has developed a small fleet of self-driving vehicles, and the article deals with the kind of changes that would be necessary if these cars became adopted on a large scale. A conference took place recently at Santa Clara Law School on this topic related to technology and society.

Google's Sabastian Thrun has claimed that the autonomous car project has resulted in 200,000 miles of safe transport, and the promise is one where some 33,000+ lives per year will be saved. Google is pushing for states to approve the use of these systems as early as 2013 or 2014, with the completion of limited roads for their use within 20 years.

So will this mark the beginning of the end of the joy of driving? Will driving no longer result in self-realization, autonomy, and freedom, as movements are increasingly "programmed." Chcuk Berry sang songs of the exhileration of driving and driving for driving sake, like in "No Particular Place to Go." Will our journeys be charted in Garmin-like fashion, with little reason to turn off the main highways on to the blue and black by-ways?

Images: WWII and the Automoible in America

Title: Good citizenship and plain common sense. This man is performing a duty every car owner owes to himself and to our fighting men. In having his car adjusted to prevent excessive tire wear--and in observing the simple rules that make tires last longer--he is making a valuable contribution to our war effort. The man who wastes rubber is a poor citizen and blind even to his own personal interests
Related Names: Freeman, Albert , photographer Hollem, Howard R. , photographer Liberman, Howard , photographer Roberts, Martha McMillan , photographer United States. Office of War Information.
Date Created/Published: 1942 July-Sept.
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
Part of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)

Car pooling at Lockheed Vega. New tire-saver is aiding employees seeking rides in "ride cafeteria," recently put to work in the factory area at Lockheed Vega Corporation. Employees with room in their respective cars put filled-out "transportation offered" cards in slots marked by district and shift. Ride seekers read cards to find driver near their residence who can take passengers. Ride seekers also fill out cards in different colors so prospective drivers can locate riders
Creator(s): Bransby, David, photographer

Collections:
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives

Tire recapping. A service attendant points out a worn tire that may be recapped under a new plan which removes restrictions on reclaimed camelback rubber for passenger tires. The plan to recap passenger car tires with reclaimed rubber camelback, approved by rubber director William M. Jeffers, was put into effect in February 1943 to reduce the demand for replacement tires and still keep civilian cars in service
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
Part of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)

Vintage American Cars in Havanna, Cuba -- Can you Identify Them?

Hi folks -- these photos are taken from the Carol M. Highsmith collection athe Library of Congress and were taken in 2010. There are numerous photo books of American cars in Cuba; at least three of these are in the University of Dayton library. So let's play a game -- can you identify the cars in these photos -- Make and year?

Club Auto Racing in China -- Holy Cow! SCC at the Shanghai International Circuit

Thanks to colleague Chris Agnew who pointed this event and group to to me. Photos are from fall SIC Club Challenge, sponsored by the Sports Car Club of Beijing. The Club has 500 rich members, either corporate heads or 2nd generation rich. This is where the real speed is in China.
Founder of SCC, Zhang Kuan, was quoted as saying "Those who do street-racing are never he real rich people. What they drive are not the4 best sports cars either. The real deals are all babied in the private villas. The real racers are hidden underground."

The Automobile and Contemporary Art -- the Work of Dustin Schuler

Death of an Era -- 1980


Dance -- 2008

Dance -- 2008

Berwyn, IL car Spindle -- 1989

1963 VW Pelt -- 1983

This second intense reaction to a shortage of oil and gasoline unleashed another wave of discontent related to the automobile and its place in American life. One amusing response was the work of California artist Dustin Shuler (1948-2010). On the night of October 23, 1980 at California State University Domingues Hills, a 1959 Cadillac was illuminated, elevated on four oil drums, and then pierced by a 20 foot “nail” that was dropped 100 feet from a boom crane.26 The Cadillac was then pulled on to its side and left on display in an exhibit entitled “Death of an Era.” Schuler saw this act as akin to a hunt for a wild animal, and later he took apart the Cadillac in a way that left it “skinned,” like an animal pelt. So encouraged by this first work, Schuler subsequently skinned and created pelts of a VW beetle, a Fiat Spider and a Porsche 356C! Schuler summarized his activities this way:
"All the cars I have skinned and, for that matter, all the cars on the road can be considered an endangered species. While I am not arguing for the preservation of this species, I notice the ‘evolution’ that is going on right before my eyes [new cars coming off the docks and old cars being scrapped] and I want to collect a few good specimens before they are gone."