#Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

[suitelifeoftravel]

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio

I was so excited for the opportunity to visit the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio.  Entering through the Gate Lodge, I was immediately welcomed by a lovely street lined with apple trees.  I parked at the lot near the Carriage House and approached the stables to purchase my ticket. Stan Hywet Hall was the home of Goodyear Tire and Rubber executive F.A. Seiberling and his five children…

[stone-cold-groove]

Performance Polyglas. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company ad - 1971.

[rodspurethoughts]

The Legacy of Goodyear Rubber Company: Pioneers of West Coast Tire Manufacturing

"Explore the rich history of Goodyear Rubber Company, the first tire manufacturer on the West Coast. #Goodyear #LosAngeles #TireIndustry"

The Goodyear Rubber Company, situated at 6701 South Central Avenue in Los Angeles, played a pivotal role in shaping the West Coast’s tire manufacturing industry. As the first tire company in the region, Goodyear paved the way for other manufacturers to establish their presence, leading to the growth of a thriving rubber industry in Los Angeles. The Old Goodyear Plant in Los Angeles Historical…

[follow-up-news]

Women's rights activist Lilly Ledbetter has died, according to a family representative. She was 86. Ledbetter, best known for advocating for equal pay for women, died as a result of respiratory failure on Saturday night. She was in Alabama, where she was born and raised. “She was surrounded by her family and loved ones," her family said in a statement on Sunday. "Our mother lived an extraordinary life." Ledbetter's fight for equal pay started in the 1990s, when she received an anonymous letter that said she was being paid far less than her male colleagues who had similar, or less, seniority and experience at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden, Alabama, where she worked as an area supervisor. “I took a job that had normally been considered a man’s job. I don’t agree with that term,” Ledbetter said in an interview with Forbes in 2019. “It’s a job. Whether it’s a man, African American, Latino, heavy, skinny, whatever. If they’re the best qualified for that job, they should get it, and they should get the money to go with it.” Thus began years of legal battles that climbed all the way to the Supreme Court. Ledbetter ultimately lost the lawsuit against Goodyear, with the high court ruling she had missed the deadline for filing her claim. But Democrats in Congress — urged on by a dissenting opinion from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — fought to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The act makes it easier for victims of pay discrimination to present a case, easing the statute of limitations that previously favored corporations. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became the first bill Barack Obama signed into law as president in 2009.

[reddest-flower]

The Soviet intervention in Hungary and the Khrushchev revelations produced in Europe a process that led – gradually – to the Eurocommunism of the Communist Party of Spain’s leader Santiago Carrillo, who said, in 1976, ‘once Moscow was our Rome, but no more. Now we acknowledge no guiding centre, no international discipline’. This was a communism that no longer believed in revolution but was quite satisfied with an evolutionary dynamic. The European parties, correct in their desire for the right to develop their own strategies and tactics, nonetheless, threw themselves onto a self-destructive path. Few remained standing after the USSR collapsed in 1991. They campaigned for polycentrism but, in the end, achieved only a return to social democracy.

Amongst the Third World communist parties, a different orientation became clear after 1956. While the Western European parties seemed eager to denigrate the USSR and its contributions, the parties in the Third World acknowledged the importance of the USSR but sought some distance from its political orientation. During their visits to Moscow in the 1960s, champions of ‘African socialism’ such as Modibo Keïta of Mali and Mamadou Dia of Senegal announced the necessity of non-alignment and the importance of nationally developed processes of socialist construction. Marshal Lin Biao spoke of the need for a ‘creative application’ of Marxism in the Chinese context. The young leader of the Indonesian Communist Party – Dipa Nusantara Aidit – moved his party towards a firm grounding in both Marxism-Leninism and the peculiarities of Indonesian history. [...]

In the Third World, where Communism was a dynamic movement, it was not treated as a religion that was incapable of error. ‘Socialism is young’, Che Guevara wrote in 1965, ‘and has its mistakes.’ Socialism required ceaseless criticism in order to strengthen it. Such an attitude was missing in Cold War Europe and North America [...] After 1956, Communism was penalized by the Cold Warriors for the Soviet intervention in Hungary. This played some role in the Third World, but it was not decisive. In India, in 1957 the Communists won an election in Kerala to become the ruling party in that state. In 1959, the Cuban revolution overthrew a dictatorship and adopted Marxism-Leninism as its general theory. In Vietnam, from 1954, the Communists took charge of the north of the country and valiantly fought to liberate the rest of their country. These were communist victories despite the intervention in Hungary.

[...]

Much the same history propelled the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) forward from 1951, when it had merely 5,000 members, to 1964, when it had two million party members and an additional fifteen million members in its mass organizations (half of them in the Indonesian Peasants’ Front). The party had deep roots in the heavily populated sections of east and central Java but had – in the decade after 1951 – begun to make gains in the outer islands, such as Sumatra. A viciously anti-communist military was unable to stop the growth of the party. The new leadership from the 1953 Party Central Committee meeting were all in their thirties, with the new Secretary General – Aidit – merely thirty-one years old. These communists were committed to mass struggles and to mass campaigns, to building up the party base in rural Indonesia. The Indonesian Peasants’ Front and the Plantation Workers’ Union – both PKI mass organizations – fought against forced labour (romusha) and encouraged land seizures (aksi sepihak). These campaigns became more and more radical. In February 1965, the Plantation Workers’ Union occupied land held by the US Rubber Company in North Sumatra. US Rubber and Goodyear Tires saw this as a direct threat to their interests in Indonesia. Such audacity would not be tolerated. Three multinational oil companies (Caltex, Stanvac and Shell) watched this with alarm. US diplomat George Ball wrote to US National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy that in ‘the long run’ events in Indonesia such as these land seizures ‘may be more important than South Vietnam’. Ball would know. He oversaw the 1963 coup in South Vietnam against the US ally Ngô Đình Diệm. The West felt it could not stand by as the PKI got more aggressive.

By 1965, the PKI had three million party members – adding a million members in the year. It had emerged as a serious political force in Indonesia, despite the anti-communist military’s attempts to squelch its growth. Membership in its mass organizations went up to 18 million. A strange incident – the killing of three generals in Jakarta – set off a massive campaign, helped along by the CIA and Australian intelligence, to excise the communists from Indonesia. Mass murder was the order of the day. The worst killings were in East Java and in Bali. Colonel Sarwo Edhie’s forces, for instance, trained militia squads to kill communists. ‘We gave them two or three days’ training,’ Sarwo Edhie told journalist John Hughes, ‘then sent them out to kill the communists.’ In East Java, one eyewitness recounted, the prisoners were forced to dig a grave, then ‘one by one, they were beaten with bamboo clubs, their throats slit, and they were pushed into the mass grave’. By the end of the massacre, a million Indonesian men and women of the left were sent to these graves. Many millions more were isolated, without work and friends. Aidit was arrested by Colonel Yasir Hadibroto, brought to Boyolali (in Central Java) and executed. He was 42.

There was no way for the world communist movement to protect their Indonesian comrades. The USSR’s reaction was tepid. The Chinese called it a ‘heinous and diabolical’ crime. But neither the USSR nor China could do anything. The United Nations stayed silent. The PKI had decided to take a path that was without the guns. Its cadre could not defend themselves. They were not able to fight the military and the anti-communist gangs. It was a bloodbath.

[...]

There was little mention in Havana of the Soviet Union. It had slowed down its support for national liberation movements, eager for detente and conciliation with the West by the mid-1960s. In 1963, Aidit had chastised the Soviets, saying, ‘Socialist states are not genuine if they fail to really give assistance to the national liberation struggle’. The reason why parties such as the PKI held fast to ‘Stalin’ was not because they defended the purges or collectivization in the USSR. It was because ‘Stalin’ in the debate around militancy had come to stand in for revolutionary idealism and for the anti-fascist struggle. Aidit had agreed that the Soviets could have any interpretation of Stalin in terms of domestic policy (‘criticize him, remove his remains from the mausoleum, rename Stalingrad’), but other Communist Parties had the right to assess his role on the international level. He was a ‘lighthouse’, Aidit said in 1961, whose work was ‘still useful to Eastern countries’. This was a statement against the conciliation towards imperialism of the Khrushchev era. It was a position shared across many of the Communist Parties of the Third World.

Many Communist parties, frustrated with the pace of change and with the brutality of the attacks on them, would take to the gun in this period – from Peru to the Philippines. The massacre in Indonesia hung heavily on the world communist movement. But this move to the gun had its limitations, for many of these parties would mistake the tactics of armed revolution for a strategy of violence. The violence worked most effectively the other way. The communists were massacred in Indonesia – as we have seen – and they were butchered in Iraq and Sudan, in Central Asia and South America. The image of communists being thrown from helicopters off the coast of Chile is far less known than any cliché about the USSR.

Red Star Over the Third World, Vijay Prashad, 2019

[jartita-me-teneis]

En 1839, Charles Goodyear, un empresario estadounidense, estaba obsesionado con mejorar la durabilidad del caucho natural, que era pegajoso en el calor y frágil en el frío....

Después de años de experimentos fallidos y dificultades financieras, Goodyear descubrió accidentalmente el proceso de vulcanización. Un día, en una tienda de Nueva Inglaterra, dejó caer una mezcla de caucho y azufre sobre una estufa caliente. En lugar de derretirse, la mezcla se volvió elástica y resistente al calor....

Este descubrimiento fue revolucionario, ya que la vulcanización mejora las propiedades del caucho natural, haciéndolo más fuerte, elástico y resistente a las variaciones de temperatura. Goodyear patentó su proceso en 1844, pero su falta de habilidad empresarial lo dejó en la ruina, a pesar de su contribución monumental....

La vulcanización fue crucial para el desarrollo de la industria del caucho, permitiendo la fabricación de productos duraderos como neumáticos, mangueras, sellos y calzado impermeable. En reconocimiento a su trabajo, la compañía Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, fundada años después de su muerte, lleva su nombre....!!!

[transgenderer]

The Goodyear Inflatoplane was an inflatable experimental aircraft made by the Goodyear Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, well known for the Goodyear blimp. Although it seemed an improbable project, the finished aircraft proved to be capable of meeting its design objectives, although orders were never forthcoming from the military. A total of 12 prototypes were built between 1956 and 1959, and testing continued until 1972, when the project was finally cancelled.

The original concept of an all-fabric inflatable aircraft was based on Taylor McDaniel's inflatable rubber glider experiments in 1931. Designed and built in only 12 weeks, the Goodyear Inflatoplane was built in 1956, with the idea that it could be used by the military as a rescue plane to be dropped in a hardened container behind enemy lines. The 44 cubic ft (1.25 cubic meter) container could also be transported by truck, jeep trailer or aircraft.[1] The inflatable surface of this aircraft was actually a sandwich of two rubber-type materials connected by a mesh of nylon threads, forming an I-beam. When the nylon was exposed to air, it absorbed and repelled water as it stiffened,[clarification needed] giving the aircraft its shape and rigidity. Structural integrity was retained in flight with forced air being continually circulated by the aircraft's motor. This continuous pressure supply enabled the aircraft to have a degree of puncture resilience, the testing of airmat showing that it could be punctured by up to six .30 calibre bullets and retain pressure.[2][3] Goodyear inflatoplane on display at the Smithsonian Institution

There were at least two versions: The GA-468 was a single-seater. It took about five minutes to inflate to about 25 psi (170 kPa); at full size, it was 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m) long, with a 22 ft (6.7 m) wingspan. A pilot would then hand-start the two-stroke cycle,[1] 40 horsepower (30 kW) Nelson engine, and takeoff with a maximum load of 240 pounds (110 kg). On 20 US gallons (76 L) of fuel, the aircraft could fly 390 miles (630 km), with an endurance of 6.5 hours. Maximum speed was 72 miles per hour (116 km/h), with a cruise speed of 60 mph. Later, a 42 horsepower (31 kW) engine was used in the aircraft.

Takeoff from turf was in 250 feet with 575 feet needed to clear a 50-foot obstacle. It landed in 350 feet. Rate of climb was 550 feet per minute. Its service ceiling was estimated at 10,000 ft.

The test program at Goodyear's facilities near Wingfoot Lake, Akron, Ohio showed that the inflation could be accomplished with as little as 8 psi (544 mbar), less than a car tire.[1] The flight test program had a fatal crash when Army aviator Lt. "Pug" Wallace was killed. The aircraft was in a descending turn when one of the control cables under the wing came off the pulley and was wedged in the pulley bracket, locking the stick. The turn tightened until one of the wings folded up over the propeller and was chopped up. With the wings flapping because of loss of air, one of the aluminum wing tip skids hit the pilot in the head, as was clear from marks on his helmet. Wallace was pitched out, over the nose of the aircraft and fell into the shallow lake. His parachute never opened.[4]

To Die For the InflatoPlane

[supplyside]

Goodyear Tire an Rubber Company PLant Two, Akron, Ohio - 1980

[beardedmrbean]

The Japanese company that owns tire maker Dunlop shuttered a century-old New York factory — and fired 1,500 workers — as it moved manufacturing overseas.

Sumitomo Rubber USA closed down the Dunlop plant located in Tonawanda, near Buffalo, on Nov. 7.

The closure is the latest blow to the western New York area, which, like much of the Rust Belt, has seen its manufacturing sector decimated by companies shifting production overseas in recent decades.

The company said cost controls and investments in the aging facility were not enough to overcome mounting financial losses, according to Cycle News.

“The plant closure is primarily due to overall facility performance within the increasingly competitive international tire market,” Sumitomo said in a statement to the publication.

“This difficult decision follows a multi-year analysis of the company’s financial situation and general market conditions.”

The company said it sought to find a buyer for the facility, which first opened its doors in 1923, but made the decision to shut down the plant when there were no takers.

Local lawmakers blasted the company, which is said to have spent $140 million in modernizing the plant in recent years.

“It appears this decision was made by the Japanese owner’s board without any discussion with local and state officials about the possibility of closure,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told Cycle News.

“At no point did Sumitomo ask for any additional assistance to remain in operation, despite the fact we have always supported their efforts to succeed here in Erie County with tax incentives and assistance through the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.”

US Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY), who represents New York’s 23rd District, which encompasses parts of the Buffalo metro area as well as the southern half of western New York state, said he was ��gravely disappointed” by the news.

“I mean, it comes as a shock,” the lawmaker told The Post.

“This is gonna really sting here for our regional economy.”

The Post has sought comment from Sumitomo and Poloncarz.

Dunlop tires are made for passenger cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. The brand also has sporting goods such as tennis rackets and golf equipment.

The tire brand had been owned by two different companies based on geographic regions. In North America, Europe and Japan, Dunlop tires were manufactured and sold by Ohio-based Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, which acquired the rights as part of a joint venture with Sumitomo.

In 2015, Sumitomo took full control of Dunlop after the parent company ended its joint venture with Goodyear.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Charles Goodyear (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860)

An American chemist and engineer, Charles Goodyear is most well known for his development of vulcanized rubber. Natural rubber is a soft material, and vulcanization stabilized and hardened the material, allowing it to be adopted for a variety of applications. However, although he patented the process in the 1840s, Goodyear never truly profited from his work. He died in debt in 1860, and it was only after his death that his family began to receive significant royalties. Notably, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has no association with Charles Goodyear or his family beyond being named in his honor when it was founded nearly 40 years later.

Sources/Further Reading: (Image source - Wikipedia) (PBS) (MIT) (Goodyear)

[wumblr]

"the goodyear blimp" is such a dense phrase. in order to truly understand it, it's almost too much to ask, the nature and mechanics of a blimp, and yet this is only the beginning. you have to also understand that the goodyear tire and rubber company is named after -- well, charles goodyear, who invented the process of vulcanization (named by some other guy), although the company was formed 40 years after his death -- i mean, so, vulcan, the roman god of volcanoes, right -- and so, when you form crosslinks in a polymer chain, it... well, in any case, the field of public relations, or "PR," uh... and the process involves sulphur, which is why it smells like a volcano. and it was all to sell car tires. to carry a combustion engine across great distances -- curiously, not named after the god of fire -- because of the free market economy. and there are four of them left. because blimp advertising has fallen in popularity

[stone-cold-groove]

The Go Go Goodyear colorful alphabet. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company - 1964.

[zoomar]

This inflatable structure is capable of serving as a "house" for astronauts who reach the moon. --Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

[lboogie1906]

Robert Frederick Smith (born December 1, 1962) is a businessman, philanthropist, chemical engineer, and investor. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. In high school, he applied for an internship at Bell Labs but was told the program was intended for college students. He persisted, calling each Monday for five months. When a student from M.I.T. did not show up, he got the position, and that summer he developed a reliability test for semiconductors. He earned a BS in chemical engineering from Cornell University. He became a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha. He received his MBA from Columbia University with concentrations in finance and marketing. He worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Air Products & Chemicals, and Kraft General Foods as a chemical engineer, where he registered two US and two European patents. He worked for Goldman Sachs in technology investment banking, first in New York City and then in Silicon Valley. He advised on mergers and acquisition activity with companies such as Apple and Microsoft. He was included in Vanity Fair’s New Establishment List, which is an annual ranking of individuals who have made impactful business innovations. He founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm of which he is the principal founder, chairman, and chief executive. He is credited with generating a 30 percent rate of return for his investors from the company's inception to 2020. Vista Equity Partners was the fourth largest enterprise software company after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, including all their holdings. Vista has invested in companies such as STATS, Ping Identity, and Jio. Vista Equity Partners had closed more than $46 billion of funding. He was named Private Equity International's Game Changer of the Year for his work with Vista. The 2019 PitchBook Private Equity Awards named Vista Equity Partners "Dealmaker of the Year". #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha https://www.instagram.com/p/Cln7GS2rUMf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[follow-up-news]

Sumitomo Rubber announced Thursday it will close its western New York tire manufacturing plant and eliminate all 1,550 union and salaried jobs. The Japan-based company said attempts to control costs, along with investments in the aging facility, had failed to offset mounting financial losses. “The plant closure is primarily due to overall facility performance within the increasingly competitive international tire market. This difficult decision follows a multi-year analysis of the company’s financial situation and general market conditions,” Sumitomo said in a statement. Efforts to save the Tonawanda plant, near Buffalo, included trying to find a buyer for it, the company said, but there were no offers. Sumitomo had recently invested $140 million in the facility, including $129 million in 2022, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. The plant opened in 1923. Sumitomo took full control of it in 2015 after parent company Sumitomo Rubber Industries ended a joint venture with Ohio-based Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America.