Shifting Priorities

An interesting illustration touting all the things where Goodyear rubber is used, captured during a shift change at a factory. From raincoats to traffic cones; work shoe soles to the rubber bumpers used at truck docks; rubberized railroad crossings, tires and many more items taken for granted. I find the fabricated sedan interesting in the artwork's center. Several automotive manufacturers' details are combined to create an automobile that never existed. Echoing the artist's creativity are vehicles that look familiar but are not authentic. Note the light green sedan to the right of center in the background. It appears to be a 1958 Mercury but with an unknown grille.

Hand Me That Wrench

For the 1946 Convair XB-36 prototype, the two main landing gear tires were the largest aircraft tires Goodyear ever made, weighing 1,320 pounds each. The tricycle landing gear setup was used for all larger aircraft at the time, but the immense weight of the largest bomber ever built restricted its landing to just three runways nationwide. That changed with the second pre-production bomber, the YB-36, with the invention of a 4-wheel bogey design with smaller tires, distributing the weight evenly, allowing the plane to land on any major runway. With a few exceptions, this became the new standard for all future large aircraft. Constant upgrades throughout its career were made to keep pace with the speed of the era's aeronautical advancements. The most visible change was the adoption of a new, raised canopy for better pilot visibility, first used on the YB-36. 

Note: The B-36 was the United States Air Force's first true intercontinental bomber, entering Air Force inventory in 1948 and remaining active through 1958. The final flight of the bomber was in the Spring of 1959, delivered to the United States Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio for permanent display. Three other B-36s remain in American museums. 

Kelly Conquers Chicago

 

The Kelly-Springfield Tire Company was founded in Springfield, Ohio by Edwin Kelly and Arthur Grant in 1894. It is the oldest tire company in the United States,  manufacturing tires for motor vehicles in Akron, and Wooster, Ohio. It was acquired in 1935 by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, which maintained it as a subsidiary until 1999 when it was integrated into Goodyear North America. It remains a major brand under Goodyear.

Lee's Post-War Planning

 

After World War Two, winning at home was a priority for Lee Tire and Rubber Corporation of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and their Republic Rubber division in Youngstown, Ohio on puncture-proof pneumatic tires for trucks and passenger cars.

J. Ellwood Lee opened his first factory in 1887 selling medical supplies. In 1905 Lee believed automobiles would become popular and merged his medical supply company with Johnson & Johnson, leading to the creation of the Lee Tire and Rubber Company which opened in 1914. The company fell on hard times in the 1960s and was taken over by a New York firm before being sold in 1965 to Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The sale helped delay the company’s demise until 1980. The main building of the Lee Tire and Rubber Company, now known as Lee Park, is a historic factory complex built in 1909 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.