On This Day

Sunday 20th December 1868

151 years ago

Harvey Samuel Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires and an important contributor to North American economic growth in the 20th century, was born. Firestone reportedly had driven the first rubber-tired buggy in Detroit, while working as a manager for an uncle’s buggy-manufacturing concern. When that business folded, Firestone moved to Chicago (1896) and, with partners, began to operate a retail tire business. In 1900 he moved to Akron, then the centre of tire production, with his patent on a mechanism for applying rubber tires to carriage wheel channels, and formed a company in which he held a half interest. Originally formed to sell rubber carriage tires made by others, the company bought a small factory in 1902 and began manufacturing its own tires; in 1904 it began to make automobile tires. Firestone pioneered the manufacture of pneumatic tires for the Ford Model T automobile, and a sale of thousands of tires to Ford in 1906 propelled Firestone to the top of the American tire industry. The company was innovative in design and manufacturing, pioneering many new tires and treads. Firestone promoted the use of trucks for hauling freight and lobbied for the construction of vast highway systems. In protest over the British-held monopoly over the production of raw rubber in Southeast Asia, he established his own large rubber plantations in Liberia. Firestone was president of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company until 1932, when his son replaced him at the head of the firm.