In 1896, seven cars entered America’s first automobile race held on a track – it was the five-lap “Providence Horseless Carriage Race”. To the awe of 60,000 spectators, the Riker Electric Trap No. 1, using Diamond Rubber Company tires, took home the checkered flag. The car averaged about 20 miles per hour.
Firestone had its origins in the rubber city. Founded in1900, the company started operations with just 12 employees. Together, Firestone and Goodyear (also an Akron company) were the largest suppliers of automotive tires in North America for over 75 years. In 1906 Henry Ford chose Firestone for Model T original equipment tires.
Founded in 1907 by S. E. Duff, Star Rubber Goods was one of Akron’s earliest rubber manufacturers. In 1916 the company entered the tire manufacturing business, having previously made druggists’ rubber sundries. The company was reported to have a capacity for 750 tubes and 600 tires a day.
Started in 1894 under the name Sherbondy Rubber Company, In 1896 the company changed its name to the Diamond Rubber Company. Diamond Rubber was founded by famed industrialist Ohio C. Barber, president of the Diamond Match Company.
In the six years after its 1921 founding, The Seiberling Rubber Company grew to be the world’s 7th largest tire producer. During World War II, the company supplied tires for heavy artillery pieces. The company was eventually acquired by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. While Seiberling tires are no longer sold in the US…
In 1912, after several years of success, the Diamond Rubber Company was merged into competitor B. F. Goodrich.
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company founder Harvey Firestone, had a personal friendship with Henry Ford, and used this to become the original equipment supplier of Ford Motor Company automobiles, and was also active in the replacement market.
Founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling, Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery. It also produced bicycle tires from its founding until 1976.
In 1869 Benjamin Franklin Goodrich purchased the Hudson River Rubber Company, a small business in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The following year Goodrich accepted an offer of $13,600 from the citizens of Akron, Ohio, to relocate his business there.
In 1894, O.C. Barber tried his hand in the rubber industry. Barber brought in a rubber chemist named Arthur Marks to assist him in this new endeavor. And so the Diamond Rubber Company was born. The company became an early leader in tire manufacturing. Baber soon made a handsome profit by selling the company to…
The Goodyear company was named after Charles Goodyear, a self-taught chemist and the inventor of vulcanized rubber. Charles Goodyear is credited with inventing the chemical process to create and manufacture pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber.
Founded by Edwin Kelly and Arthur Grant in 1894, the company was originally called the Rubber Tire Wheel Company because it made rubber carriage wheels. In1896 Arthur Grant was issued a patent (US 554675) for his solid rubber tire in a rim channel. The tire was held on the wheel by two longitudinal wires embedded…
The Industrial University Club House is located at the corner of Goodyear Boulevard and East Market Street.
In 1898, Frank Seiberling borrowed $3,500 from his brother-in-law Lucius Miles for the down payment needed to buy an abandoned strawboard factory on the banks of the Little Cuyahoga River in Akron, where he would found The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Covering more than a million square feet and with thirty acres of floor space, Miller was one of the largest rubber factories in the United States. Miller Rubber Co. manufactured Tires, Tubes, Accessories, Repair Materials, Drug Sundries, Bathing Wear, Shuglovs, Rubber Balls, Rubber Toys, and many other Moulded Rubber Goods.
B. F. Goodrich Company, major American manufacturing company of the 20th century, noted for its production of automobile tires and ruber products. In The Beginning In 1869 Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich and his brother-in-law, Harvey W. Tew, purchased the Hudson River Rubber Company, a small business in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The following year they accepted an…
The Philadelphia Rubber Works Co. was formed in 1910 after the merger of the Philadelphia Rubber Works, which had been organized in 1880, and the Alkali Rubber Co., which was started in 1904. The company manufactured reclaimed rubber.
Harvey Firestone’s Vision The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded by Harvey S. Firestone in 1900. In the early days, they supplied pneumatic tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheeled transportation common in the era. Firestone soon saw the massive potential for marketing automobile tires. Before long, under his leadership, the company became a…
Akron’s Firestone Tire and Rubber Company participated in the Century of Progress – World’s Fair, in Chicago. Their Factory and Exhibition Building contained a complete production line of the most modern and efficient tire-making machinery in the world. Firestone produced Gum-Dipped Tires from raw materials to the finished tire at the exhibit. In the Exhibit Hall they…