On this day in 1900, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded by…Harvey Firestone. The family name was originally Feuerstein (German for flint or firestone); Nicholas Feuerstein, Firestone’s paternal ancestor, immigrated from Alsace in 1752.
The company originally producing solid rubber side-wire tires for fire apparatus. The company later expanded to manufacture pneumatic tires for wagons, carriages, and other wheeled vehicles of the time. Recognizing the emerging market for automobile tires, Firestone was a pioneer in the mass production of tires. Harvey Firestone’s close relationship with Henry Ford helped establish Firestone as the original equipment supplier for Ford Motor Company vehicles, while also maintaining a strong presence in the replacement tire market.
In 1926, the company opened one of the world’s largest rubber plantations, extending over one million acres (1,560 sq mi; 4,050 km2), in Liberia, West Africa. In 1988, Firestone was acquired by the Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone, and the brand now operates as part of Bridgestone Americas, Inc.
Firestone (right) with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, c. February 1929
Some interesting quilts from up north…
Leaving the Dark (2018)
by Toni Major
(Ontario)
Urban Renewal (2023)
by Heather A Hager
(Ontario)
Frosty Fronds (2023)
by Margaret Sangster
(British Columbia)
Celebrate! (2024)
Joan Flett Kilpatrick
(British Columbia)
Can’t Keep Me Down (2024)
by Steph Kincade
(Nova Scotia)
Today is the birthday, in 1961, of American double bass player Lee Rocker with The Stray Cats who spearheaded the neo-rockabilly movement of the early 1980s. They scored the 1980 UK No.9 single ‘Runaway Boys’, and the 1983 US No.3 single ‘Stray Cat Strut’. The Stray Cats sold nearly 10 million albums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtbfzMLVWU
