This Week in Motorhead History:  Tireless Men

It’s really This Month in Motorhead History, because two events in the month of December converged to have a lasting effect on the history of the automobile.

It began 215 years ago, on December 29, 1800, in New Haven, Connecticut, when Charles Goodyear was born.  Goodyear did not start the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company – that did not occur until decades after his death – but his persistent work at developing rubber as a commercial product launched the industry that led to the modern automobile tire.

Generally speaking, Goodyear failed at business and his family often had to live off the kindness of others, but he never let go of his desire to develop commercially-viable rubber products.  His eureka moment came in 1839, and in 1844 he was granted a patent for the process he called vulcanization.  Vulcanization, in the simplest explanation, cures a rubber mixture with heat, allowing it to remain flexible throughout a wide range of temperatures.

Goodyear died in 1860, but on December 20, 1868, Harvey S. Firestone was born in Ohio.  Unlike Goodyear, Firestone is directly connected to the company bearing his name, as he was the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.  The company, a household name to this day as is Goodyear Tires and Rubber Company, grew to become one of the first global makers of automobile tires.

In addition to being inextricably connected to automobile tires, Firestone is also conjoined to the Ford family.  Firestone was a close friend of Henry Ford, as well as Thomas Edison, and today, Firestone’s great grandson is William Clay Ford, the son of Henry Ford’s grandson and Harvey Firestone’s granddaughter.

By coincidence, the two best-known names in tire industry were each born in December. 

Image (Charles Goodyear) top right selected from Wikipedia Commons.

Image (Firestone) bottom left selected from Wikipedia Commons.