| Transcription | CHALLENGES INDUSTRY
Seiberling Returns To Farm Tire Field
By JOSEPH E. KUEBLER
Business and Industrial Editor
RUBBER TRADE CIRCLES were assured of a new and lively competitor for the farm tire trade today.
Seiberling Rubber Co. formally re-entered this phase of the business Thursday with a promise that its large rivals can look for a spirited tussle in the shoeing of farm tractors.
The Seiberling entry is a newly
developed "plow contour" tire which has been given exhaustive tests since early spring. Thursday Seiberling put the new casing up for inspection and demonstration before a half hundred newspaper and magazine writers from the middle west.
While not intended as a test, the tire got a chance to strut its stuff in what they called a saga of farm plowing.
Equipped on a tractor, the new tire with the deep lugs shaped like a plowshare, emphasized its traction or pulling power as it ran alongside a tractor with conventional tires, an old-fashioned steel wheeled tractor, a team of horses and a pair of oxen.
Each was pulling a plow through tough blue grass sod that hadn't been dug up in years.
"I AM SURE this tire is a major contribution to agriculture" J. Penfield Seiberling, president of the company, told several hundred at the ceremony when the tire was unveiled.
"It will improve the lot of the
American farmer by saving him time and money. I am happy we are going back to the farm."
His father, F. A. Seiberling, chairman of the board and 87-year-old dean of the rubber industry, predicted, "We are on the threshold of a great development.... we are pioneering."
Seiberling first entered the farm field in 1937 but withdrew from this phase of the rubber business shortly before the war.
COMPANY OFFICIALS said they hoped to boost production of the contour tire to 5,000 a month in 1947. At present the output is restricted because of machinery limitations.
President Seiberling also revealed that his firm is aiming at a daily production rate of 5,500 passenger and truck tires next year as compared with the current 4,400 a day.
The plow contour casing is now being service tested on 1,000 farms in every state of the nation, Col. J. L. Cochrun, vice president in charge of sales, told the guests.
Other speakers were Harry P. Schrank, vice president in charge of production; C. W. Seiberling, executive vice president, and S. M. Elliott, manager of the farm tractor tire department.
The contour design Was the idea of the late J. G. Kreyer, former head of the farm tire department.
PHOTO CAPTION: The rubber industry's newest development in farm tractor tires made its public bow Thursday as Seiberling Rubber Co. demonstrated its "plow contour" casing in a field adjoining the Seiberling Country club. Here, mounted on a tractor, the new tire showed what it could do alongside a tractor equipped with conventional tires, a steel wheeled tractor, a team of horses, and a pair of oxen. Top photo shows the start of this saga in farm plowing (photo not in the librarys' clippings). In the lower photo is Mrs. J. G. Kreyer, widow of the man who designed the unique tread, and their son, Robert, a Seiberling employe and a potential tire salesman. Robert built the tire that was used in the ceremony. |
