The Mansfield Tire and Rubber Company

On March 21, 1912, the Mansfield Rubber and Tire Company turned out its first tire.  This was a short time after The Mansfield Rubber Company had been reorganized with new capital and new executive personnel on February 10, 1912.  At this early stage, the company was already getting orders of large amounts according to attorney J.E. Ladow, one of the company’s largest stake holders.  Back in 1912, a tire cost approximately $50 and one was lucky to get 1,000 miles out of it.  The future looked bright and they would one day rank next to the “Big Four” tire companies in units produced.  In 1944 the company was recognized with an Army-Navy “E” Award for the production of war materials.  The company would continue to grow through the 1950s and 1960s, but production would begin to decline in the 70s.  In 1976 the company had net sales of $123,488,078 and by 1978 this was down to $77,046,935.  In the early 1980s, the company declared bankruptcy and on August 1982 the building on Newman St. was demolished.  It would take nearly a decade for many workers to receive their pensions.

The Mansfield Tire and Rubber Co. – Sanborn Map 1929

Army-Navy “E” Award program cover, 1944

Enjoy these images of The Mansfield Tire and Rubber Company from the early 1920s, click on image to make larger and see a description of the photo:

The Factory

The Factory

New Factory Unit – Five Stories, 65,000 square feet of floor space

Inside the Factory

THE MASTICATOR – A huge machine for mixing and kneading rubber compounds. Toothed rolls inside the big cylinder stir and mix the “batch.” Used principally for black stocks to keep the light, blick pigment enclosed while mixing.

THE MACHINE SHOP – A complete machine shop – Boring Mills, Lathes, Milling Machines, Presses, everything needed for making repairs – keeps up the equipment to keep the factory running night and day.

Workers in a large workroom inspecting newly made tires.

Five unidentified employees on the factory floor at the Mansfield Tire and Rubber Company.

ROW OF HAND BUILDING TIRE STANDS – The larger sizes of fabric Tires are made wholly by hand. Here the fabric is laid and stretched, ply by ply, over iron cores.

ROLLING INNER TUBES – Un-vulcanized rubber in long sheets is rolled four plies thick – laminated – on poles of burnished steel wrapped with tape and “cured” in big cylinders

Several employees at the Mansfield Tire Co. inspecting crude rubber.

PREPARING RUBBER STOCK – Here the rubber, as it comes from the Calender, is cut to proper length, gauged and inspected, then placed in books or pockets ready for the Tire builders.

FABRIC PREPARING ROOM – Here the fabric, after it has been frictioned and cut into strips, is inspected, measured and placed in “pockets” ready for the Tire builders.

The Offices

Three office employees working in the office of the Mansfield Tire Co. The calendar reads November 1921.

Jesse S. Wainwright – A Vice-President and member of the Board of Directors.

Clyde K. Smaltz – Director of Transportation of The Mansfield Tire and Rubber Co.

Harry Francis Webster – Sales manager of The Mansfield Tire and Rubber Co.

Philip H. Ober – Vice-President of the Mansfeild Tire and Rubber Company.

Charles Hoffman – Later President of the plumbing and heating firm which bore his name, and one of the founders of The Mansfield Tire and Rubber Company,

George W. Stephens – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mansfield Tire and Rubber.

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