Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0207Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of workers removing automobile tires from curing pits in a factory. Above the image "T95 (Star)" is printed, below the image "29227 Taking Automobile Tires from the Curing Pits, Akron, Ohio." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
131 - (29227)
TAKING AUTOMOBILE TIRES FROM THE CURING PITS, AKRON, OHIO
In this view the tires have just gone through the "curing" process. They are being removed from the steel forms in which they were placed for that process. "Curing" means "vulcanizing." Vulcanizing a tire means applying great heat and pressure to it. So, while in those steel forms, the tires were heated very hot and pressed very hard at the same time. This process (vulcanizing) makes the tires storng enough to stand being inflated ("blown up") by air. It also makes them strong enough to travel thousands of miles over pavements and dirt roads in all kinds of weather.
Before a mehtod of vulcanizing rubber was discovered, our rubber goods were few and far from satisfcotry. A rubber rain coat in witner became so stiff that is would stand alone. In summer the same coat becma esoft and sticky and stretche dout of shape. Charles Goodyear, an American living in Connecticut, spent nine years in hard work and poverty trying to find a way to treat rubber so that it would not crack in winter or melt in summer. One day he threw a lump of rubber mixed with sulphur into the fire. Great was his surprise and joy to find that the fire did what he had been trying to do; it toughened the mass. Over five more years he worked to perfect his process. Without Mr. Goodyear's wonderful discovery many articles now made of vulcanized rubber would be unknown. Certainly automobile tires such as we see today would be impossible. The process of hardening rubber was called "vulcanizing" in honor of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection