GOODYEAR TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY, founded in 1898 at Akron, 0., began as a manufacturer of bicycle and carriage tyres. It soon entered the field of automobile tyre manufacture, research and development, and by 1916 had become the largest tyre company in existence, and in 1926 the largest manufacturer of rubber products. It is the principal American manufacturer of lighter-than-air craft. More than I,Ioo observa tion, and free balloons, and more than ioo dirigible airships have been built by the company.
The company has a subsidiary mechanical goods plant at Bow manville, Canada, and subsidiary tyre factories at Toronto, Los Angeles, Gadsden, Alabama, Cumberland, Maryland, and in Eng land, Australia, Argentina and Java; textile mills are making tyre fabric in Los Angeles, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Cedartown, Cartersville and Rockmart, Georgia, Decatur, Alabama, and St. Hyacinthe, Quebec; a 40,000 ac. cotton plantation in Southern Arizona ; a 93,00o ac. rubber plantation in Sumatra, and its own coal mines in southern Ohio. It has branches or sales represen tation throughout the world. For its 42,00o employees, the com pany has developed an industrial university in the city of Akron, with some 2,000 employee-students and a curriculum ranging from Americanization subjects and business administration to rubber chemistry.