Diamond Rubber Company

Last updated

The Diamond Rubber Company was a manufacturer of vehicle tires and other rubber products at the end of the 19th, and into the early 20th century in the United States.

The Diamond Rubber Company was incorporated in March 1894 in Akron, Ohio by the owner of the Diamond Match Company, O.C. Barber. Barber had moved the match company plant to his adjacent self-named planned town of Barberton, Ohio in order to boost the town's economy which had taken a hit during the Panic of 1893. He decided to use the abandoned Diamond Match Company facility in Akron for his new rubber products factory.

The Diamond Rubber Company was located in the southwestern part of Akron, adjacent to the Ohio and Erie Canal, on the southwest side of Falor Street. The B.F. Goodrich plant was located across the street, on the northeast side of Falor. Today, Falor Street is named West Falor Street.

Some later sources have the company founded as the Sherbondy Rubber Company in 1893 or 1894 with its name changing to Diamond Rubber Company in 1896. But no such listing is found for Sherbondy Rubber Company in the Akron city directories for those years, or any years. Instead, it is the Diamond Rubber Company that first appears in the 1894 Akron city directory, which also includes the information that it was incorporated in March of that year.

However, according to the publication The Growth of an Ideal, Embracing the History of the Goodrich Company, and the Economy of Factory and Branch Organization and Operation, by the B.F. Goodrich Company in 1918 (part of the Goodrich Employees Reading Course), "The removal of the Diamond Match Company to Barberton left vacant the buildings occupied in Akron, and in 1894, Mr. Ohio C. Barber, then President of the Diamond Match Company, with his associates incorporated the Sherbondy Rubber Company, whose home was to be the discarded plant of the match company...". "In 1896 Mr. Barber took a more active interest in the company and the name was changed to the Diamond Rubber Company. According to the 1894 Akron City Directory's Incorporated Companies section, the Diamond Rubber Company first appeared at the Falor location previously occupied by the Diamond Match Company, with G. F. Sherbondy serving as Vice-President, and Walter Sherbondy serving as Superintendent. [1] G. F. Sherbondy was replaced by J. K. Robinson as Vice-President of Diamond Rubber Company in 1896. [2]

Walter Sherbondy was granted U.S. patent 499,600 in 1893 for his design of a self-healing pneumatic tire. [3]

The book Rubber: An American Industrial History states "Diamond Rubber was started in 1893 by the Sherbondy brothers (George, Walter and William)...". "The original capital came from the "Match King", O.C. Barber of Akron, President of the famous Diamond Match Company. He later took over Diamond Rubber". [4]

In 1898, Harvard-trained chemist Arthur H. Marks was hired by Diamond. Marks invented a process to recycle old rubber. [5] In 1900, Diamond constructed a new plant to utilize this patent in the recycling of old rubber. In 1904, Diamond and B.F. Goodrich entered into a rubber recycling joint venture, incorporated as the Alkali Rubber Company, and a new plant was constructed adjacent to the existing Diamond and B.F. Goodrich plants in Akron.

In March 1912, the Diamond Rubber Company was bought out by and merged with the B.F. Goodrich Company. The Diamond brand name and product line were retained and a subsidiary Diamond Rubber Company created for the marketing and manufacturing of them. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barberton, Ohio</span> City in Ohio, United States

Barberton is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 25,191 at the 2020 census. Located directly southwest of Akron, it is a suburb of the Akron metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goodrich Corporation</span> Defunct American manufacturer

The Goodrich Corporation, formerly the B.F. Goodrich Company, was an American manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, the company name was changed to the "B.F. Goodrich Company" in 1880, to BFGoodrich in the 1980s, and to "Goodrich Corporation" in 2001. Originally a rubber manufacturing company known for automobile tires, the company diversified its manufacturing businesses throughout the twentieth century and sold off its tire business in 1986 to focus on its other businesses, such as aerospace and chemical manufacturing. The BFGoodrich brand name continues to be used by Michelin, who acquired the tire manufacturing business in 1988. Following the acquisition by United Technologies in 2012, Goodrich became a part of UTC Aerospace Systems.

Benjamin Franklin Goodrich was an American industrialist in the rubber industry and founder of B.F. Goodrich Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O. C. Barber</span>

Ohio Columbus Barber was an American businessman, industrialist and philanthropist. He was called "America's Match King" because of his controlling interest in the Diamond Match Company, which had 85 percent of the market in 1881. He founded the city of Barberton, Ohio in 1891 and moved his manufacturing plant there in 1894. It produced 250 million matches per day. He also founded the Akron City Hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spaghetti Warehouse</span> American restaurant chain specializing in Italian food

Spaghetti Warehouse is an Italian restaurant chain geared towards families with five physical locations in two U.S. states: four in Ohio, one in New York (state). They also operate a to-go only location in Texas. The chain started in 1972 in Dallas, Texas, and at one point had spread throughout the southern and eastern parts of the United States. Each restaurant has a trolley car in the dining room and patrons are able to sit in the car. One of Spaghetti Warehouse's unique characteristics is that many of the older locations are in renovated, historic buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BFGoodrich</span> Brand of tires produced and sold by Michelin

BFGoodrich is an American tire company. Originally part of the industrial conglomerate Goodrich Corporation, it was acquired in 1990 by the French tire maker Michelin. BFGoodrich was the first American tire manufacturer to make radial tires. It made tires for the then new Winton car from Winton Motor Carriage Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Rubber Company</span> American manufacturer of tires

The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemical weapons and operations and maintenance activities (O&MA) at the government-owned contractor-operated facilities. It was founded in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1892. It was one of the original 12 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and became Uniroyal, Inc., as part of creating a unified brand for its products and subsidiaries in 1961.

The Akron and Barberton Belt Railroad was a switching railroad that was built to serve various industries around the cities of Barberton and Akron in Ohio. It was formed through the consolidation of several formerly independent lines that totaled 22.96 miles (36.95 km), with a couple further acquisitions within a few years to extend the tracks to certain industries and to other interchange locations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Seiberling</span>

Franklin Augustus "Frank" Seiberling, also known as F.A. Seiberling, was an American innovator and entrepreneur best known for co-founding the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in 1898 and the Seiberling Rubber Company in 1921. He also built Stan Hywet Hall, a Tudor Revival mansion, now a National Historic Landmark and historic house museum in Akron, Ohio.

Ira George Needles was the second chancellor of the University of Waterloo, holding the position from 1966 to 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O. C. Barber Barn No. 1</span> United States historic place

The O. C. Barber Barn No. 1, built in 1909, is an historic farm building located on the Anna-Dean Farm in Barberton, Ohio. It was built by American businessman and industrialist Ohio Columbus Barber, the developer of both Barberton, which he envisioned as a planned industrial community, and the nearby 3,500-acre (14 km²) Anna-Dean Farm, which he envisioned as a prototype for modern agricultural enterprise. Barber was called America's Match King because of his controlling interest in the Diamond Match Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diamond Match Company</span>

The Diamond Match Company is a brand of matches and toothpicks, and formerly other wood products and plastic cutlery, that has its roots in a business started in 1853 by Edward Tatnall in Wilmington, Delaware. Ownership passed to William H. Swift and Henry Courtney who operated under the name Swift & Courtney and marketed their product as Diamond State Parlor Matches.

George Oenslager was a Goodrich chemist who discovered that a derivative of aniline accelerated the vulcanization of rubber with sulfur. He first introduced carbon black as a rubber reinforcing agent in 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glendale Cemetery</span> Historic cemetery in Summit County, Ohio

Glendale Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Akron, Ohio. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hartford City Glass Company</span> American glass manufacturing company

Hartford City Glass Company was among the top three window glass manufacturers in the United States between 1890 and 1899, and continued to be one of the nation's largest after its acquisition. It was also the country's largest manufacturer of chipped glass, with capacity double that of its nearest competitor. The company's works was the first of eight glass plants that existed in Hartford City, Indiana during the Indiana Gas Boom. It became the city's largest manufacturer and employer, peaking with 600 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Goodyear Medal</span> Award

The Charles Goodyear Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division. Established in 1941, the award is named after Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vulcanization, and consists of a gold medal, a framed certificate and prize money. The medal honors individuals for "outstanding invention, innovation, or development which has resulted in a significant change or contribution to the nature of the rubber industry". Awardees give a lecture at an ACS Rubber Division meeting, and publish a review of their work in the society's scientific journal Rubber Chemistry and Technology.

David Spence was one of the pioneering rubber chemists. He helped the war effort during the Second World War by devising new ways of extracting natural rubbers from plants, and worked to improve the processing of the rubber. Over the course of his career, he worked to improve the dyeing processes for rubber products and the vulcanization of rubber, and in developing new accelerants for strengthening lower-quality natural rubber. In 1941, he became the first recipient of the Charles Goodyear Medal, awarded by the American Chemical Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barberton station (Erie Railroad)</span> Train station in Barberton, Ohio, USA

Barberton was a train station along the Erie Railroad main line in the city of Barberton, Summit County, Ohio, United States. Located 612.8 miles (986.2 km) from Hoboken Terminal on the Kent Division of the main line, the station first saw service in 1890 while under the ownership of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, a subsidiary of the Erie Railroad, to help bring people to the new community. Passenger service was terminated on August 1, 1965, with the cancellation of the Atlantic Express (eastbound) Pacific Express (westbound), and multi-day trains from Hoboken to Dearborn Station in Chicago, Illinois.

The Hood Rubber Company was a rubber and shoes manufacturing company based in Watertown, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1896 by Frederic C. Hood and Arthur N. Hood. It merged with the B. F. Goodrich Company in 1929 to become a solely owned subsidiary of The B. F. Goodrich Company and continued to manufacture Hood and B. F. Goodrich footwear brands until the plant closing in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur O. Austin</span> American electrical engineer (1879–1964)

Arthur Oswin Austin was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He is most known as the inventor of the Austin transformer, used to supply power for lighting circuits on radio towers. He founded Austin Insulator Company and was one of the country's foremost experts in high-voltage insulators. His research included improvements to radio transmission equipment and the effects of lightning on aircraft.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.