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Barrage balloon manufacture. Glove for a gas bag. Fitting the outstretched fingers of a fabric patch to the side of a barrage balloon, this worker must be extremely careful to put the patch on smoothly. Any wrinkles might bind, pinch or chafe and cause leaks. Sewn and seamed inside this "glove" is a webbing of rope which will become part of the rigging which controls the giant balloon as it flies thousands of feet above cities, arsenals, or other bomber objectives. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Birthplace for air-whales--gigantic barrage balloons which look like monster whales-of-the-air, made in this huge room. Four are seen here: left rear is a balloon being folded into the shipping container at the extreme rear; next to it is an inflated balloon on which final inspection and checking is now complete, and ready for deflation and packing; at the right is a completed balloon in the process of being inflated for inspection; in the foreground is an assembled balloon awaiting final fitting and inflation. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Rubber tailor shop. Using a tailor's electric cutter--a speedup suggestion from one of the young workers--these workers slice through several thicknesses of rubber fabric as they cut the patterns for the strips and "gores" for making barrage balloons. Marked, cut, assembled and seamed on long tables, the strips are taken from the tables to the assembly floor to be fashioned into a gigantic gas balloon for the protection of our cities. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Tugging a finished half of a barrage balloon into position for joining with the other half. These workers have come to the final assembly step in producing barrage balloons for American air defense. Four steps in final production are shown in this photo: the half-balloon they are dragging in; the nose of a ship on the right which is in the process of being deflated for packing and shipping; and the inflated balloon in the background which is being inspected for final okay before being shipped. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Assembling the balloon. These workers are ready to fasten one-half of a barrage balloon to the other half--the final major step in the assembly of the huge balloon. After this is done, all accessories, ropes and rigging will have to be added before the balloon can be tested, finally inspected, packed and shipped to Uncle Sam. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Glove for a gas bag. Fitting the outstretched fingers of a fabric patch to the side of a barrage balloon, this worker must be extremely careful to put the patch on smoothly. Any wrinkles might bind, pinch or chafe and cause leaks. Sewn and seamed inside this "glove" is a webbing of rope which will become part of the rigging which controls the giant balloon as it flies thousands of feet above cities, arsenals, or other bomber objectives. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Rubber tailor shop. Using a tailor's electric cutter--a speedup suggestion from one of the young workers--these workers slice through several thicknesses of rubber fabric as they cut the patterns for the strips and "gores" for making barrage balloons. Marked, cut, assembled and seamed on long tables, the strips are taken from the tables to the assembly floor to be fashioned into a gigantic gas balloon for the protection of our cities. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Neck and neck in the stretch. Appearing like race horses galloping down each side of a long strip of barrage balloon fabric, the worker with the scissors apparently finishing ahead of the fellow with the electric fabric cutter. Actually the scissors are not used for cutting, but for "touch up clipping" only, since the power cutter is so much faster. After these men have cut the patterns, the pieces are sent to "seamers" who assemble the individual pattern pieces into strips of "gores," which in turn are assembled into completed barrage balloons. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. Reinforcing the fins of a fish-of-the-air. These workers at the barrage balloon division, are putting double reinforcements on the right fin of a completed barrage balloon before it is deflated and sent to army training camps Every seam must be absolutely gas- and air-tight, since the tiniest pinhole would permit valuable amounts of precious helium to escape. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

Barrage balloon manufacture. All out for defense! Scrambling out of the zipper-covered "manhole" in the nose of a gigantic barrage balloon, this worker has finished patching, touching up and checking the great bag, and is ready to give the signal to deflate the balloon, pack it and ship it to Uncle Sam's army training fields where balloon squadrons are learning the technique of handling the blimp-sized gas bags. This ship is of the ballonet type. General Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

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Summary

Public domain photograph of indoor, interior activity, America in the 1930s, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

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ohio summit county akron safety film negatives akron ohio barrage balloon barrage balloon defense manhole nose worker bag pack ship uncle sam uncle sam army fields squadrons balloon squadrons technique gas gas bags ballonet type ballonet type general tire general tire rubber company rubber company 1940 s history of akron ohio akron free images akron photographs 40 s united states history library of congress
date_range

Date

01/01/1941
person

Contributors

Palmer, Alfred T., photographer
United States. Office of War Information.
place

Location

Akron (Ohio) ,  41.08139, -81.51889
create

Source

Library of Congress
link

Link

http://www.loc.gov/
copyright

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Public Domain

label_outline Explore General Tire, Manhole, Rubber Company

Tire recapping. A recap job on a passenger car tire. The tire with a tread strip of reclaimed camelback rubber is put into a curing mold. The old tread surface had previously been ground down evenly and coated with rubber adhesive. The plan to recap passenger tires with reclaimed rubber camelback, approved by rubber director William M. Jeffers, was put into effect in February 1943 to reduce the demand for replacement tires and still keep civilian cars in service

Headed for last cleanup. Six giant truck tires, of the non-directional type are being wheeled in for cleaning and painting. This pattern, developed for the U.S. Army in 1941 is used for field equipment....gives excellent traction in forward or reverse because of the horizontal cleats, yet rides well on the highway on the continuous center rib. Firestone (General) Tires, Akron, Ohio

Parris Island. Marine Corps barrage balloons. Up she goes. A barrage balloon takes to the air under the capable handling of a Marine Corps ground crew at Parris Island, South Carolina. Special marine units assigned to the work have made the balloon barrage an effective method of preventing enemy air attacks on important locations

Parris Island. Marine Corps barrage balloons. Up she goes. A barrage balloon takes to the air under the capable handling of a Marine Corps ground crew at Parris Island, South Carolina. Special marine units assigned to the work have made the balloon barrage an effective method of preventing enemy air attacks on important locations

The tracks for an Army halftrac scout car begins to take shape on the "building wheel" of a Midwest tire plant. Goodrich, Akron, Ohio

Removing cured tube from mold. As the tire molds are all-automatic, so are the tube molds. This one has just opened; all the operator need do is remove the finished tube and put in another raw one. Note the seam marks in the mold itself, which leave their imprint on the tube. Thus a seamless tube may appear to have a collection of many sections. Firestone (General) Tires, Akron, Ohio

Aircraft tire manufacture. This shot taken through a huge bomber tire shows an attractive rubber company employee with small airplane tire used on some military aircraft. Goodyear, Akron, Ohio

Balch Price, business in Brooklyn, New York. Bag department I

Parris Island, South Carolina. Special United States Marine units in training bedding down a big barrage balloon

U.S. Marine Corps, bedding down a big barrage balloon, Parris Island, S.C.

Lee Tire & Rubber Company, Plant, 1100 Hector Avenue, Conshohocken, Montgomery County, PA

Faces last shot. Washington, D.C., Dec. 29. Admiral William H. Standley faced his last barrage today. A salva from the guns of a battery of cameramen. He retires as Chief of Naval Operations on January 1, having reached the age limit. Admiral Standley has had a difficult regime. At one time during the illness of Secretary Swanson and following the death of Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, he was Acting Secretary, Assistant Secretary besides holding his own post as Operations Chief

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ohio summit county akron safety film negatives akron ohio barrage balloon barrage balloon defense manhole nose worker bag pack ship uncle sam uncle sam army fields squadrons balloon squadrons technique gas gas bags ballonet type ballonet type general tire general tire rubber company rubber company 1940 s history of akron ohio akron free images akron photographs 40 s united states history library of congress