General Tire & Rubber Co.

The General Tire and Rubber Company was founded by Akron natives William O'Neil and Winfred E. Fouse. Opening their first production plant in East Akron on September 29, 1915, the new company began making just repair materials for tires, but moved on to produce their own brand of tires, becoming the fifth major manufacturer of tires in the United States. In 1949 oil-extended rubber was discovered in a laboratory at General Tire's Akron facility by Gilbert Swart, Emert S. Pfau, and Kermit V. Weinstock, which led to a major legal debate over patent rights. General Tire filed a patent application for the new technique on November 20, 1950. On December 10, 1954, it was announced to General Tire that patent #2,964,083 would be granted. Thirty-two days later the patent approval was withdrawn and then rejected outright on April 15, 1955 due to the application exchanging hands between two examiners at the patent office. An appeal was made to the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., and a lawsuit was brought against the Patent Office. General Tire won the suit and was granted the patent on December 13, 1960. General Tire then requested royalties from other companies using the patented technique in the interium. Smaller companies gave in while larger ones such as Goodyear, Firestone, and B.F. Goodrich resisted. Out of court settlements were reached with Goodyear and B.F. Goodrich, while the case against Firestone was denied. Due to the increase in prosperity during the postwar years, General Tire expanded its horizons, including purchasing Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) pictures from Howard Huges for $25 million in 1955. The national oil crises of both 1973 and 1979 as well as competition from Japanese tire companies lead to a drop in tire sales. The loss was great for General Tire and cutbacks led to the closure of many of General Tire's manufacturing facilities, including the original factory in Akron (the last rubber factory in the entire city) in 1982. With all the included fields of industry (entertainment, plastics, rubber, wrought iron, bottling, etc.) taken under General Tire's wings, the company was renamed GenCorp, Inc. and located their headquarters in Fairlawn, Ohio in 1984, but the tire manufacturing segment of the company still operated independently under the new name General Tire, Inc. After the company restructured to avoid a hostile takeover in March 1987, General Tire was sold to Continental Aktiengesellschaft of Hanover, Germany, for $628 million in cash on June 29, 1987.