Automotive Tires Used To Be White...It's True !

In the beginning, all automotive tires were an off white, almost a light gray in color. That is because early automotive tires were made from the milky white juice of the rubber plant. Common dandelions also produce this same juice called latex... if you snap off their stems, you can see the same milky white latex.

In theory, you could manufacture rubber by growing and harvesting dandelions, though you'd need a bunch of them. There are about 200 plants in the world that produce the same milky white colored latex used to manufacture rubber. Because of efficiency nearly all of the worlds rubber is made from the latex that comes from a tree species called Hevea Brasiliensis, which is most often referred to as a rubber tree.

The latex collected from the rubber tree is about one third water and one third latex particles held in a form known as a colloidal suspension.

Early tires made of natural rubber had thin soft sidewalls and with little to no tread pattern were subject to multiple punctures. Also traction was limited with a nearly smooth driving surface.

Along about 1910 zinc oxide was added to the natural rubber formula to give the tires more overall strength. It also took away the gray color resulting in a brighter white tire. All was good until 1914 at the start of World War I when zinc oxide was needed in the munitions industry where it was used as a propellant. The US Government required that all zinc oxide be available for the war.

Carbon Black Under A Microscope

The tire manufactures had to find a replacement, and that turned out to be carbon black. The true rubber-strengthening benefits of carbon black were discovered in 1910 by S.C. Mote, a chemist for the Silvertown, England-based India Rubber, Company.

“It wasn’t until 1912, that this ingredient was used in the manufacturing of automobile tires by the Diamond Rubber Co. of Akron, Ohio, which had acquired the rights to the use of the material from Mote’s company.

Tires without carbon black in the formula would typically last no more than 5,000 miles, while a tire with carbon black would last between 12,000 and 15,000 miles. The carbon black strengthened the sidewalls to help prevent punctures, extended the tread life by providing greater wear resistance, offered better traction, and protection from ultraviolet light damage.

By 1917 most all automobile tires were manufactured using carbon black in the formula, which changed the color of automobile tires from white to black.That of course created a huge demand for carbon black, which resulted in an unlikely alliance between two companies the B.F. Goodrich Company and the Binney and Smith Company founder of the Crayola Crayons.

B. F. Goodrich put out an order for a company that could deliver  one million pounds of carbon black annually. Who answered the call...none other than the Binney and Smith Company the maker of Crayola crayons.

The Binney and Smith Company was, named after Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. These two, were the son and nephew, respectively, of Joseph Binney, founder of New York-based Peekskill Chemical Works, which sold charcoal and lamp black, a deep black powder obtained by collecting soot deposits from burning oil. It was used to make pigments for paint and printing inks.

After Joseph retired, the company became known for it's red oxide barn paint, which became popular all across the United States. After the turn of the century, Binney & Smith introduced innovations like dustless chalk for classrooms and affordable crayons branded “Crayola.” that we all grew up with. By now Binney & Smith had also become a world leader in the production of natural gas-based carbon black, (which replaced lamp black) mainly used to manufacture printing ink for newspapers. That was about to change.

Binney and Smith even made improvements to the carbon black manufacturing processes via patents including Edwin Binney’s 1890 “apparatus for the manufacture of carbon-black.” These improvements in the production process, made the production of carbon black more efficient and cost effective. The timing couldn't have been better as it matched the huge discovery of natural gas and oil in Pennsylvania.

What Is Carbon Black Anyway...?

Carbon black is the result of a hydrocarbon that has gone through incomplete combustion, and whose “smoke” has been captured as fine black particles consisting almost entirely of the element carbon. An automotive tire rubber formula is made up of 25 to 30 percent carbon black, even today. Because of demand which exceeds the natural rubber production manufactured from plants...much of the carbon black used in tire formula's today is petroleum based.

Carbon black has been manufactured in a number of different ways over the years.  One of the oldest processes involves allowing a flame from an oil lamp to impinge upon a cool surface, and for the resulting powdery soot from that surface to be scraped off. That powdery soot was called lamp black, and was used in the manufacturing of paint and  printing ink.

But in the 1870s, came a breakthrough called the channel process. Essentially, it involved burning natural gas up against water-cooled H-shaped metal channels, and collecting the carbon deposits. This new process, and specifically the finer particles it yielded, was an important step in yielding stronger tires for the auto industry.

Today, the primary method of obtaining carbon black is called the “furnace process,” which involves taking a heavy oil or natural gas feedstock, and injecting it into a furnace wherein natural gas and pre-heated air have combusted. The high temperatures of this reaction cause the feedstock to “crack” and turn into smoke, which is cooled by water and filtered out as tiny carbon black particles from the gas. The resulting fine powder is then formed into pellets via water and a binding agent for easier handling and transport.

The White Wall Tire...

A short time after the B. F. Goodrich Company introduced their modern up to date "Black Tire" made with the new carbon black rubber formula, a competing tire company also jumped on the carbon black bandwagon, but only added the carbon black to the tread surface, resulting in a considerable cost savings. The result? Black tread and white sidewalls.

While the white wall tire wasn't intended to be a style enhancer, it quickly caught on and other tire companies began producing purpose-built white wall tires. By the 1920's, white wall tires became a popular accessory on high end luxury cars. More conservative car manufacturers didn't adopt white wall tires as a factory option until the 1930's with Ford introducing the white wall tire option in 1934.

White walls continued to be a popular option for passenger cars, only pausing briefly for World War II and the Korean War, due to materials shortage. White walls were offered by most all of the major tire companies as an option, so you could be in style even if you didn't drive a new car, and that lead to Porta Walls...

Porta Walls...

If your budget was a little tight and you could not afford to go and buy a new set of white wall tires, but you still wanted to be in style you could order a set of Porta Walls.

Porta Walls were white  rubber rings that fit under the tire bead and were glued onto the sidewall to give the appearance of a white wall tire a minimal cost. They worked... with a few minor details... the biggest one being that if you went around a corner to fast the tire would flex and the Porta Wall would come loose from under the tire bead of the tire rim...and roll out ahead of you.

Therefore it was common to buy more than one set of Porta Walls at a time, so when you lost one you had a replacement. It was not "cool" to drive around with three white wall tires and one black  wall tire because everybody then knew your white walls were fake!  The J. C. Whitney Company offered Porta Walls, as did most of the  automotive aftermarket accessory companies of the day.

Porta Walls were a cost effective option if you were on a budget. You could get a set of Porta Walls for $3.95 vs $175.00 for a new set of White Wall tires.

The width of white walls changed over the years from the skinny half inch wide to the four inch white wall, and everything in between. Most any width is now available to match the width of white wall that was popular when your antique vehicle was new.

 Your whitewall tire combination was not complete until you went by the local Standard Oil Station and got a set of the Red Crown valve stem caps, (which you can still buy today, in the "parts" section of the Fifth Avenue website). Then life was good!

You Can by these in the "parts" section of the Fifth Avenue website.




So...What Happened To All Of The Tire Manufacturers...?

Fisk - failed during the depression, was then bought by US Rubber  also known as Uniroyal, which was then bought by Michelin in 1990.

Kelly Springfield was started in 1884, sold in 1935 to Goodyear, which dissolved the entity of Kelly Springfield around 1990.

Lee Tire and Rubber lasted from 1909 to 1987, bought by Kelly.

Firestone opened for business in 1900; Firestone bought Dayton Tires in 1961,  the Dayco Corporation, later sued both Firestone and Goodyear, alleging that the two companies conspired to monopolize the tire industry in the United States. Firestone sold out to Bridgestone in 1988.

General Tire expanded and diversified into cold war era military subcontracting, until it was forced to sell what by now were no longer their core functions. General tire sold the tire division to German tire manufacturer Continental in the 1960's.

BF Goodrich was a subsidy of Goodrich, and was sold to Michelin in 1990. BF Goodrich was the first American tire manufacturer to make radial tires.

Goodyear was founded in 1898, and in 1999 Goodyear announced a $1-billion global alliance with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which has rights to the Dunlop tire brand.

Cooper tires was formed around 1920, and bought Avon in 1997, then Mickey Thompson tires in 2003, and merged with Mexican tire manufacturer Corporación de Occidente SA de CV soon after.

Cooper Tire owns Avon, Dean, Eldorado, Mastercraft, Mentor Starfire, Definity, Roadmaster, Mickey Thompson, Dick Cepek, Chengshan, Austone, Fortune, Hercules and Ironman.

Hoosier tires was the last independent tire maker... but sold out to Continental tire for 140 million dollars in 2016.

As Paul Harvey used to say...." and now you know the rest of the story...."


More Tire Trivia....

Did you know that the Gates Corporation of belt and hose fame got their start making a tire accessory...? From the company's 100th anniversary book we learn...

Gates Corporation History

On October 1, 1911, Charles Gates, Sr. purchased the Colorado Tire and Leather Company located in southern Denver beside the South Platte River. Little did he know at the time that his small shop would one day become the world’s largest manufacturer of power transmission belts and a leader in hydraulic and fluid power products for industrial and automotive applications.

The Colorado Tire and Leather Company made a single product, the Durable Tread, a steel-studded band of leather that motorists attached to tires to extend their mileage. In 1917, the Company began phasing out leather in favor of rubber, and Charles Gates changed its name to the International Rubber Company.

That same year, John Gates, Charles’ brother, developed a belt made of rubber and woven threading. It was called a V-belt, due to the shape it sat in on an engine block. It replaced the standard hemp and rope belt found in automobiles and on industrial machinery, and was a model for the common serpentine belt. The belt’s success propelled the company to become the world's largest manufacturer of V-belts, a title it still holds.

And Still More....

Ohio and New Jersey were the two states were most of the tires were manufactured prior to 1925. Much like car manufacturers during the early years of the automobile, there were plenty of tire manufacturers, many who were in business for just a few years. Eventually the little companies disappeared... as they either were bought up by the larger manufacturers,  or failed due to the depression or being under capitalized and not able to keep up with the technology.  So here is the list...see how many you recognize.