Happy birthday, Harvey Firestone

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone.

It is the birthday of businessman Harvey Firestone (1868), who transformed himself from youthful farm boy to a wealthy industrialist. While working as a sales manager for a rubber-tired buggy company he realized the potential for rubber tires. He founded Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and the business grew rapidly with the expansion of the automobile industry. Firestone became great friends with automaker Henry Ford and inventor Thomas Edison. They loved nature, and for nine years they took summer camping trips together, by automobile, of course. Firestone produced with Samuel Crowther a book about his business, Men and Rubber: The Story of Business (1926).