History of bf goodrich

EH-NET BOOK REVIEW

Published by H-Business@w3needs.com (December, 1997)

Mansel G. Blackford and K. Austin Kerr. BFGoodrich: Tradition and Transformation, 1870-1995. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1996. x + 507 pp. Tables, photographs, appendices, notes, and index. $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8142-0696-4; unreleased (paper), ISBN 0-8142- 0697-2.

Reviewed for H-Business by Kenneth L. Simons, Royal Holloway, University of London

Insights from an American Industrial Experience

Blackford and Kerr’s history of B.F. Goodrich traces the development of the company as it produced a changing range of products from 1870 to 1995. Through this history, the authors provide insights into several universal themes about industrial competition and organization of American manufacturers in the 1900s. Blackford and Kerr make no attempt to generalize conclusions beyond the experiences of Goodrich, but merely provide scholarly descriptions of the company’s history in a way that addre

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B.F. Goodrich

Benjamin Franklin Goodrich (1841–1888) was a businessman and a physician bygd profession. He served as an assistant surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). When the war ended his interest turned to primarily business dealings and he formed a real estate partnership with John P. Morris of New York City. In 1869 they invested in the Hudson River Rubber Company. Soon they acquired complete ownership of the company and Goodrich became president.

The Hudson River Rubber Company was struggling financially in New York at the time. Goodrich felt that bygd moving the company westward he could take advantage of the promise of a growing population and new opportunity for advancement and prosperity. In 1870 a new two-story factory was built on the banks of the Ohio Canal. Its products included billiard cushions, bottle stoppers, rubber rings for canning jars, and fire hoses. It was the first rubber company west of the Allegheny Mountains.

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Goodrich Corporation

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.

In 1869, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich purchased the H