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Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM

Continental Tire North America Inc (CTNA) is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its General Tire brand in 2005. This brand was born Sept 29, 1915, when two Akron OH businessmen, William F O'Neil and Winfred E Fouse, founded the General Tire and Rubber Co.

With more than 300 companies making tires at the time, O'Neil and Fouse decided to first produce a replacement tire, along with a line of pneumatic truck tires. During the next decades, General Tire invented the low-pressure General Balloon Jumbos, followed by inventions like carbon black latex, oil-extended rubber, and Gen-tech adhesive for tire cord.

As the company diversified, General Tire became a multi-business corporation investing into industries such as tennis ball manufacturing, aero jet engineering, radio/TV, plastics, and chemicals.

In 1987, Continental AG — a tire manufacturer based in Hanover, Germany — purchased the tire division General Tire Inc. Later reformed as Continental Tire North America Inc, it became with this acquisition the fourth-largest tire manufacturer in the world.