American Hard Rubber Co
https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/VSV
Metadata
- Resource class
- Person
- Title
- American Hard Rubber Co
- Description
- NYC. Writes to TAE in 1912 re: William S. Cobb. (E1237) Conrad Poppenhusen met Charles Goodyear, who had invented a vulcanization process for hardening rubber and needed capital to turn his invention into profit. The two reached a deal in 1854 whereby Poppenhusen would have sole rights for several years to the use of Goodyear's invention. Goodyear would found the company that bears his name. Searching for a larger manufacturing base, Poppenhusen came upon College Point, a small community on the East River. Waterfront land could be bought cheap. Poppenhusen's Enterprise Rubber Works was soon swallowing up smaller companies to become the American Hard Rubber Co. College Point became known as the "rubber capital of the Northeast." It also was a lively seaside resort. Like Henry Ford, Poppenhusen introduced new cost-cutting techniques. Needing ever more workers, he recruited immigrants when they stepped off the ship at New York piers. A cradle-to-the-grave employer, he organized a mutual benefit association to assure workers' sick benefits and even death benefits -- unheard-of practices in those days. The company employed more than 1,500 workers at its peak. http://www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/5/hs533a.htm
- Identifier
- P-VSV