John Hall (1869-1944)
John Hall
1869 Born in Coventry
1911 John Hall 40, assistant manager rubber works, Dunlop Rubber Co Ltd, tyre and general rubber manufacturer, lived in Gravelly Hill with Maria Hall 39, Marie Hall 5, Henry Hall 2[1]
1939 Works manager, tyre manufacturing company, lived in Sutton Coldfield with Maria Hall[2]
1945 Obituary[3]
Mr John Hall, associated with the Dunlop Company for more than fifty years, has died in Birmingham at the age of seventy five. After retiring during the summer before the war, when Sir George Beharrell, the company's chairman, presented him with a silver casket from his colleagues and the workers, Mr. Hall returned to Fort Dunlop in June, 1941, to help in the national emergency.
When he was twenty-one years old Mr. Hall entered the world's first pneumatic tyre workshop, the Dunlop factory in Dale Street, Coventry, as an operative. Cycle tyres cost five guineas a pair in those days, and the charge for mending a puncture might be as much as a pound. The wheel had to be left behind and called for, perhaps months later. Cyclists often bought a new wheel rather than wait. Mr. Hall's first job was to put the tubes into the casing and fit the rubber tread. It was done by hand and took about an hour; to-day it is done in a minute. Mr. Hall, who became works manager, himself contributed to the development of the pneumatic tyre by working with the works chemists on the proportion of ingredients mixed for the rubber.