This 1968 color film about air suspension by Firestone was presented by Firestone Industrial Products, a division of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. A semi-truck drives by a “Ship Federal Express” building (1:34). A Firestone executive glances through a “Put the Pair on Air” marketing brochure for Firestone Airide Airsprings (1:36-2:09). A cartoon explains what air suspension is (2:23-3:04). Suspension systems shown are buggy-style elliptical leaf springs, semi-elliptical springs, coil springs, steel torsion springs, rubber in compression, rubber in shear, combinations of rubber and helical springs, and pneumatic springs (2:10-3:45). A simple air spring is demonstrated in a cartoon with a piston operating in a cylinder, followed by Firestone Airsprings (4:00-4:39). Vintage pages from Scientific American Journal magazines show different patents for air springs (4:40-5:15). Firestone pneumatic spring inventor Roy Brown points to a chalkboard of his invention in 1938 (5:17-5:45). Various Airide springs pass by on a conveyer belt in Firestone’s Airide plant at Noblesville, Indiana. Women factory workers handle parts of the manufacturing process. After balkanization, plates are crimped over the ends to hermetically seal them. Air tightness and operating pressure are checked in a testing laboratory. Springs bounce up and down in various machines, including an accelerometer that uses a ping-pong ball as a visual (5:47-8:25). A pickup truck drives through Potters Bridge, a covered bridge. (8:27). Ride meter traces are shown. A man bounces on the hitch of a 1968 Chevrolet C10 pickup as another man counts the number of times in one minute, using a stopwatch (8:37-9:15). A red-and-white cement mixer bounces over rough construction roads (9:16-9:40). A weight is suspended on a conventional spring versus an Airide spring (9:41-10:25). Various 1960s passenger busses drive past (10:47-11:27). Different tank trailers drive past, including Marathon and Marafuel for furnaces (11:29-11:50). A welder wearing a face shield repairs a damaged fuel tank (11:52-11:58). A Marathon truck says “Gasoline & Motor Oil Printed Metered Tickets”. A Firestone tanker pulls in (11:59-12:18). Moving trucks shown are a Dean Van Lines, Aero Mayflower Transit Company, and North American Van Lines (12:20-12:25). U.S. Air Force instrumentation trucks use Firestone Airide Airsprings, as do trucks carrying eggs and cattle loaded into a GMC truck at the Indianapolis Stock Yard 12:26-13:15). A specialty van with many doors passes a Trail-Aire factory. Another specialty truck splits into two. A three-wheeled U.S. Mail Truck zips by. Passenger trains also use air suspension, as do Air Force radar trains (13:16-15:15). A typical air suspension system is explained, and Airide springs shown in action (15:16-16:52). Federal Express, Inc. is painted on the side of a Federal Cartage Co. Inc. truck (16:54-17:00). Manual valves are turned on to perform automatic leveling as a truck cab backs up to the trailer (17:28-17:50). A semi passes a “Welcome to Illinois William N. Stratton Governor” sign (18:09). An air spring is replaced on a Trail-Aire truck (19:12). A summary of the previous facts and images are displayed (19:15-21:20).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com