Friday, March 07, 2014
Women Worked for the War Effort at Barr Rubber Products Company (Women's History Month)
From 1923 until 1986, the Barr Rubber Products Company was a leading manufacturer of quality rubber products in Sandusky, Ohio. During World War II, several products were made for the nation’s war effort. Two women employees of Barr Rubber are pictured below making rubber gas tanks for B-29 bombers.
The company also made rubber life rafts for the war effort.
An article in the March 25, 1944 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News described the life rafts that were made in Sandusky. The rafts were used by aviators during World War II. At first the rafts appeared to be cushions, but when airmen jumped from a plane, the cushions inflated to become life rafts. Included on the raft were a sail, bailing bucket, an anchor, paddles and a first aid kit, along with distilled water and sea markers. In March of 1944 several Sandusky High School students who were facing possible military service used a life raft made by Barr Rubber Products during a series of physical fitness and lifesaving classes conducted by Coaches Howard Ziemke and Howard Caldwell.