Worth was one of the first couture houses to give its name to a luxury perfume. In 1924 Les Parfums Worth launched the first fragrance, "Dans La Nuit" and Rene Lalique, the world renowned glass-maker, designed the bottle. Between the wars, the House produced five perfumes: "Dans La Nuit" (1924), "Vers le Jours" (1925), "Sans Adieu" (1929), "Je Reviens" (1932), and "Vers Toi" (1934).
"Je Reviens" remains the most famous of Worth's perfumes. The perfume became a favoured gift from soldiers to their sweethearts during WWII. The top London store Harrods offers the perfume in its classic blue ridged bottle, which dates back to the perfume’s original launch.
The House of Worth has re-emerged. Dilesh Mehta (perfumes) and Martin McCarthy (fashion) recently combined their intellectual properties for Worth perfume and apparel. This meant, for the first time since the 1920s, the House is reunited and restored.
The House of Worth resumed in January 2010 with a revival couture collection by Giovanni Bedin. The spring/summer collection was unveiled in Paris at "Les Salons France-Amêriques" and the winter collection in Milan. Bedin's exquisite corsets and tutus with clouds of tulle and antique lace echo Worth's ideas. Customers include Scarlett Johansson, Kylie Minogue and Charlize Theron.
The spectacle of couture is just one aspect of the restored House of Worth. Complementing this is a presentation of "Le Prêt-a-Porter" (ready-to-wear). Worth’s "Je Reviens" perfume will be relaunched, followed in 2011 by the House of Worth’s lingerie and accessories, such as couture jewelry and made-to-measure gloves.
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of horse drawn coach for passengers and goods. They were one of the first forms of organized public transport and originated in the 1600s in Great Britain. Before railways were invented in the first part of the nineteenth century they were the fastest way to travel long distances. Stage coaches were operated across Europe and North America.
The coach would travel between stops called "stages" at which passengers could obtain food and drink and the horses that pulled the coach would be changed for fresh ones. Regularly changing horses meant the coach could travel much faster than other vehicles. They were mostly of light weight construction which also allowed them to go faster. Their speed meant they were used to carry mail and often called a mail coach.
The name is sometimes shortened to simply a "stage".
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is a tire company founded by Harvey Firestone in 1900. They supplied air filled tires for wagons, buggies, and other forms of wheeled vehicles common at the time. Firestone soon saw the possibility for increasing sales by making tires for automobiles. The company was a early leader in the mass production of tires. Firestone become the original equipment supplier of Ford Motor Company automobiles. They also sold a lot of replacement tires.
In 1988, the company was sold to the Japanese Bridgestone Corporation. It is now known as Bridgestone Firestone.
Firestone was originally based in Akron, Ohio. That was also the home of its rival, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The company initiated operations in 1900 with 12 employees. Together, Firestone and Goodyear were the largest suppliers of automotive tires in North America for over three-quarters of a century. In 1906 Firestone was chosen by Henry Ford for the Model T.
At one point, the company had a rubber plantation in Liberia that covered more than 4,000 square kilometers (1 million acres).
During World War II the company make artillery shells, aluminum kegs for food transport and other rubberized military products. In the 1940s, Firestone was given a defense contract to produce plastic helmet liners.
In 1951, Firestone was given the defense contract for the MGM-5 Corporal missile. In 1961, Firestone acquired the Dayton Tire division from the Dayco Corporation.
In late 1979, Firestone brought in John Nevin as president. He was the former head of Zenith Electronics. Firestone was more than a billion dollars in debt at the time, and losing 250 million dollars a year. Nevin closed nine of the company's seventeen manufacturing plants. He moved the company from Akron to Chicago. He split the non-tire related businesses from the main company. In 1988 Nevin negotiated the sale of the company to the Japanese company Bridgestone. Bridgestone Corporation Japan was able to buy the company for much less than it had been worth a decade and a half earlier. The combined Bridgestone Firestone North American operations are now based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Firestone has been a major tire supplier for Formula One teams. From to they supplied tires to a number of teams, including Ferrari, Team Lotus, and Honda. They had 121 cars start the race on their tires, winning 49 of those races. They were on the winning car of every Indianapolis 500 race from 1950 to 1960. These years, the Indy 500 was part of the Formula One world championship series. Their last win came in the 1972 Italian Grand Prix. Firestone has four Drivers World Championships and three Constructors World Championships with teams using their tires.
In 1950, Firestone along with General Motors and Standard Oil were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in the "Great American streetcar scandal". The scandal included buying streetcar systems all across the United States. They would shut them down, and replacing them with buses.
Radial tires were introduced to the US market by rivals Goodrich and Michelin in the late 1960s. Firestone lacked a radial. The first radial tire design and built by Firestone was the Firestone 500 Radial. Manufacturing of the new tire was done on equipment designed to build bias-ply tires.
During the 1970s, Firestone had major problems with the Firestone 500 radial. At high speeds, the steel-belted radials started showing signs that the tread was coming apart from the tire. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation found that the tread separation problem was most likely a design defect affecting all Firestone 500's.
In 1977 Firestone recalled of 400,000 tires produced at the Decatur plant. Firestone blamed the problems on the consumer. They said the problems were caused by under inflation and poor maintenance. On October 20, 1978, Firestone recalled over 7 million Firestone 500 tires. Congressional hearings took place in 1978. The tire was found to be defective and the cause of 34 deaths. In May 1980 NHTSA fined Firestone $500,000 USD. At that time was the largest fine imposed on any U.S. corporation. Several lawsuits were settled out of court. The bad publicity hurt the company's sales and share price badly.
In 1926, Firestone opened one of the world's biggest rubber plantations in Liberia, West Africa. The International Labor Rights Fund said about Firestone, Firestone's management denied these claims. They said the corporation provided employment, pensions, and health care to thousands of Liberians. The company also provides education and training opportunities to employees and their children.
In May 2006, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) released a report on the state of human rights on Liberia's rubber plantations. According to the report, Firestone did not monitor child labor very well. UNMIL found that several problems. They included pressure to meet company quotas, incentive to support the family financially, and lack of access to basic education. The report also said that the workers' housing provided by Firestone has not been renovated. They had been built in the 1920s and 1930s.