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South Pacific Tyres; fabric calender protest drawing
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PhotographerUnknown
DescriptionDraughtsman Geoff Pearson asked to help with correspondence on improvements on the fabric calender line. Small schematic elevations were drawn, showing how fabric would pass from one end of the line to the other, and the machinery proposed. The company had a fax machine, and each drawing would be sent to Dunlop head office in Birmingham for comment or approval. As a result, changes would be made and new drawings sent. It went on for months, and Geoff finally quit after 27 different proposals and a showdown with the chief engineer, and from home produced this isometric picture full of derogatory references to the chief engineer’s previous posting, Inchinnan. Features included ‘Indian tension control’ (elephants and mahouts), and ‘Malaysian adjustable batch up tread motors’ (coolies on tread mills). ‘New Zealand will experiment removing liner creases by using Ponds seven day wrinkle removal plan’ (a cosmetic of the day). He sent the cartoon and a letter to the works director, criticising the whole calender project to date, but also listing outstanding work in detail.
The image comes from a colour photo taken against the light and edited in greyscale.
I couldn't find the print I thought I had; the captions are illegible, so far.
Date Taken1980
DescriptionDraughtsman Geoff Pearson asked to help with correspondence on improvements on the fabric calender line. Small schematic elevations were drawn, showing how fabric would pass from one end of the line to the other, and the machinery proposed. The company had a fax machine, and each drawing would be sent to Dunlop head office in Birmingham for comment or approval. As a result, changes would be made and new drawings sent. It went on for months, and Geoff finally quit after 27 different proposals and a showdown with the chief engineer, and from home produced this isometric picture full of derogatory references to the chief engineer’s previous posting, Inchinnan. Features included ‘Indian tension control’ (elephants and mahouts), and ‘Malaysian adjustable batch up tread motors’ (coolies on tread mills). ‘New Zealand will experiment removing liner creases by using Ponds seven day wrinkle removal plan’ (a cosmetic of the day). He sent the cartoon and a letter to the works director, criticising the whole calender project to date, but also listing outstanding work in detail.The image comes from a colour photo taken against the light and edited in greyscale.
I couldn't find the print I thought I had; the captions are illegible, so far.
Date Taken1980Depicts or relates to
Part of
CollectionDunlop Prebble
About the original
ReferencePrebble 10FormatA4 colour printSizeImage shown cropped to 190 x 154 mm
FormatA4 colour printSizeImage shown cropped to 190 x 154 mmScanned byDon McLeod
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South Pacific Tyres; fabric calender protest drawing. Upper Hutt Libraries, accessed 28/05/2026, https://uhcl.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/30436