What's in a name?

We know where most tire companies got their names. There were in fact Messrs Michelin, Goodyear, Dunlop, Pirelli.

Not sure about Gislaved.

But what about Bridgestone?

Turns out that company was founded by Shojiro Ishibashi. "Ishi" means "stone" in Japanese; perhaps you've eaten 'ishiyaki', literally, 'stone cooking', where you grill your food on a hot rock.

And "bashi" means "bridge".

Hence, Ishibashi-san's name means Stone-Bridge.

But somebody - maybe his own self - thought switching the syllables around sounded better.

So, Bridgestone it became, and Bridgestone it remains.

And no, I don't know why these weird thoughts keep popping into my mind...

Comments

[Ian Brown]

Gislaved is the hometown of the company founders.

[Jim Kenzie]

Thanks for the info on Gislaveds! We have them on both the family Jetta wagon and my daughter's Corolla, and they work a treat.

[mynalee johnstone]

Whatever..... you get paid by the auto industry.
Auto ads have been journalists bread and butter,right.
The big 3 spent $25 Billion on advertising.

[Jim Kenzie]

None of that found its way to my bank account.

But I'm not sure what your comment has to do with this post?

[aloha e]

Jim, here's your smoking gun:
US DOT report confirms speed not major cause of accidents

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/18/us-dot-report-confirms-speed-not-major-cause-of-accidents/

[Jim Kenzie]

The key word here is "confirms" because this is not news to anyone who studies the numbers.

Ontario's own stats show every similar percentages.

Another interesting number I heard the other day. Haven't independently confirmed it yet, but according to a usually reliable source, in 2004, the last year apparently for which data is available, the TOTAL number of deaths on Ontario highways attributed to OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino's beloved 50-over the speed limit?

Go on, take a guess...
.
.
.
Naw, you're 'way too high.
.
.
.
The number?

Zero.

That's ZEE-ROW.

As in, NONE. Nada. Nil. Zilch.

Pretty hard to come up with a percentage improvement on that statistic.

Jim Kenzie

[Jeff]

Here's an easy one for you to guess at...

Nokian Tyres