Sometimes it is educational to look at how things were done in the decades before plastics entered every aspect of our lives. Sharp-eyed Regina Smith, our staff member who compiles Glimpses into the Past, found the article below in the Gloucester Gazette of March 28, 1935.
The following excerpt is from a recent talk given on the Ford Sunday Evening Hour by W. J. Cameron, broadcast over the nation-wide network of the Columbia broadcasting system from Detroit, Michigan, and George E. Lawson, Gloucester Ford dealer, has furnished the following valuable information showing what the Ford Motor Company will need and purchase to fulfill its announced intention of making a million cars this year:
“That number of cars will require 3,200,000 pounds of wool, and that quantity of wool will require more than 800,000 sheep to produce it. The wool goes into upholstery, floor coverings, lubricants and anti-rust preparations.
“And then comes the part the cow plays. The production of glues made from hid...