Gates Corporation, based in Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

 USA, is one of the largest non-tire rubber companies in the world.
In 1911, Charles Gates Sr. purchased the Colorado Tire and Leather Company located in southern Denver beside the South Platte River

South Platte River

The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...

. He paid $3500 for a property that would soon become one of the largest non-tire producing rubber companies in United States. Their first product was called the Durable Tread, a cover attached to the bald tires as an alternative to purchasing new ones. It soon began to produce other related products such as automotive and industrial belts and hoses. In 1917 John Gates, Charles' brother, developed a belt made of rubber and woven threading called a V-belt, due to the shape it sat in on an engine block. It replaced the hemp and rope belts in automobiles and on industrial machinery and was a model for the common serpentine belt

Serpentine belt

A serpentine belt, also known as a multi-vee, poly-v, or multi-rib belt, is a single, continuous belt used to drive multiple peripheral devices in an automotive engine, such as an alternator, power steering pump, water pump, A/C compressor, air pump, etc. The belt may also be guided by an idler...

. The Gates Rubber Company soon expanded across the United States, opening factories across the country and employing thousands of people. Soon after expansion began, the company began to globalize. In 1954 the first foreign factory was built in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Gates headed south looking for cheaper labor in Mexico and in 1958 opened Gates Rubber de Mexico. In 1963 Gates built its first European-based factory in Belgium. Gates thrived through the twentieth century as one of the leading non-tire rubber producers in the world.

In 1996 the Gates family sold the company to the British-based engineering firm, Tomkins plc, ending 85 years of family ownership. The Denver factory closed, and by 2001, some buildings hadn't been used in nearly a decade. Trichloroethylene

Trichloroethylene

The chemical compound trichloroethylene is a chlorinated hydrocarbon commonly used as an industrial solvent. It is a clear non-flammable liquid with a sweet smell. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, which is commonly known as chlorothene.The IUPAC name is...

 and asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

contaminate the site. While parts of the property have been redeveloped, the original factory sits deserted on the corner of Santa Fe and Mississippi, awaiting further cleanup and redevelopment into residential and commercial structures.

In 2011, Gates Corporation celebrates its centennial.

External links

• Gates Corporation home page