– 2381 – CHAPTER 28 – 2381 – LEE TIRE & RUBBER AND THE SMILING TIRE John Ellwood Lee was born on November 15, 1860 in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of five children from a well-to-do family and studied at Conshohocken High School, graduating in 1879. Aſter completing his studies, he joined the surgical equipment company of William Snowden in Philadelphia. In 1882 he married Jennie W. Cleaver, the eldest daughter of the powerful and wealthy Wood family. Lee’s enterprising mentality, his talent in business and access to capital caused him to leave his job in 1883 and decide to start his own company, the J. Ellwood Lee Company, also known by the acronym JELCO. Lee began his professional journey manufacturing and assembling medical and surgical goods for hos- pitals—bandages, antiseptic sponges and surgical sutures, among others—in the attic of the family home that would soon become outsized by the growing demand for the company’s products. In 1887, production was moved to a three-story factory built in the urban area of Conshohocken to respond to the wide range of products offered by the J. Ellwood Lee Co., many of which were based on the com- pany’s own patents. By the turn of the century, Lee’s factory employed about 600 workers. 1 In 1905, JELCO was acquired by the leading company of pharmaceutical and medical products, Johnson & Johnson. is transaction was carried out smoothly due to the good relationship between both parties, especially between Lee himself and Johnson & Johnson’s founder and owner Robert W. Johnson. John Ellwood Lee continued to be linked to JELCO directing the business as Executive Vice President from the Conshohocken factory (figs. 70-71), which would maintain its productive activities as a company within Johnson & Johnson 1. From bandages to (pneumatic) tires Apart from the flourishing business of medical articles and taking advantage of knowledge acquired in the treatment and transformation of rubber, Lee became interested in a burgeoning activity, the manu- facture of automobile tires. To initiate the business with the particularities of this technology, a specific department dedicated to research and development was created within the J. Ellwood Lee Company. In 1909, Johnson & Johnson decided to concentrate their productive activity in their facilities in New suggested citation: Medrano-Bigas, Pau. e Forgotten Years of Bibendum. Michelin’s American Period in Milltown: Design, Illustration and Advertising by Pioneer Tire Companies (1900-1930). Doctoral dissertation. University of Barcelona, 2015 [English translation, 2018].