History of the car tire in Motor Cars / Automobiles
6.18 Tires
6.18.1 The Inner Tube
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The American Philip Strauss of the Hardman Tire & Rubber Company is though generally credited with inventing the first practical tire fitted with an inner tube in 1911. What US patent number?
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He applied an invention of his father Alexander Strauss and produced “a combination fabric reinforced hardened rubber tire and rubber inner tube”.
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Note: On December 2, 1890, Alexander Strauss and Joseph F Bromley were granted US patent 441,820; “Tire for Vehicles and Wheels”.
6.18.2 The Cross or Bias Ply Tire
- In 1915 the Palmer Tire Company in Detroit produced the first cord “cross-ply” tire using a "sandwiching" construction technique that significantly reduced tire wear. Note: Cross-ply tires are also called Bias-ply tires.
- The fabric was no longer woven; strands of cotton cord were used and laid parallel to each other and pressed into sheet rubber.
- The carcass of the tire being produced by laying sheets of cord material cut on the bias/angle and laid across each other.
- A tire’s framework is called the “carcass” and consists of the entire inner layer of cord fabric. It acts to support air pressure, vertical load and absorb shocks and is composed of multiple layers called plies or belts.
- By 1919 the British Palmer Tire Company had seven offices in Great Britain, one in Paris and another Amsterdam and was advertising its new cross-ply tire.
- In the 1930s rayon replace the cotton in cord belts. In 1943 nylon cord was introduced; steel-cord in 1959 and fiberglass cord in 1963.
- From the late 1940s until the early 1960s most car tires were classified 4-ply; 2 layers, or 2 pairs of plies.
- In 1965-66 the American Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company introduced the first belted bias tire. Layers of fiberglass were laid under
the tread of a conventional bias-ply tire. Further details about this tire required.
- In 1967, also by adding a fiberglass belt to a bias-ply tire, Goodyear introduced a commercially successful “bias-belt” product called the Custom Superwide Polyglas.
- Belted bias tire are produced by adding two or more belts that are positioned between the bias plies and the tread rubber and run lengthwise around the circumference of the tire.
- Note: Over the years the degree of bias used by differing manufacturers has varied from about 30 to 55 degrees relative to the rim of the tire’s rim.
6.18.3 The Radial Tire
- There are reports that the concept of radial-ply construction was patented by in 1913 by Gray and Sloper of the India Rubber, Gutta
Percha and Telegraph Works Company in Silvertown, England. What was the patent’s number?
- They “proposed bracing the radial casing with a restraining belt to provide stability”. Their submission acknowledged that they weren’t the first to consider placing reinforcing cords radially in the body of the tire.
- In America on 21May 1915 Arthur Savage of the San Diego Savage Tire Comp any filed a patent for designs of a radial tire. He was granted US patent 1203910 on 7 November 1916; which expired in 1949. 1946?
- Savage and Gray & Sloper did not though produce a radial tire based on their patents.
- The first all-steel reinforced radial tire was produced and patented by Pierre Marcel Bourdon of Michelin in 1946.
- In the new radial tire the reinforcing cords were at 90 degrees (radial) to the wheel. A steel wire restraining belt, located over the radial cords and under the tread, running around the circumference of the tire.
- In 1948 the company introduced the “Michelin X” radial tire. A Citroen was the first car to use the steel belted radial. Which model?
- For 20 years, Michelin’s method of using steel wire mesh in the restraining belt was carefully patent protected.
- Unable to use steel mesh until about 1968 other manufacturers initially produced textile-belted radials. In addition to Michelin the early major radial tire producers included Bridgestone (Japan), Pirelli (Italy) and Continental (Germany).
- Due to costly production implications the introduction of the radial tire ultimately resulted in the worldwide closure of more than 50 tire plants.
- In 1965 the B F Goodrich Company, with the introduced of the “Silvertown Radial 900”, became the first American tire manufacturer to produce radial tires. Were they textile-belted radials?
6.18.4 The Balloon Tire
- In America on 3 October 1894 Edward E Pennington submitted a motor cycle patent application No. 524, 833 which included reference to the use and advantages of “a pneumatic tire of an extra
large diameter”.
- “The larger the diameter of the tire the less the pressure per square inch”.
- In 1896 he produced a two wheeled gasoline powered “Motor Cycle” machine which was equipped with extra large diameter “balloon” tires.
- On 29 December 1896 a “motor-vehicle specification forming part of letter patent No. 574,262” was granted to Edward J Pennington.
- Prior to the balloon tire early pneumatic tires had to be pressurised to 70 psi (4.8 bar) or greater in order to prevent them leaving the rim at speed. A figure as high as 85 psi has been reported. Is that correct?
- The pressure used on Goodrich’s 30 x 3 ½ inch tires was typical; 60 psi for a 400 lb load or 70 psi for a 500 lb load.
- When commercial production of car balloon tires started in the 1920 they were typically pressurised to 35 psi (2.4 bar) and 4.5 inches (114 mm) wide.
- Michelin and Firestone were the first balloon tire manufacturers.
- In the early 1920s Michelin developed a 115mm (4.5 inch) wide balloon tire called “Comfort”, producing over one million by October 1924. When did Michelin produce their first balloon tire?
- The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company started production of balloon “gum-dipped cord” tires in April 1923.
- By the end of 1924 over 60% of the 111 different car models available in the USA were supplied with balloon tires.
- By 1926 4.40 inch (112mm) wide balloon tires were supplied as standard fit on the Model T Ford (and as a $25 option in 1925).
- In the 1940s a more comfortable “super balloon” tyre was produced which had a larger volume of air. Who first produced this tire?.
- Tires width’s increased significantly over the years. By 2011 the Rolls Royce Phantom L model was, for example, fitted with 265mm (10.43 inch) wide tires.
6.18.5 The Tubeless Tire
- The first tubeless tire was patented in 1903 by P W Litchfield of the Goodyear Tire Company. What was the patent number?
- On October 22, 1918 US patent 1,282,197 was granted to Frederick B Cumpston “to improve tubeless pneumatic tire casing and improve rim and locking”.
- The early tubeless tires were not though a commercial success.
- The B F Goodrich Company filed a patent application on December 14, 1946 that “relates to pneumatic tires and is advantageous especially where it is desired to use the tire without an inner tube.”
- It wasn’t until February 26, 1952 that the company was finally granted US patent 2,587,470 for their tubeless tire design.
- The Packard Motor Car Company was the first manufacturer to use the new Goodrich tubeless tire, which was offered as an option on their 1954 Clipper range.
6.18.6 Use of Carbon Black
- In 1904 S C Mote, the chief chemist of the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works in Silverton, England, discovered that the carbon black used as a pigment in ink could strengthen rubber.
- The Diamond Rubber Company obtained the rights to use Mote’s process and in 1912 they successfully blended carbon black with rubber to produce tires with significantly improved strength, wear resistance and durability.
- Note: Up to 1912 zinc oxide was the primary reinforcing agent in rubber.
- The use of carbon black creating, as a consequence, the typical black tire.
6.18.7 Spares & Repairs
- In 1903 the addition of cord to the tyre made them more robust but horses were still very common and horseshoe nails on the roads remained a major cause of punctures.
- In 1904 Walter and Tom Davies (Welsh) patented a spare wheel that could be attached to a wheel with a punctured tyre by adjustable clamps.
- The “Stepney Spare Wheel” was a spokeless wheel rim onto which a tire of slightly larger than usual diameter was mounted.
- In 1906 they formed the Stepney Spare Motor Wheel Company and within three years it had been fitted to more than 75,000 cars.
- By 1910 the company had agencies in Europe and North America; including the Stepney Motor Wheel of Canada Limited.
- The American Thomas B. Jeffery Company was the first car manufacturer to offer a spare tire. Note: In 1909 the company was the second largest car manufacturer in the world.
- In 1909 their five passenger Rambler 44 model sold for $2,250 and for an extra $74 an extra wheel and inflated tire was provided.
- Mountable rims were introduced in 1904; allowing drivers, because the early tires where much softer than modern ones, to remove, replace/repair their own flat tires. Who invented mountable rims?
- In Germany in 1908 Continental AG invented a detachable rim for sedans which made changing a tire much simpler.
- In about 1910 the Danish postal service noted that in Copenhagen their cars could expect a puncture every 491 km (307 miles) and possibly every 200 km (125 miles) in the countryside.
- A “Continental tire” is the name given to an upright, externally mounted spare tire located behind a car’s boot (trunk) compartment.
- It derives its name from the 1939 Lincoln Continental model it was first fitted to.
- In 1941 (WW2) and in 1951 (Korean War) spare tires were banned on new cars the USA.
- In the 1950s spare wheels started to be carried in a recess in the floor of the luggage compartment or 'boot'.
- Note: In Europe “Boot” derives from the use made of the sturdy chest that was used to carry valuable goods which also served as a foot/boot rest for the driver of a horse drawn coach. In America the same space was used to carry a trunk, not a chest.
- The Dunlop Company introduce safety tyres in 1972 which sealed themselves after a puncture.
- The compact spare tire was designed by P. Fletcher for the Volkswagen Automobile Company in the 1980′s. In what year and for what model?
6.18.8 The Tread
- In 1904, the Continental AG Company in Germany produced the world's first automobile tire with a patterned tread. See Section 9.1.
- Frank Seiberling of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company invented grooved tyres with improved road traction in 1908.
- Sipes are the small slots that are cut or molded into the surface of a tire tread to increase traction on wet, snowy or muddy road surfaces.
- On November 2 1920 John F Sipe filed a US patent application for “Elastic Tire and Method of Making Same”. It related to a solid rubber tire.
- “A rubber thread tire having a series of incisions made in its tread pattern without substantial spaces produced by said incisions”. On April 2 1923 he was granted US patent 1,452,099.
- On January 2 1923 he filed a related patented application for “Solid Elastic Tire for Road Vehicles”, receiving US Patent 1,455,361 on May 15 1923.
- It wasn’t until the 1950s, when improved tread compounds were developed, that the sipe process was applied to tires on a large scale.
- The US National Safety Council reported in 1978 that siping improved stopping distances by 22 percent on glare (black) ice.
- Research note: The 1904 Dictionary of English Dialect includes the word sipe: “to sipe out of the way, or drain of moisture.” An odd coincidence?
6.18.9 Interesting Facts & Figures
- About 300,000 tires (and 4,200 cars) were produced in the USA in 1900.
- Car manufacturers ceased using solid tires in 1929.
- By 1998 over 250 million tires were produced annually in the USA and over 416 million worldwide.
- The size of a tire was originally established by measuring the outer diameter. This was later changed to measuring the inner rim diameter. In what year?
6.18.10 Links
