INDIAN
ARROW TREAD TIRE.
The ’98 Defender Special single tube tire is manufactured by the Kokomo Rubber Company, Kokomo, Ind. The material used in the construction of this tire is the same as was used in the ’97 Defender, being the finest of Sea Island cotton fabric and Old Upriver Para. The tire itself does not differ materially from the Defender single tube, aside from the tread, which has a corrugation about one-half inch on either side of the centre of the tread, and is entirely new and very sightly.
A novelty in treads is a tire called the “Won’t Slip,” which was invented by C. J. Bailey, the inventor and patentee of Bailey’s rubber brushes. The entire tread of the tire is covered with round teeth closely set together. The makers say it will not slip under any conditions of surface, such as wet car rails, asphalt or macadam, and that it is 90 per cent. puncture proof when under pressure.
The B. F. Goodrich Company of Akron, O., make a corrugated rubber tread band which is endless and which can be applied with rubber cement to the worn treads of all kinds of pneumatic tires. A pair of these treads cost only $1.50. They look as if they might be a practical thing. The Hodgman tire, style F, has a fleur-de-lis design on the tread. This may be regarded simply as a novelty in roughened tread construction.
The American Tire Company of New York are marketing a new tire called the Apex, the base of which is round, but the whole construction of the tire somewhat resembles an arrow or spearhead, and on the point of which is a very thickened tread preventing puncture, but having thin flexible side walls. The India Rubber Company of Akron, O., have a tire presenting what they call an “arrow” tread. It has a small arch or rib on the centre of the tread of the tire, from which run tapering ribs to the sides somewhat resembling an arrow in shape, the idea of this being to prevent side slip on wet or greasy pavement, and on turning corners.
DREADNAUGHT TIRE.
The Dreadnaught tire is a peculiar one, its peculiarity consisting in having an articulated tread band, which consists of pieces of wood having concave sides and pivots between them which enables freedom of yield with the give of the tire, but preventing sharp pointed projections from passing between the joints, and this articulated band is enveloped in a bed of rubber that is coated with a suitable fabric, the arrangement being such that the individual members of the band have free movement, enabling the pneumatic cushion behind to yield to the same extent as it would without this band, but the manner of yielding is different. For whereas the ordinary pneumatic tire absorbs at its point of contact the [Dreadnaught] yields at its tread over an extended surface, and also yields freely at its side walls. They claim that this tire possesses great speed owing to the very slight frictional contact of the surface and that upon a loose or sandy road its broad flat surface will ride upon the top of the sand and not sink down in it like the ordinary round tread tire would. Side slip is also avoided by the use of the rib and the edge of the tread.