TYRE TESTING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 February 1929, Page 12

TYRE TESTING.

CURIOUS OCCUPATION. DAY AND NIGHT DRIVING. The work of the tyre-tester, the man whose job it is to drive car tyres to t'he breaking point, so that the manufacturer may learn how the breaking point may be put a few thousand miles further on, is described by the “Springfield Republican.’? “Quite often the boys are taken for bootleggers, but they got. used to it. It's a good healthy job anyway—keeps von out of doors," said the tyre-tester, as with a practised hand lio- swerved his car to avoid a hole in the macadam, then resumed the conversation with the reporter passenger. “Yes, most of us drive about 1200 miles or more a week. And you couldn't drag me into an automobile on my day off. That's one day when I like to take a nice long walk! “There’s two tyres on the front that, have been -driven across the continent and baek on this same ear, and they're still going. One ‘Of them’s ours and -the other’s another make—comparative test, you see." CONTINUOUS EXPERIMENTS.

Do you like to slide behind the wheel of a car and hit the open road for 200 miles or more? Do you like to sit there and just drive on and an, through sun and fain, over good and bad roads, watching t'he scenery unfold itself, or perhaps picking your way through a blinding storm? Would you like to explore the highways at night, -with only a pair of headlights flashing past now and then for company, driving mile after mile through the dark or feeling your way blindly, in the fog banks”that so often make night driving a ticklish business? If so, you should be a tyre-tester. What is a tyre-tester? He runs -the practical end of the experiments that are carried on continuously by all tyre manufacturers in a never-ending effort to improve their product. The chemists build an experimental tyre. Then the tyre-testers give it a try-out on the road.* The tyre is placed on one of the company's Fleet of test cars and driven •a given distance l>y the testers. Then it is taken off and examined to see how well it has stood up under the grind of hundreds of miles over all kinds of roads and pavements. Day and night the test cars are constantly on the move. Regular routes, each numbered, and covering every conceivable kind of road, are laid out in all directions from the tyre concern’s headquarters. Over these routes the test cars arc driven continuously. The drivers work in shifts, one from I 7.15 in the morning to 5.30 at night, and the others from 5.30 to 3 in the morning; sometimes 'three shifts, from 8 to 4, 4 to 12, and 12 to 8. There are all sizes of ears in the test -fleet to I fit, all sizes of tyres. Each car usually I travels from 210 to ‘240 miles on each | shift. Often the ears are run practically" without a stop, Avith the night shift driver climbing into the seat vacated by t'he day shift driver and - starting off without any ..delay except I for refuelling and oiling. [ POLICEMEN SURPRISED. “A lot of cops never heard of tyreI testers,” the driver Avent on. “You see j we carry sand in 50-pound bags in the tonneau to make a capacity load. A j cop sees our rear-end sagging, and no | passengers, and so he thinks aat’a-c got a load of booze. I “He’ll haAT me pull in to the kerb. ‘Where you going?’ 'he’ll say. “ ‘Springfield,’ I’ll say. “ ‘Got quite a load in baek there, aincha?’

“ ‘Well, yes.’ “ ‘Open the rear door.’ “I ’open it for him. He pulls the coa’cts off the sand bags. “ ‘What’s in them bags?’ “Sand,” I tell him. “ ‘Sand, eh? Like hell., Pull one of 'em out here.’ _ | ‘“When he finds it really is sand he looks a little foolish. < “ ‘Whose ear i s this, anyway?’ i “ ‘Blank’s rubber company’s.’ I “ ‘Wacha doin’?’ j ‘ ‘ ‘ Testing tyres. ’ “ ‘Testing tyres?’ “Then I explain to him and ‘he lets me go ahead. They stop the night drivers more than they do Lis, though." “Do you -ha A-e many accidents?" “Very few for the distance avc coat*. I’ve had only tAA r o minor ones in six years. The drHers as a Avhole average only one accident to every 200,000 miles. W e see plenty of other accidents, though, especially on the night shifts. One night I happened along just after five men had been killed AA-hen their machine sAverA r ed and hit a bridge abutment. I AA'ent for the ambulance and then held the flashlight Avhilc they picked ’em up. I’ll never forget that. Didn’t feel the same for a couple of days. Another night I brought home t aa-o Springfield girls after their boy friends had been smashed up. The boy driving them was plastered. but nobody was hurt."