NOISELESS WHEELS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4023, 9 January 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

NOISELESS WHEELS.

(The Graphic.)

A proposal is afoot to make it compulsory on all the vehicles ptying in our public streets t > have india-rubber tyres round the wheels. It seems an excellent idea, but very difficult to carry out, inasmuch as one noisy cart without such a muffler would effectually ruin the silence that the others were paying so much to preserve. There is no doubt it would be an excellent thing,' but tho cost would be something enormous. One would like very much to see the statistics of how many pairs of india-rubber tyres a con-stantly-employed hansom would get through in the course of the year, and what would be the expense of the various omnibus companies on this particular head. It is not at all improbable that if this ingenious idea were carried out, we might hear of a very considerable rise in the fares of all our wheeled vehicles. Another objection to this would be the absolute noiseles3nes3 of any vehicle so clothed—we should have no notice of its approach. If you were not to look oui;' it would be on you and over you before you knew it was in your neighbourhood. It is trne you might be warned by the tramp of the horse, but those luxurious individuals who wish to put india-rubber round all our whee's would.in time, possibly, want to shoe our horses with felt, and this, combined with the asphalte that will eventually spread all over London, would create a silence that in a crowded city would become absolutely intolerable. As far as we oan see, the asphalte pavement meets the case admirably, and any fuiihor attempt at deadening the sound of wheel traffic would appear to be supererogatory.