THE SELF-SEALING TYRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2170, 26 September 1895, Page 35

THE SELF-SEALING TYRE.

Bicyoli g Newp, in repotting on a recent tride gatheiiwg o! & sooi*l oharacter, says :—": — " The meeting had been organised by the nowlyformed Patent Self - Sealing Air Chamber Syndicate (Limited), whoje directors had decided to give a dinner aud invite the presence of the trade in otdt r to bring immediately under their notice this uew invention, wbioh, if it realises the anticipations of its owners and experts who have p<&ctic.\lly tested the merits of this pitent nelf-6e*liag air tube for pneumatic tyre?, will not only prove a boon and a blessing to all cyoliits, but it will alao prove ft greater commercial success than auytbing that has been placed upon the market tince air tyrea for oycle3 were first introducad. When that claver and ingenious device for jremoving the nerveBhattermg effcots caused by the excpsiva vibration of bol id-tyred cycles ; for increasing tha comfort of the nder, and giving additional speed was brought forward, we all felt that a great and wonderlul improvement in ojcla construction had I»i en efficted, and there is no doubt whatever that n great impetus was given to the trade in oonsequenoe thereof, but alas, we soon discovered that riding upon air viaa not all peace and comfort. The liability of the tyre to tuddenly collapse through some little invisible puncture fiend having obtruded itself, rendering the ro&ohiuo unridoablo when about a dozen miles from nowhere, leaving its owuer stranded in a desert, so to speak, caused vast numbers of wheelmen to regard the pneumatic tyro as a thing to be a\oded rattier than welcomed. With the progress of time cimo forth various improvements iv the method of fixing air tyres to tha rims so that they might more easily be detached aud the inner tube repaired and replaced when puaoturei occurred. Some wouldbe soul-comforting inventors, realising that prevention was better than cure, sought to remove the pnr-uoutic tyre bogey by the introduction of wbal; were termed puueture-proof band: 1 , composed of ctfUon wool eU;epdd in resin, for inseition botwe+n the outer cover and air chamber, while others eudewoure J to artivo at a solution of the difficulty by the intertion ol thin steel baada of various kinds, sune of them resembling the top shell of a lobs' er. Another means ol ensuring immuuity from ollap-ie was receutly brought forward in the form of an air chamber composed ot unvulcanised tulbjr and other glutinous material of a self-clojing character, which, while doing all that was claimed for it at the outset, nut only added to the weight and impaired the resiliency of the tyre, but soou lost all iU nature and pcrinhed, with the inevitable result that it has been declared & failure. For six jears people havo been exerting their inventive faculties and racking their brains to produce a perfectly airb'gbt chamber, and up till quit* recently it seemed aa though the thing was an impossibility ; but just when hope hid almcst given way to despair an American gentleman bobs up serenely with an invention which we believe — and we are not talking without having had a fairly good oppottucity of practically testing the article in question — will completely supersede every other kind of alleged punoture-reßistiug device that has preceded it, and create a revolution in the construction of pneumatic tyres. Of course it is possible to over-estimate the good qualities of the newcomer, for until it has been subjected to a lengthened trial on a machine, ridden over all sorts and conditions of roads, it cannot be classed as tho ideal of perfection, though we do conscientiously assert, from experiments vrhich we have been able to make, that so far as our judgment serves ue, the new patent selfsenling air chamber is as great an advance in the improvement of pneumatic tyrea as laterally adjuitable baU bearings were over the oldfashioned plain or parallel articles which did service in the days of the old boneshaker.

The new dress regulations for the New Zealand Forces are gazetted ; also regulations for the carriage of cargo and live stock on ■ decks of ves3e!s. A bonus of 4d per lb will be paid for the first 100,0001b of quicksilver produced in New Zealand. R. Y. Stokes, an old identity afc Hamilton, Auckland, was sitting on the top of his verandah painting boards beneath the e&ves, when suddenly he dropped dead from heart diseaso. He was formerly a lieutenant in the fourth Waikato regiuienfc, and is reported to have seen a good deal of service in India.