Solid Tyres.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14141, 26 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

Solid Tyres.

AND AIR SPRINGS. Mr Gerald Biss, writing in the "Standard"- (Eng.) has much to say that is interesting regarding the possibility of solid tyres, taking the place of pneumatics. He states: "A highly interesting device, to' which" I was introduced only - last Saturday, is the Amaus pneumo suspension, which is unquestionably an effective shock"absorbing device. Pneumatic suspension has been talked about a lot of late, and was, in fact, only last, week the subject of a lecture at the Institution of Automobile Engineers. All said and done, in a word, the object of pneumatic suspension is to render the solid tyres a comfortable possibility, both at high and low speeds. The Amaus has ife own tyres, its own method of fixing I to the rim, and its ; own shock-absorb- ' ers, which, unlike many of these ex- I periments, are not unsightly. In fact" they are hardly noticeable. I tested' them on a 3S-h.p. Silent Knight Minerva, a fine car, but with . quite a rough and ready body, designed In no way to do awaywith road-shocks. I was asked to choose some T»ad"surfaces for myself, and I did so; and-two particularly bad onea are the old mews behind Charles street, Berkeley square, which is reputed never to have' been repaved since the davs of William IV., an d Old Oak roid, Acton, which we took at 25 miles per hour' Shocking as the surface was, there was ! no being lifted from one's seat and 2 en i' ? nly - «■ certain amount of natural bumping i a and ,out. of deep S+^ d "if-V one thin B **«* tie ■olid tyres, which are as big aa a pneumatic, thev need-no careful .nursing or trader handling; and the»shockabsorbers, _ even at 40 odd miles fan Hour, .banish vibration in a wonderful I way. Iwas frankly a gceptie to start I wrtfi, but much impressed before I. had I finished; and the Amaus pneumo suspension has an undoubted future before., it. . I should like to trvjt on a - taxicab. "With*their short wheel-bases - thevtare 'very- hard to Bold on had roads at any pace, and on any ".tyres. tte General- .Company are expert ■tenting with* this Amaus pneumo. suspension and solid tyres,' and intend stiortty to extend "%their experiments, in,this' and; ffceir.nope is that" by praisticany iffloerishable tvres saWanyfifai from £IOOgOOQ to £SOV<

00 a-year. The -solid tyre, however, must. not forget that it has a lot of prejudice .to-tight from all sides, however good, the system ,of pneumatic ■hock-absorption."