INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1920, Page 7

INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

TO PREVENT TYRE-PUNCTURE. "It is safe to say that during the last 25 years hundreds of patents have been takeu opt for the prevention of puncin 'pneumatic -tyres. In moat of them' the central idea was t6 m»ke the tyre, impenetrable to nails and other injurious articles," siyst Chamber's Journal. "A recent inventor approached the problem from a new angle by studying the process by which the nails get into the tyre. He found that (1) nearly all nails lie flat on the road; (2) in motor cycles and oars 90 pej cent of nail punctures are in theixear tyres; (3) punctures occur , most -readily at high speeds and on dry roads; (4) the front tyres are pierced by short nails, the rear tyres by long nails. ■' ' "Froiri.. these observed facts he concluded that i*ear tyre punctures are caused by the front tyre turning objects on end, with the result that if the rear tyre reaches them before they fall again, it is pierced. Experiments conducted over a track strewn with nails verified this theory; not only were the nails seen to-act thus, but they were caught 'red-handed,' as it were, by a high-speed camera. The puncture preventer designed as the outcome of these observations and experiments turns down nails as fast s& the front tyre turns them up, and so the rear tyre is saved. The form of it suitable for motor cycles consists of a specially-constructed rubber-canvas flap, 3in wide, usually mounted on a scroll spring attached, to a curved steel racket fixed by one bolt through the foreend of the rear mudguard,,but' Occasionally attached to the silencer or to i special adapter. The flap cavers the rear tyre, and clears the road by Half an inch. It lasts for about 25,000 miles, and'ean then be renewed cheaply;! " < "The puncture preventer has kept the inventor free from . punctures for 25,000 miles; previously he had 47 in 11000 miles. On one occasion he rode for seven hours over a track strewn with thousands of nails. So long as the apparatus was in position, no damage was done; when it was removed, rear punctures came thick and fast. Forms of the preventer suitable for motor cycles are already on the market; models suitable for cars and cycles will be ready shortly."