DiCEMBER 1, 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



149 



EMERGENCY BAND AND PROTECTION PATCH. 



VTEGLECTED repairs or repairs that are improperly made arc 

 A^ the cause of many tire troubles. A small cut will be made 

 in a tire which, properly taken care of, would result in very little 

 trouble, but improperly cared for soon renders the tire hopeless. 



Fig. I. 



Fig. II. 



One improper way to take care of these cuts is to apply an in- 

 side patch immediately on the cut as shown in Fig. I, which, in- 

 stead of helping the situation, in reality aggravates it. This patch 

 having nothing to keep it properly in place, acts as a wedge, and 

 gradually pushes through the cut, pulling the fabric apart as 

 shown in Fig. II. This result really does not come from any 

 weakness in the tire, for any tire is likely to come in contact with 

 sharp objects with a resulting cut. This condition is due to an 

 improper rriethod of repairing. 



Fig. IV. 



The B. F. Goodrich Co., Akron, Ohio, has devised an emer- 

 gency band and inside protection patch to meet this situation. 



These are shown in Figs. Ill and IV. When the protection patch 

 is put inside the tire and the emergency band laced around the 

 place, the cut is permanently repaired. 



TIRES FOH ELECTRICAL VEHICLES. 



There has been a great deal of discussion and quite a di- 

 versity of opinion among people interested in electrical vehicles, 

 both pleasure and commercial, as to the best sort of tire. The 

 opinion is practically unanimous for heavy commercial electrical 

 vehicles that the tire should be solid, as owing to their great 

 weight the pneumatic tire is almost out of the question ; but 

 there is some difference of opinion regarding the tiring of pleas- 

 ure electrical vehicles. The predominating opinion, however, 

 seems to be that even in this case the solid tire is preferable, be- 

 cause these vehicles do not ordinarily require a great rate of 

 speed. They are not therefore subjected to as much jar and 

 jolt as the faster moving automobiles, and the solid tire gener- 

 ally possesses sufficient resiliency to protect against the jarring 

 of the batteries and mechanism ; while the using up of energy, 

 that is the current consumption, is less with the solid tire. Of 

 course it would be even less with a hard tire, but the hard tire 

 would be uneconomical, to say nothing of being uncomfortable, 

 because of the jarring and the consequent wearing of the bat- 

 teries and mechanisms. 



WINTERING YOUR TIRES. 



The United States Tire Co., which from time to time dis- 

 tributes to tire users a good deal of advice as to tire care, has 

 recently circulated some seasonable suggestions regarding the 

 proper treatment of tires during the winter. Condensed, they 

 are as follows : If the car is to be laid up for the winter, the 

 tires should be removed, washed with soap and water, wrapped 

 up in strips of paper or cloth and put away in a dark place, the 

 temperature preferably about SO degs. If the car is to be out of 

 service for some time, but it is thought advisable not to re- 

 move the tires, the wheels should be jacked up and about 5 

 pounds of air left in each tire to preserve its shape and keep it 

 soft and pliable. 



But where the car cannot be jacked up and is allowed to stand 

 unused for some time, the tires should be kept well inflated and 

 the car shifted a little from time to time so that the pressure 

 will not remain too long on one spot. 



AUTOMOBILE EXPORTS INCREASING AND IMPORTS DECREASING. 



The figures compiled by the Bureau of Statistics at Washing- 

 ton show that the export business in automobiles increased 

 about 75 per cent, during the nine months ending with Septem- 

 ber, 1911, over the same nine months of the preceding year, while 

 that period in turn showed an increase of nearly 100 per cent 

 over the same period in 1909. But imports have constantly de- 

 creased. 



The number of automobiles imported in the nine months end- 

 ing with September, 1911, was 670, valued at $1,450,222; against 

 809 automobiles valued at $1,623,140 in the corresponding months 

 of 1910 and 1,208 valued at $2,218,414 in the corresponding 

 months of 1909. Of the 670 automobiles imported in the nine 

 months of 1911, 227 were from France, 113 from Germany, IDS 

 from the United Kingdom and 85 from Italy. The number of 

 automobiles exported in the nine months under consideration 

 was, in 1911, 11,244, valued at $11,565,034, against 6472, valued 

 at $8,874,066 in the like period of 1910 and 3,426 valued at 

 $5,481,707 in the like period of 1909. The largest exportation in 

 the nine months of 1911 was to Canada, 4,107 cars, compared with 

 2,563 to the United Kingdom, 352 to France and 884 to other 

 parts of Europe, while shipments were also made to Mexico, the 

 West Indies, and various countries in South America, Asia, 

 Oceania and Africa. 



