THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April I, 1920. 



New Uses for Old Tires and Tubes. 



WHAT TO no witli cast-off automobile tires is a burning ques- 

 tion. Some 40.(X)0.1XX) of them are now being discarded 

 annually, and every year there will be more. Utilizing 

 waste materials, of every sort is one of the great problems of the 

 times, and the item of old tires is of the first magnitude. 



Both the practical and the facetious man has many suggestions 

 to offer, and both have contributed much toward solving this 

 great problem. With the best grades of crude rubber selling 

 around half a dollar a pound and scrap rubber almost a drug on 

 the market, the junk man will pay only fifty cents to a couple of 

 dollars for a tire that when new cost $20 to $75. Plans to get 

 more than the junk man offers have therefore appeared by the 

 score. 



THE BUSINESS OF SALVAGING USED TIRES. 

 The most feasible uses for discarded tires have been developed 

 by rebuilding the best of them, dissecting the badly damaged 

 ones in large quantities, reclaiming the rubber, stripping the fab- 

 ric and using it again in numerous lines of manufactured goods. 

 With tire duck selling at three to four times pre-war prices, 

 weavers scarcely able to keep pace with the demand and a short- 

 age of the best long-staple cotton, good peeled tire fabric has a 

 monetary value worth considering; it is now the chief value of 

 an old tire. 



Repairable cas- 

 ings of guaran- 

 teed makes, pre- 

 maturely discard- 

 ed but not worn 

 out, are first se- 

 lected for rebuild- 

 ing Tires with 

 perfect beads, only 

 mmor defects of 

 fabric, but one or 

 two small blow- 

 outs and no rim- 

 cuts or loose plies 

 are the ones 

 chosen. The beads 

 are first removed 

 w ith a bead trim- 

 mer the bead fabric 

 stripped off for re- 

 claiming and the 

 hard rubber bead 

 cores ground fine for use as hard rubber dust. The various 

 plies of fabric are separated by a fabric stripping machine. This 

 pulled fabric, single or multiple ply as specified, is extensively 

 used in rebuilding and repairing tires, and for the manufacture of 

 blow-out patches and reliners, as well as for a variety of small 

 rubber articles requiriing strong fabric. Tire accessories made 

 up from sound pulled fabric, properly prepared, are recognized as 

 equal in serviceability to such articles produced from new fabric. 

 PATENTED USES FOR OLD TIRE MATERIALS. 

 Quite apart from tire repair and manufacture, many new 

 uses are being found for peeled fabric. Within the past year 

 many patents have been taken out both in the United States and 

 abroad. 



Under F. L. Harley's United States patent No. 1,285,992 a 

 new built-up fabric product is made by stripping the rubber from 

 the tire carcass and subjecting the fabric body to heat and heavy 

 pressure in order to thoroughly compress the rubber particles 

 with which the fabric is impregnated and to vulcanize the two 

 together. The resultant stock is then cut into pieces of proper 

 size and shape for the purpose intended, the waste being ground 



Ash Sifter Made from an Old Tire and 

 Wire Screen. 



up, reduced to a mass, spread over and by pressure applied to 

 the cut pieces, thereby forming a built-up stock. 



J. J. Dettling and E. A. Tinsman in United States Patent No. 

 1,309,118 protect a method of stripping the built-up plies of fabric 

 of a tire carcass from each other and reshaping segmental por- 

 tions with the addition of rubber into leggings of fixed shape 

 and outline. 



According to British patent No. 121,043 of 1919, attachable 

 soles and heels, heel tips and protectors are made by vulcanizing 

 a layer of rubber or rubber substitute on to a foundation of 

 waste canvas from tire covers or waste balata belting. 



U. Chandeyson's French 

 patent No. 488,979 of 

 1919 covers the utiliza- 

 tion of used or unused 

 pneumatic tires for the 

 manufacture of soles, 

 heels, shanks and uppers 

 for shoes; of gaiters, 

 saddle bags, etc.; and 

 more generally of all 

 articles of rubber or rub- 

 berized fabric. 



Another French patent. 

 No. 490,382 of 1919, 

 granted to V. C. The- 

 nant and L. Meliorat, is 

 for the utilization of 

 pneumatic tire casings 

 for making lounging 

 shoes of all kinds. 

 THE FUTURE OUTLOOK. 

 Probably this is but 

 the beginning, and many 

 patents along these lines 



will follow. Converting old tire materials to new uses promises 

 to become a great business in itself. Outlets for the stripped 

 fabric are already developing rapidly, 

 which takes care of one of the two princi- 

 pal factors. And new uses for great 

 quantities of low-cost reclaimed rubber will 

 soon be found to take care of the other 

 factor. This latter field is one for the 

 opportunist, the rubber chemist and the 

 man of vision. The above are but a few 

 of the suggested uses, however, some seri- 

 ous, some facetious. 



HOME USES FOR OLD CASINGS. 

 More numerous and varied are the sug- 

 gested uses for discarded tire casings. 

 Some of the most amusing are those for 

 the average home. To begin the list, an 

 old casing with a circular 

 piece of wire screen 

 cloth attached to one of 

 the beads in place of the 

 rim makes an efficient 

 hand sifter for coal 

 ashes. A lawn sprinkler 

 of the ring type can be 

 made by attaching a gar- 

 den hose connection 

 through th'e tread, punch- 

 ing numerous holes 

 jgh one of the side walls and stitching the clincher beads 



Basket Frames for Basket-ball .-Xre 



Easily Evolved from Discarded 



Bicycle Tires. 



Sections of Old Casings Make Ef- 

 ficient Dock or Float Bumpers. 



