HANDBOOK OF THE TURF. 193 



with the cessation of each stroke of the pump, this spring 

 forces the piston up, the cone-point being pressed against the 

 packing where it is kept in place, <^hus preventing the escape of 

 the air. 



Pneumatic Sulky. A sulky having a rubber air- 

 inflated, or pneumatic tire. See Sulky. 



Early in 1892, Sterling Elliott, a bicycle manufacturer of Newton, Mass., 

 took the large wlieel.s oil' an ordinary sulky and substituted a pair 

 of 28-inch pneumatic bicycle wheels, (in exactly the same manner 

 in which thousands of sulkies have been altered since.) This sulky 

 was taken to a private track and a trainer there employed was 

 asked to hitch a liorse to it and give it a trial. * * * He had not 

 ridden the distance from the barn to the track before he began to 

 look serious, and after the first half mile he made this earnest 

 statement: "If 1 were going into a race for my life I would take 

 that sulky in preference to any on which I ever sat." During the 

 next few days his opinion was endorsed by other horsemen, and 

 Mr. Elliott at once took steps to secure such rights as he was 

 entitled to under the patent laws.— Fneumatic Wheels and How to 

 Apply Them. 



1 have understood that the pneumatic tire sulky was first used in some 

 place in New England. Its real adoption, however, was at the 

 Detroit Grand Circuit meeting in 1892. There was one sulky sent to 

 Budd Doble who would not use it for Nancy Hanks. He loaned it 

 to Ed. Geers who trotted the hoi'se Honest George in it winning his 

 race. At Cleveland, the week following, there were two sulkies, 

 and it was at the Cleveland meeting at which their superiority was 

 positively demonstrated and admitted. From that on everybody 

 got them as fast as it was possible to have them built and rigged.— 

 Letter.of Wm. IJ. Fasig, New York. 



Pneumatic Tire. A rubber tire fitted to contain air, 

 attached to the outside of the felloe or rim of a sulky wheel. 

 There are different patterns, some of which are one-piece tires, 

 while others are fitted with a second or inner tire, smaller than 

 the outer. They are molded whole, and are generally one and 

 three-fourths inch in outside diameter. In the center of some 

 tires, between the outer and inner sections of vulcanized rubber, 

 is a section formed of two layers of Sea Island cotton, one- 

 sixteenth of an inch in thickness, for the purpose of giving 

 greater strength, and to which the inner tube is vulcanized. 

 They are attached to the rim by means of shellac or a high grade 

 of coach varnish, or by a cement, the composition of which is 

 a manufacturers' secret. 



Pocket. A horse is said to be in a pocket when he is in a 

 race, and is so confined behind a leading horse and between the 

 pole and another horse, or with a horse on each side of him, 

 that he cannot get out of his position. The act of his getting 

 in such pocket may be a perfectly natural one, or it may have 

 been aided by some one to get a competitor bottled up, or out 

 of the way, or for the purpose of helping. 



Point Pockets. Small pockets in the saddle in which 

 the ends of the points of the tree rest. 



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