Evening star., 1913-11-23
BLOWOUT COULD
OFTEN Be AVOIDED
AutoiSt by Few Simple Pre-
cautions Might Save Trouble.
CAUSES AND REMEDIES
SUGGESTED BY EXPERT
Improper Imitation of Tire Most
Common Cause-Repair Gum
Necessity.

No doubt every motorist has had the
experience of the so-called blowout.
says F. A. Henderson. an Akron tire
expert This experience affects all In
the same way. 1t is nothing but an
evaporation. and although blowout
can often be repaired, the motorist
cannot help preferring never TO have
had it in the first place
To-day the importance Of the auto
mobile tire industry has fostered an
Improvement OF the tire as now manu-
factured, TO the point that the motor
ist who cares can, by Few simple
precautions protect himself from the
blowout bugaboo.
"A blowout is due to one OF few
simple causes, which, IL given the nee
essary attention, can be easily avoioeo.
To prevent the blowout we seek the
cause and eliminate it. Accordingly we
will show and explain briefly the dff-
ferent causes of blow-outs
Air in Tire Important.
In a former article of this series
the all-importance of initiating tire
10 the proper pressure was discussed.
The amount of air in tire Is just as
important as the tire that contains IT,
1mproper imitation renders a tire sus-
centible 10 blow-outs, just as proper
infation prevents this annoyance
The body of the tire is of fabric
several plies are used ana the mass,
after being thoroughly impregnateo
with rubber. is vulcanized into an IN
tegral whole-the tire. Over the BODY
- layer of rubber-the tread
What happens when a round stone
a brick a car track or any blunt oo-
ject is encouraged? If the tire Is I'M
properly inflated. the internal air pres
sure not offering suff1clent resistance
the object will sink into the tire, Iorc-
ing it inward at this one place. Tne
tread comes into actual contact. but Its
elasticity allows II to adapt It's shape
so that il usually suffers no injury.
unless the object be sharp and cuts IL.
But the effect on the fabric is more
serious 1t isn't elastic: 1t can't stretch;
consequently, if the object sinks in far
enough TO produce enough strain it
must break
Comes Without Warning.
Naturally that ply of fabric receiving
the greatest strain is the inside one, for
II undergoes the greatest distortion. and
for this reason it is the first to break
Seldom. indeed, is any shock violent
enough to break every ply of fabric and
cause an immediate blowout. Most al
ways it is only the inside ply that Is frac-
tured at the time. As this isn't appar-
ent the tire usually continues to give
service, but the broken edges Of the in
side fabric chafe the other plies. The
natural bending Of the tire finally breaks
the remaining plies, and then the tube
forces its way through, resulting In
blowout
This Is the first warning the motorist
receives that something Is wrong. He
didn't know the fabric was broken some
time before. He sees nothing but the i'm
mediate conditions, and doesn't realize
that his misfortune is something he could
have prevented II he had only known
how.
The reason the inside ply Of fabric
broke in the first place, was the result OF
improper air pressure. This permitted
the object on the road surface to sink in
and stretch the fabric at one place to the
breaking point Had the pressure been
OF the proper amount 1t would not have
been possible for the object to have made
such an impression. The internal air
pressure would have offered the proper
resistance. and the shock instead of be-
ing localized would have been distributed
all over the tire. and so absorbed without
injury.
Proper Air Pressure.
Hence the remedy-use the air gauge
and carry the propor rroSeure tWpn-