The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1942-05-16
BY ROGER Babson

here again checking up the tire sit
uation. My interest is far deeper
than what II means to you and
your pleasure car. Next to bans-
ing. tires are the most necessary
part Of almost all industry. The
financial. commercial, farming
professional. and manufacturing
business OF the nation runs on
pneumatic tires. To have these
tires eliminated by long war
would be a great blow to the ma
ton. Hence. the boys in Wash.
ington should count ten before
saying or doing anything hasty.
What About Rubber7
Since | first wrote on the tire
situation. the japanese have
seized nearly 80 per cent of the
worlds commercial bearing rub.
Der trees. We have enough raw
rubber in stock piles to supply
our war needs until our new syn
thetic plants get going. After that,
the war requirements will take
all the synthetic rubber. Getting
rubber now from goldenrod. milk
weeds, sugar cane. etc. is practic-
ally an idle dream. Guayule
which is now being planted will
not produce rubber for five years.
The Brazilians are not too anxious
TO go into their will forests TO get
il out. Hence, as far as getting
new rubber tires for our 10000
900 pleasure cars, we can forget
it,-no fooling!
The only hope / can give is that
we really need rubber pneumatic
tires only for the two rear wheels.
Furthermore, cars are now being
run without such tires on the
front wheels. Weber College stu
dents at Babson Park, Florida,
who have made project Of the
tire problem. are operating
cars with iron bands welded to the
front rims; also one with wooden
tires on the front rims. They now
are testing out on another car
with the rims filled in with CO.
ment. These cars make 80 miles,
but are noisy and must be steered
carefully or they will slew. Such
front wheel tires are hard on the
bearings OF a good car.
The Future Tire
The tire industry is working day
and night to solve the problem Of
getting a rubberless tire both
tough and resilient The best bet
now seems TO be a tire made of
wood and covered with a cotton
rope fibre and IL inch thick pro-
tected on the sides with a metal
flange and embedded in some
asphalt preparation unaffected by
heat or cold or standing. Such
tires should go about 1000 miles.
Unless the resilient qualities are
secured, we must jack up our front
two wheels at night to prevent
Hats Unfortunately, rubber is
the only known product which has
both 100 per cent toughness and
100 per cent elasticity. 1t truly
Is most marvellous product,-al-
most miraculous.
or course. II sufficient rubber
were available, we could get along
by retreading, recapping, etc.
Reclaimed rubber also has POSSIBLE
tiles; but to get results from 1t,
l find it necessary to put in lit
tie honest raw rubber. This the
government will not allow the
tire industry to do expect under a
rationing system. | have followed
every lead and hunted the coun-
try over for a solution. Frankly,
the situation looks bad. I'm re-
turning home from Akron with
one resolve. namely, to treat my
present tires as gently as a new
born babe. Next to my wife and
children, | shall consider them my
very, very. very best friends!
Why Drive Slowly?
Statistics show that the nations
biggest stock pile Of rubber is
now in tires,-some 150.000.000 OF
them. This is now in John Q.
Public's hands. When the tire in
dustry puts upon the market the
solid cushion cotton fibre-asphalt
tire above described, we cannot
go over 30 miles an hour. Yet,
IL we all would now confine our
driving to 80 miles, our present
tires would last for the duration.
This is due to the following sta
tistical fact for which upon my
honor vouch: II tire is good for
a certain mileage running so miles
per hour, 1t will give double the
p,{Iaaoa ~ An VILLAS and thrao