Improvements in the Construction of Pneumatic Tyres.
Year: 1895

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Construction of Pneumatic Tyres.
I, MAURICE BOUHON, of 25 Boulevard de la Sauvenière Liége, Belgium,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in the construction of pneumatic tyres,
and consists in the use in the manufacture of such tyres-alone or in combination
with other suitable material-of a web or similar fabric, capable of being extended
in only one direction of its tissue.
Hitherto the air-chambers or inner tubes of pneumatic tyres have usually been
made either of non-elastic material or of india rubber capable of extension in any
direction, in which latter case the tube or air-chamber is covered for a portion or
the whole of its length with a non-elastic wrapper, for the purpose of preventing
the extension of the air introduced therein when the internal pressure amounts to
several atmospheres.
The methods adopted hitherto, do not permit of the use of an elastic outer
covering in combination with an elastic air-tube or chamber, since such materials
allow the air-chamber or inner tube and consequently the tyre, to expand in any
direction. For this reason it is necessary to embody in the tyre or in the cover, a
non-extensible material to prevent expansion of the enclosed air at a pressure
varying according to the weight which the tyre is intended to support. Owing to
the heaviness of such material and to the inefficiency of an elastic material,
pneumatic tyres as usually constructed do not retain when inflated, all the resiliency
which they might otherwise possess.
My invention has for object to remedy these defects; and it consists in using a
web or other similar fabric, capable of being stretched in one direction only and
which I propose to introduce during the manufacture of the tyre or cover.
1 preferably employ such a web as the elastic hose used for varicose veins, boots,
garters, waist belts and similar coverings, which generally can be stretched only in
one direction. And I may use this web either in the air-tube or chamber and cover
or wrapper, either interiorly or exteriorly, or in both, and during the manufacture
or formation of the tyre itself.
If desired, the extensibility of the web or elastic material which I nse, can be
lessened by the addition of small strips either of non-elastic material or of web or
other material whose elasticity in the one direction ouly is relatively less than that
used for my tyre.
These strips may be added during the manufacture of the tyre itself or afterwards
as desired.
The web, extensible in one direction only is usually so arranged in the tyre that
its elasticity may be in the longitudinal direction thereof.
However the web I prefer to use can also be employed for bands of larger or
smaller size added to the actual pueumatic tyre, in such a manner that their
expansion takes place in a longitudinal or transverse direction or angular
inclination to the tyre. These strips or bands extensible in one direction only,
may be placed in or upon the tyre in any desired way, either interiorly or
exteriorly, during the manufacture of and even after the complete formation of
the tyre; the arrangement of this web extensible in one direction only having for
object to impart more buoyancy, strength, and consequently, increased resiliency
to the tyre when finished.

page_text: My improved tyre allows me to dispense with the canvas lining on the tyre
cover or wrapper, and is when finished and detached from the rim, as elastic and
extensible longitudinally as a plain vulcanised india-rubber tyre.
Dated this Twenty-second day of November 1895.
Improvements in the Construction of Pneumatic Tyres.
MAURICE BOUHON of 25 Boulevard de la Sauvenière, Liége, Belgium,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
In the manufacture of pneumatic tyres for velocipedes and other vehicles, a
tissue is employed which is covered on the outside with india-rubber.
The object of this tissue is to protect the air-chamber, maintain it in its place
and prevent the tyre from getting out of shape by the expansion of the air
compressed by the swelling of the air-chamber. This tissue however must be
sufficiently pliable and capable of stretching, in order to give the tyre sufficient
elasticity, allowing it the full advantage of its pneumatic qualities.
The tissues at present in use are of three kinds :
1. A textile fabric, or cauvas, woven in the usual manner. Ita elasticity is
almost unnoticeable and therefore it is little suited to the purpose to which it is
applied.
2. An elastic tissue which gives or stretches in one direction, but this tissue is
not contractile and one of its defects is that its elasticity is only exercised in the
direction of the motion of the wheel and not at all in the transverse direction.
3. A double-faced bias-woven or twill tissue, which is extensible and contractile
in two directione, longitudinally in the direction of the wheels' movement and also
transversely.
This latter material is superior to either of the others and the best in use up to
the present, because it offers sufficient resistance to the expansion of the air, uot
being extensible in an oblique direction, that is to say in the direction of the thread,
and its use gives the tyres the desired elasticity to ensure easy wheeling.
My invention is an improvement on this latter kind of tyre and its object is to
render it more springy, or bounding, and therefore it clings less to the ground and
does not drag so much as the ordinary material, while it is not so easily punctured
and it affords increased speed.
The effect of my improvement is to combine longitudinal and transverse
extensibility as well as longitudinal and transverse contractility of the twilled
tissue, with the longitudinal extensibility of a strip of elastic tissue, occupying
the central part of the tyre, and preventing the transverse extension of the twilled
double-faced tissue within the width of the said strip.
To attain the proposed object, I provide the twilled tissue, before or after the
manufacture of the tyre itself, with a strip of elastic tissue which occupies the
central part of the whole periphery of the tyre.
This strip is extensible only in a longitudinal direction, that is to say in the
direction of the movement of the wheel.
It may be gummed with india-rubber composition to the twilled tissue, or
between the two parts composing the latter, in any suitable manner.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 shows the elastic tissue strip in one direction and in its extended state.

page_text: Fig. 2 shows a twilled double-faced tissue the two parts of which are laid upon
each other and fastened by india-rubber composition and in the centre of which is
my strip forming a reservoir or store of longitudinal elasticity, which permits the
bias threads to give or work in the direction the wheel is advancing and prevents
any transverse giving, or working within the width of the strip.
Fig. 3 shows a bias-thread double-faced tissue, exactly like that in Fig. 2 but
having the strip placed between the two parts and thus invisible.
Fig. 4 represents a section of the tyre with the elastic-tissue strip in the centre,
showing that the addition of the latter may be effected after the completion of the
tyre itself.
It will thus be seen that my system is to have a tyre with three zones, which
will be extensible, longitudinally and transversely, in the lateral zones and only
extensible in a longitudinal direction as regards the central zone.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
In the manufacture of pneumatic tyres for velocipedes and other vehicles, the
combination with the double-faced bias-thread or twill tissue, of a strip of elastic
tissue extensible in the longitudinal direction only and secured, in any suitable
manner, before or after the formation of the tyre itself, either on or between the
two parts of the tissue in the central part thereof, so as to form in the tyre three
distinct zones, of which the two lateral ones are extensible and contractile in the
longitudinal and in the transverse direction, whilst the central zone is only extensible
in the longitudinal direction, the elastic-tissue strip preventing, within this zone,
any transverse yielding of the tissue.
Dated this 20th day of August 1896.
L. DUVINAGE,
Agent for Applicant.