A New or Improved Method of Making Cellular Tires and a New or Improved Tire for Vehicles.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of App ication, 13th Oct., 1899-Accepted, 2nd Dec., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Method of Making Cellular Tires and a New or
Improved Tire for Vehicles.
I, WILLIAM FESSENDEN BEASLEY, of Plymouth, in the County of Washington,
State of North Carolina, United States of America, Gentleman, 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:
My invention has for its object to provide a method by which a cellular tire,
that is to say, a tire having a plurality of compartments formed therein, can be
made at a small cost; to provide a resilient section for a cellular tire in such
form that the repeated blows to which it is subjected will not break down the
elasticity of the material of which it is composed; to construct a casing for a
resilient tire, wherein advantage is taken of the binding material worked therein
to form a ridged tread face for the tire, and to provide a tire, in which a central
resilient cellular section is covered by a casing, but is capable of moving in rela-
tion thereto, to prevent unduly straining the elastic material of which the
resilient section is made.
Referring to the accompanying drawings, in which ::
Figure 1 is a side elevation and cross section of a part of a tire constructed in
accordance with this invention.
Figure 2 is a section of the tire taken at right angles to the section of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a perspective view of a part of a tire section;
Figure 4 is a transverse section of a tire, also constructed in accordance with
this invention when under pressure.
Figure 5 is an elevation of a tire section having supporting walls inclined to
each other and forming a truss support for the tread surface.
In my improved method of making a tire, I form a plurality of tire sections, a, b,
each of which is composed of an annular ring with a flat face, c, in a plane parallel
with the plane of revolution of the tire, each of the sections being substantially
D-shaped and the flat faces thereon being diametrical to the completed tire. The
following description of section a, as shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, will also
apply to section 6:
The flat face of the section has formed therein a series of recesses, d, divided
from each other by means of transverse walls e. The recesses afford a resiliency
which would not be possessed by a solid tire, while the transverse walls afford a
support for the tread of the tire. I may make the recesses cup-shaped as shown
in the drawings, whereby the walls continuously abut upon the peripheral portion
of the section. In order to strengthen the medial portion of the walls, which are
subjected to the greatest strain and which would be otherwise weakened to the
greatest extent by the described configuration of the recesses, I may place
strengthening buttresses, f, upon each side of each wall, the buttresses extending
at right angles to the flat face of the walls e.
Each of the above described (or equivalent) sections is, according to my improved
method, formed in a proper mould from raw rubber directly into annular form,

page_text: and before removal from the moulds in which they have been formed, the abut-
ting faces on the two sections are brought together and vulcanized. This results
in a cellular tire, the parts of which have been molded directly into the form
they are to retain, and thus all parts of such a tire are under an equal normal
tension, which would not be the case were the tire sections molded and vulcanized
in strips and bent to form the desired annulus.
In order to prolong the life of the material of the tire and to prevent its loss
of elasticity by taking a set under compression, I have found it advantageous to
unite the two sections only at or near the peripheral portions of their flat abut-
ting faces, and this may be done by cementing such portions together, or by
vulcanizing them, as above stated, or by the use of a binder.
If the condition of the tire sections is such when brought together as to permit
vulcanization, it is proper to provide means for preventing the adhering of the
central portions of the diametrical faces, c. This may be done by so disposing
the two sections in relation to each other that the transverse walls of one section
come opposite recesses in the other section, as shown in Figure 2. This prevents
the registration of the transverse walls and to this extent I consider it objection-
able and I therefore prefer to prevent the uniting of the central portions of the
abutting faces by preventing the direct contact of one transverse wall of one
section with the registering transverse wall of the other. This may be done by
slightly dishing the face of the transverse walls as shown at g, Figure 1. The
face, c, of the tire section is still a flat face in the meaning of that term as here
used, as the peripheral portions of the face are in the same plane.
In addition to, or instead of, cementing or vulcanizing the faces together, I
may use a binder. In Figure 1 I have shown such binder in the form of a
wrapper, h, by which the two sections are securely held together at the circum-
ferential ends of the diametrical faces: In Figure 4 the binder is shown as a
tread section i, formed upon the section, a, and extending therefrom across the
plane of separation between the sections a, b, and secured to the tread face of
section b. It is obvious, however, that the section, i, may be a separate piece
from section, a, as is shown in dotted lines in Figure 4.
Instead of forming the transverse walls radially to the tire, I may, as shown
in Figure 5, form the walls as secants to the tire, as shown at k. By this I mean
that the transverse walls are formed in the form of a truss, the corresponding ends
of adjacent walls abutting against each other. From this construction it follows
that a compressive strain exerted upon the tire at the converging point of any
two walls will be transmitted by the truss to the adjacent portions of the tire on
each side of the point of pressure. In order to. strengthen the tread face of the
tire I place upon the inner surface thereof between the transverse walls bosses or
enlargements, 1. A section, such as has been described, may obviously be
assembled with a corresponding section in either of the ways above referred to,
that is to say, the transverse walls, k, of the two sections may be caused to
register, or the walls may break joints, in the manner shewn in Figure 2, and as
is indicated in dotted lines at m in Figure 5. In the latter case it is obvious that
the bosses 1 upon one section will bear against the tread ends of the transverse
walls of the other section and support them against collapse. It is also obvious
that in such a case the bosses, 1, may be duplicated, on the rim side of the tire..
The wrapper, h, when used is further reinforced by a suitable strong supple-
mental casing, and the elastic action of my improved tire may be briefly stated
as follows: The weight transmitted to the tread face of the tire forces the latter
towards the rim, and the circumferential portion of the abutting faces of the two
sections being fastened together, the central portion thereof being unconnected,
the tire assumes an elliptical form, the minor axis of the ellipse coinciding with
the line of pressure. This results in a separation between the two sections, as
shown in Figure 4, and this tendency is resisted not only by the transverse walls
and the material of the tire, but by the casing, all of which cooperate in restoring
the tire to normal configuration.

page_text: From the above it follows that a casing of considerable strength is required in
connection with such a tire and I therefore prefer to use the following form of
winding therewith, the parts being properly proportioned to the work they have
to do. Around the sections, a, b, I wind a layer or layers, n, of strong cord or
rope, suitably impregnated with unvulcanized rubber or having such rubber
worked therein, so that in the subsequent vulcanization of the tire the several
strands of the rope will become thoroughly adherent to each other, whereby ravel-
ling will be prevented. For a tire for a motor vehicle such as now in common
use I would suggest the use of a rope for this winding having a diameter of about
one centimetre.
In order to provide a ridged thread for a tire, whether constructed in sections
or with the transverse supporting walls or not, another feature of my invention
consists in placing the usual wearing surface of rubber, o, over the winding, nt,
and in subjecting the completed tire to vulcanization, the surface, o, being so
placed upon the tire as not to obliterate entirely the corrugations produced by
the rope winding, so that the said surface of the tire is formed with a series of
ridges extending transversely across it, which prior to my invention have been
produced in other ways. It will thus be seen that not only does the cord winding
hereinbefore described result in a casing of unusual strength but that it lends
itself to the production of the ridged tread face.
In order to provide for freedom of movement in the tire, whereby the resilient
section thereof may move in relation to its casing, I also prefer to place between
the rubber of the resilient sections, a, b, and the wrapping, n, a layer, p, shown in
Figure 4, which will not become adherent to the resilient sections or the casing
in the final process of vulcanization. As a suitable material for such a layer I
would suggest canvas. It is obvious also that the wrapper, h, may serve, when
constructed of the proper material, the purpose of this layer, p, and prevent
adhesion between the casing and resilient sections.
Having now particularly described the nature of this said invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-
-:
1. The herein before described method of manufacturing cellular rubber tires
for vehicles, consisting in forming the tire in two sections, divided in the plane
of revolution of the tire, each section being molded from the raw rubber directly
into an annular form, and vulcanizing the abutting faces of the two sections
together while still in the moulds in which they were formed, to form the com-
pleted tire, whereby all parts of the tire are under equal tension.
2. A tire comprising a plurality of separate sections, having faces abutting in
the plane of revolution of the tire, each section being provided with recesses in
its abutting face separated by transverse supporting walls, the circumferential
portions of the said sections being connected together, and the transverse walls
of the sections being unconnected, and a casing surrounding the said sections and
supporting them against undue separation.
3. A tire comprising a plurality of separate sections having faces abutting in
the plane of revolution of the tire, each section being provided with recesses in
its abutting faces separated by transverse supporting walls, the circumferential
portions of the said sections being connected together, and the transverse walls
of the said sections being unconnected but registering with each other, and a
casing surrounding the said sections and supporting them against undue separation.
4. A resilient tire composed of a hollow annulus enclosing a series of transverse
supporting walls, the walls extending from the rim side to the tread side of the
annulus, each of the corresponding ends of each wall abutting upon the corre-
sponding end of one of the adjoining walls.
5. A tire composed of two sections divided in the plane of revolution of the
tire, each section being provided with transverse supporting walls, the end of each
wall of each section, abutting upon the corresponding end of an adjoining wall
of the same section.

page_text: 6. A cellular tire composed of two main sections divided in the plane of revo-
lution of the tire and a tread section breaking joint with the two main sections
thereof, and uniting the two sections.
7. The combination in a tire of a resilient section, a winding therefor composed
of rope, and a tread section laid upon the rope winding and conforming to the
outline of the winding, whereby a ridged tread is produced.
8. A tire composed of a resilient cellular section and an enclosing easing, the
cellular section being free to move in the casing.
Dated this 25th day of September 1899.
WILLIAM FESSENDEN BEASLEY,
Tongue & Birkbeck,
31, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.