Improvements in Indiarubber Tyres for the Wheels of Bicycles or other Vehicles.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 13th Feb., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Indiarubber Tyres for the Wheels of Bicycles or
other Vehicles.
A communication by JEAN MARIE ANATOLE GÉRARD, of 16, Rue des Grandes
Carrières, Paris, in the Republic of France, Engineer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E. of the Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, & 6 Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster, & 323 High Holborn in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
This invention is designed to provide, both easily and economically, a rubber
tyre for the wheels of bicycles, tricycles and other vehicles, and which tyre will be
sufficiently flexible so that compressed air may be dispensed with, and which also,
whilst being less cumbersome and less liable to become impaired than the pneumatic
tyres, will be of an equally yielding character and afford equal facility in travelling
over the ground.
The invention consists, on the one hand, in making the tyre by means of a
certain number of spires formed of indiarubber tubes of small diameter, which
are enclosed in a thick protective covering, also made of indiarubber, and, on the
other hand, in a method of producing the tyres thus composed.
The accompanying sheet of drawings represents various specimens of this new
multitubular tyre.
Figure 1 is a transverse section of a multitubular tyre made in accordance with
this invention.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the same.
Figure 3 is a transverse section illustrating a method of tubular wrapping by
superposed circular spires.
Figure 4 is a transverse section illustrating a method of tubular wrapping by
juxtaposed spires.
Figure 5 is a transverse section illustrating a method of tubular wrapping by
spires placed lozenge-wise.
As may be seen from the drawings, this invention consists essentially in forming
the tyre by means of a rubber tube of small diameter wrapped in adjacent spirals,
and enclosed in a thick cover of the same material, these parts, being constructed
of unvulcanised indiarubber, cling and adhere to one another at their points of
contact in the course of manufacture, and it will then be sufficient to vulcanise the
part thus prepared in order to render all the parts absolutely homogeneous and
thus obtain a tyre in a single piece, such as is shown in Figures 1 and 2, presenting
all the requisite solidity and flexibility.
In fact, by means of the elasticity of each tubular spire added to that of the
spires lying above and below the same, by increasing the number and the diameter
and thickness of the tubes employed, tyres may be obtained as flexible as may be
considered desirable.
It will be understood that the method of wrapping the tubular spires of the
tyres may be varied in many ways; this wrapping may, for instance, be performed
by placing several tubular bands A A one above the other, each composed of a
tube coiled several times in connected spires; in the example shown in Figure 3, a
certain space is allowed between each tubular band in order to allow of the method
of wrapping being more easily understood.
The tubular bundle thus obtained is then enclosed in an indiarubber case B, and

page_text: the article undergoes vulcanisation in a stove heated to a suitable temperature in
such a way as to form a multitubular tyre in a single piece.
In the modification shown in Figure 4, the tube of small diameter is wrapped in
helicoidal strips A' A', which are juxtaposed in the manner indicated in the
drawing, being enclosed in a thick cover B and then the whole is placed in the
stove and vulcanised as before described.
In the modification shown in Figure 5, the tubes are wrapped in a lozenge
(chequer) shape, and the operation is otherwise completed in the manner already
hereinbefore described.
In all cases, tubes of any suitable length may be employed in the manufacture
for forming the various wrapped spires, and it will be sufficient to cut their ends
bevel shaped and then press them together during the course of their manufacture,
so as to cause them to adhere together and join perfectly when vulcanised, that is to
say, simultaneously with the other parts of the tyre.
The form shown on the drawings, in Figures 1 3 and 4, is preferably employed
for constructing tyres on this principle, in these figures, the finished tyre, as
shown, presents a section sensibly rectangular and somewhat hollowed out laterally,
so that the edges of the metallic rim C may not injure the tyre when it flattens out
on coming in contact with the ground.
The tyre may also be of a circular or elliptical section, according to requirements
and similar to that shown in Figure 5 of the drawings.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. An indiarubber tyre for bicycles or other vehicles, formed by wrapping, in
juxtaposed and superposed spires, one or more unvulcanised indiarubber tubes of
small diameter, all these spires being enclosed in a thick cover also of unvulcanised
indiarubber, in such a way that the parts in contact, of the tyre thus composed,
adhere one to the other, and it suffices, when manufacturing the article, to
vulcanise the completed article in order to obtain a simple and solid tyre in one
piece substantially as herein before described and shown on the accompanying
drawings.
.
2. A multitubular tyre, having a section of a visibly rectangular form, the
lateral faces of which are slightly hollowed out, and the upper and lower faces
slightly rounded, substantially as hereinbefore described and shown with reference
to Figures 1 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 9th day of January 1892.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.