Improvements in Plugs for Stopping Punctures in the Air Tubes of Pneumatic Tyres.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Jan, 1894-Accepted, 24th Feb.. 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Plugs for Stopping Punctures in the Air Tubes of
Pneumatic Tyres.
I CHRISTIAN HAMILTON GRAY of The India Rubber Works Silvertown in the
County of Essex, Engineer, 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 repairing punctured pneumatic wheel tyres, it is customary, after cleaning and
cutting out the hole or leak, to insert therethrough the mushroom head of an india
rubber plug, the stem of which remains in the puncture, while the protruding end
is cut off close to the tyre.
These plugs are open to objection, in that they require a tool to insert them
properly, and further, should the adhesive solution wherewith they are supplied,
before insertion, cease to hold, the air pressure against the mushroom head within
the tube will not prevent the plug from being pushed inward from the outside,
should accident or ordinary road contact give sufficient pressure.
The object of this present invention is to improve the plug, so as to obviate these
objections, and to this end I form a plug having the usual mushroom head, which
goes inside the tube in the usual way, and to this head I attach, centrally, a neck
or stem of a length equal to the thickness of the tyre or tube to be repaired. The
stem also carries a flange adapted to lic flat on the outside of the tyre when the
plug is inserted.
In the accompanying drawing, I have shewn my improved plug detached, and
also fitted in position to close a puncture in a pneumatic tyre.
Figs. 1 and 2 are side and plan views of the plug detached.
Figs. 3 and 4 are longitudinal and transverse sections of a tyre with my improved
plug fitted thereto.
The plug has a conical mushroom head a, a flange or base e, and a neck b, of a
length equal to the thickness of the material of the tyre at the puncture connecting
the flange c and bead a.
This plug, which may be strengthened with a core of hard rubber, if desired
(though this is by no means necessary), can, when dipped in solution, be easily
inserted by hand in a puncture previously cut or cleaned out, and by reason of the
cutside flange c, which lies smoothly on the tyre, will not be liable, should the
solution give way, to slip through the punctured hole into the interior of the air tube
or tyre. The plugs are formed of various sizes, to suit various requirements, and
are provided with necks of a length to suit the thickness of material from which the
tyre to be repaired is made.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
on and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
My improved plug for repairing punctured pneumatic tyres, consisting of a
conical head, a base or flange, and a neck connecting together the head and flange,
and of a length corresponding with the thickness of the material of the tyre at the
puncture, substantially as shewn and described.
Dated this 22nd day of January 1894.