An Improved Tread for Wheels, Stairs and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Oct, 1899-Accepted, 14th July, 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Tread for Wheels, Stairs and the like.
I, HENRY BOWEN HAIGH, Manufacturer, a Citizen of the United States,
residing at Brooklyn, (265, McDonough Street), County of Kings, State of New
York, 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 relates to a certain new and useful construction of tread surfaces
for wheels, pulleys, steps, and the like, in which it is sought to provide a durable
non-slipping contact surface.
It has long been customary to employ soft rubber for various descriptions of
contact surfaces as a covering to prevent slipping, but naturally, the rubber
being soft, it soon wears away when the tread surface is made up entirely of the
soft rubber, and when the rubber is inserted in grooves in the tread the wear soon
brings the rubber flush with the surface of the tread so that the effect of the
inserted rubber is practically lost.
It is the purpose of my invention to employ soft rubber on account of its non-
slipping qualities, but to provide means for relieving the rubber surface from the
natural wear to which it would otherwise be subjected.
In the drawings:-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a vehicle wheel employing my invention.
Figures 2 and 3 are cross sections of the felloe and tire of same, showing a
single and a plurality of rubber strips inserted in the tire.
Figures 4 and 5 are similar cross sections of the face or rim of a pulley.
Figure 6 is a cross section of a portion of a stairway employing my improved
tread.
For any tread surface of the character suggested in the drawings, whether it
be the tire, A, of a vehicle wheel, B, or the rim or face. C, of a pulley, D, or the
tread, E, of a stair, G. I form dove-tailed grooves in the tread surface. A
single groove is provided as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, when the width and character
of the tread permits of it, or a plurality of grooves as shown in Figs. 3, 5, and 6,
are formed as may be desired. This latter construction is the preferable and in
many cases the necessary construction to carry out my invention as will here-
inafter appear.
Within the dove-tailed grooves thus formed I insert strips of rubber, L, of such
thickness as to bring the upper surface of rubber a little above the ordinary tread
and of such width as to fill the groove above but to leave spaces, a, a, at or near
the base of the groove. The rubber strips are held in the grooves in any suitable
way for wheels, pulleys, and the like, wires, b, are threaded through the strips
lengthwise, and the strips being in a single piece, but not continuous, the wires
are caught together at the ends to secure the rubber in the same manner as
cushion tires are ordinarily secured to vehicle wheels. When desired the rubber
strips may be vulcanized at the base or protected from wear by a canvass or other
suitable backing. With this construction of elastic packing in which the contact
surface of the rubber extends only slightly above the ordinary tread surface and

page_text: the usual tread receives the wear of the surface contacting therewith in connection
with the rubber, the spaces, «, a, play a most important part in the life and
durability of the structure.
Just
To form a perfect non-slipping surface, all that is necessary is that the rubber
shall come first in contact with the opposing surface, the friction prevents the slip
and the rubber then contracts. If there were no spaces, a, a, in the retaining
grooves, this contraction would bring the wear all on the surface of the rubber
and in a very short time it would be flush with the ordinary tread surface and
the efficacy of the packing would be largely lost, but with only a slight amount
of rubber extending above the surface only a slight contraction is needed to stop
the wear on the rubber and the spaces of the groove are amply sufficient to take
up this contraction allowing the rubber to expand and preventing wear.
how wide and deep the grooves should be, how broad the rubber surface or how
much space it is impossible to say for any given case, but the extent of the rubber
above the ordinary tread must bear such relation to the open spaces that the
amount of contraction of the rubber under compression may be taken up by the
space for expansion. For this reason I have suggested the plurality of grooves
and strips for the tire and pulley face, although I do not wish to limit myself
to a plurality of strips when a single somewhat broader strip will accomplish the
result. It will also be understood that my strips of rubber may be used with
wooden faced pulleys and the ordinary wood stair tread, as well as with metal
treads. The essential feature of the invention is that spaces shall be left below
the surface of the grooves, and that only a slight portion of the packing shall
extend above the ordinary tread surface, so that the wear shall come
on the
ordinary tread, the rubber packing serving to prevent slipping and any tendency
to wear down flush with the surface being prevented by the ability of the rubber
to expand into the open spaces.
Moreover I do not consider it essential that the open spaces within the groove
should be at the sides or that the groove should be necessarily dove tailed. What
I seek to do is to combine the rubber packing with the ordinary tread surface,
allow the ordinary tread to receive the wear, employ the packing to prevent
slipping and provide space to allow the rubber to contact without wear on the
packing. This result can be accomplished by open spaces at other positions within
the groove, or even by forming a longitudinal opening within the rubber
or when a wire is used for attaching the packing to wheels, pulleys, and
the like, by constructing the wire recess larger than the diameter of the wire.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
A tread for wheels, stairs, steps, and like surfaces, provided with one or more
grooves, and an elastic packing therefor fitting within said grooves but not com-
pletely filling same, with the upper surface of said packing extending only slightly
above the top surface of the ordinary tread, so that the ordinary tread will receive
the wear and the packing may be depressed flush with the surface without wear,
substantially as shown and described.
Dated the 3rd day of October 1800
PHILIP M. JUSTICE.
Chartered Patent Agent, London, for the Applicant..