Improvements in and connected with Inflatable Tires for Wheels.
Year: 1891

page_text: Complete Specification Left, 14th Sept., 1891-Accepted, 7th Nov., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Inflatable Tires for Wheels.
I, THOMAS B. JEFFERY, of 224 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, County of Cook,
and State of Illinois, in the United States of America, Cycle 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, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in
which:-
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the wheel rim and tire embodying my
invention.
Fig. 2 is a section at the line 2-2 on Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a detail side elevation similar to Fig. 1, but showing a slightly modified
form of my invention.
Fig. 4 is a section at the line 4-4 on Fig. 3.
Fig. 5 is a detail cross-section showing the connection of the sheath to the tire
in a form slightly different from that shown in Figs. 2 and 4.
Fig. 6 is a similar detail of a further modification of said connection.
Fig. 7 is a longitudinal section of a portion of the tire showing the valve for
inflating same.
This invention is designed to provide improved means for protecting and securing
a rubber wheel tire, and is particularly designed and adapted for an inflation tire,―
that is to say, a tire having a core composed of elastically expansible tube, which
is inflated by air or gas and distended thereby to some extent, the air or gas being
under such tension that but for a restraining or enclosing sheath, such core would
be liable to burst.
A is the wheel rim. B is the inflatable core which constitutes the body of the
tire. C is the tire sheath. D is an armor or covering applied outside of the tire
sheath on the tread of the tire. E is a fitting comprising a valved induction duct,
through which the core may be inflated. The rim A is provided with hooked
edges a' a'. The hooks may be turned either inward or outward. The first form
is shown in Figs. 1 and 2; the second form in Figs. 3 and 4. The tire sheath C is
provided with correspondingly hooked edges C' C'. It is not essential, either in
case of the rim or the sheath, that the hooks be co-extensive with the edges, that
is, that they comprise the entire edge, although it is convenient to so construct
them and they are so illustrated. Ordinarily, the entire sheath C will be made of
canvas or similar woven fabric comparatively inelastic; and, in that event, the
hooked edges will be stiffened. This may be done either by saturating the fabric
with a stiffening substance, as, for example, caoutchouc-india rubber,-which may
be vulcanized if the sheath is made of suitable substance to endure the temperatura
necessary for the vulcanizing process, or other stiffening which will not require auch
heat to harden it may be employed; or, in lieu of saturating the fabric with a
substance capable of being hardened therein, metallic strips may be employed for
such hooked edges, and in that event it is not necessary, although it may be desirable,
in

page_text: to cement the strips to the canvas, but the canvas being merely folded thereabout,
will be retained when the edges, thus wrapped and re-inforced, are engaged with
the hooks at the edges of the rim.
In Fig. 4, I have shown the sheath as made of canvas and provided with a strip
of rigid metal C, said strip and canvas together being folded to form the
hook C. In this construction, the strip is merely the stiffening for the hooked
edge of the sheath. In Fig. 5, the sheath is represented as being stiffened by
some saturating substance, and suitably folded to form the hook C. In Fig. 6, the
edge of the sheath is represented as wrapped around a stiffening strip C" and
folded, the stiffening strip not being itself folded but forming the edge which is
engaged with the corresponding hook on the rim. In this last construction, it is
desirable, if not absolutely necessary, that the material of the flexible sheath
should fill closely the space between the hook and body of the rim around the
strip C, so that the liability of the flexible material of said sheath to be drawn
out by being unwrapped from the stiffening strip C", shall be reduced to a
minimum. On some accounts, the hooks on the rim are preferably turned outward,
chiefly because the center of the body or inflatable core B is thereby rendered free
from the irregularity which the hooks form when they are turned inward. On the
other hand, the liability of the sheath hooks to be pulled out from the rim books
by the expansive tendency of the core when inflated, is somewhat less when the
hooks are turned inward, but practically, the two methods are about equally
desirable. In either case, it should be observed that the hook is open toward the
axis, and it is preferably approximately in the direction of a tangent to the inflatable
core, so that the expansive tendency of the core will tend to draw the hooks into
close engagement.
The sheath C should be protected from wear at the tread and it is important
that this protection should not diminish its flexibility to any important extent,
nor in any way prevent the tire from having the full elasticity which the inflated
core can give it, and in order that such protection may not interfere with the
flexibility, I make it in the form of the armor D, which may be made of rubber,
and I corrugate this armor transversely by furrows which nearly penetrate the
thickness, leaving only a thin web of rubber to be flexed as the tire meets with
obstructions and yields inward for them. It is desirable also that this armor should
be furrowed longitudinally as well as transversely, so that it is practically cut up into
small squares D, between the intersecting longitudinal transverse furrows, its
flexure as it encounters obstacles and irregularities in the track occurring at the
line of the transverse and longitudinal furrows, the intermediate squares of
undiminished thickness being merely subjected to slight compression but not
necessarily bending to any appreciable extent.
As heretofore constructed, the tube or nipple through which the inflation of the
inflatable core is effected is liable to work loose in the substance of the core, so
that leakage occurs about it, this effect being caused by the strain experienced at
its junction in screwing on and unscrewing the coupling which connects it with the
tube through which air is forced into it, or the cap which closes it after inflation,
and also by the unavoidable wrenching of it in the process of inflation. I over-
come this defect by employing the fitting E shown in the drawings, which consists
of a plate or base from which protrude the short tubular boss E, constituting the
induction tube or nipple, and one or more rigid pins or studs E' E. This fitting
is inserted into the inflatable core, and the projections E' E' and E' are protruded
through the wall of the same and pass through suitable apertures made for them
in the rim, and nuts e are applied onto at least two of said projections outside the
rim, whereby the said fitting is bound tightly in place. The tubular boss E', may
have the check valve E' seated at its inner end, and the protruding threaded end
may be coupled to a pipe for inflation, and a cap E' may be used as a precautionary
device in addition to the check valve to close the pipe when the wheel is in use.
A suitable retaining cage E' will also be provided for the check valve E‘.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In combination with the rim having recesses open toward the axis of the
wheel, the tire sheath having its edges reversed and engaged in such recesses,
and the elastic expansible core between the rim and sheath: substantially as set
forth.
2. In combination with the rim having hooked lateral edges, the tire sheath
transversely flexible and having hooked edges which detachably engage the booked
edges of the rim: substantially as set forth.
3. In combination with the flexible tire sheath having rigid hooked edges,
the rim having hooked edges to engage those of the sheath: substantially as set
forth.
4. In combination with an inflatable core, the rim in which such core is seated
having its edges reversed to form hooked flanges approximately tangential to the
core, and the flexible sheath for such core having its edges engaged in such hooked
flanges substantially as set forth.
5. In combination with the rim having hooked lateral edges, the flexible sheath
and rigid strips about which the lateral edges of the sheath are wrapped inserted
with the enwrapping sheath-edges within the hooks at the edges of the rim :
substantially as set forth.
6. In combination with the rim having hooked lateral edges, the flexible sheath
and rigid strips about which the lateral edges of the sheath are wrapped such strips
being folded with the enwrapping sheath to form rigid hooks at the edges of such
sheath, such hooks being engaged with the hooks at the edges of the rim :
substantially as set forth.
7. In a wheel tire, in combination with an inflatable core, an armor for the tread
of the tire composed of rubber or like elastic substance transversely grooved or
corrugated: substantially as set forth.
8. In a wheel tire, in combination with an inflatable core, an armor for the tread
of the tire composed of rubber or like elastic substance grooved or corrugated both
transversely and peripherally or longitudinally as set forth.
9. In a wheel tire, the rim and the inflatable core seated therein, and the
induction tube having rigid with it one or more studs; the rim having apertures
through which said. stud or studs and tube project and nuts applied on the
projecting ends thereof to bind the tube rigidly to the tire: substantially as set
forth.
1001
Con MIT STITTY
Herbert & Co.,
THOS. B. JEFFERY.
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.