Improvements relating to Pneumatic Tyres for Wheels of Velocipedes and other Vehioles.
Year: 1895

page_text: 'Date of Application, 28rd Oot., 1895-Accepted, 23rd Nov., 1895
[Communicated from abroad by ANGELO FERRERO, 28 Via Po, Turin, in the
Kingdom of Italy.]
Improvements relating to Pneumatic Tyres for Wheels of
Velocipedes and other Vehioles.
1, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of The Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 31. High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 0, Bank Street, Manchester, both in the
County of Lancaster, and Lower Temple Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Civil 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 :—
Pneumatic tyres for the wheels of volocipedes and other vehicles with the
advantages which make them preferred to any other known system of elastic tyre,
present at the same time the very great objection that they can be punctured very
easily either by continuous wear or by some piercing or lacerating object such as
sharp stones or nails, and the like, which are met with on the road.
To obviate this objection it has been proposed to protect the air chambers of
these tyres by various covers, for example; a double indiarubber envelope, envelopes
of strong textile fabric, tarred, waxed, or impregnated with indiarubber and the
like. But these protecting materiale are too weak to give certain security to the
cyclist against falls which are the result of puncture of the air chamber, the latter
immediately deflating.
The present invention has for its object to protect pneumatic tyres against all
danger of puncture without to any extent diminishing the elasticity and consists
in an elastic protecting sheath suitably adapted to the said tyres. The accom-
panying drawing illustrating the present invention is only given as an example,
and for the purpose of showing how my invention may be carried out in practice.
Like letters indicate similar parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the present sheath applied directly to the air
chamber of a wheel tyre.
Figure 2 shows.various details of the sheath illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a perspective view showing a modification of the sheath illustrated
in Figure 1, applied directly to the air chamber.
Figure 4 is a perspective view illustrating a detail of the sheath shown in
Figure 3.
Figure is a perspective view of a modification of the sheath shown in
Figure 8, not placed on the air chamber, but on or in its cover ur envelope, and
Figures 6, 7, and 8' are details of the sheath shown in Figure 5.
Referring now to Figures 1. and 2, 3 is the rim of the wheel, P is the air
chamber forming tho tyre, C is the sheath which envelopes and protects it. This
sheath is composed of two series of thin, narrow semi-cylindrical strips of tempered
steel, the strips c', el of the first series are placed directly on the outermost part of
the chamber P side by side, or with small spaces between, the strips c'e³ of the
second series are placed alternately with those of the first series, so as to cover the
joints. Each strip has two little eyelets on each edd at such a distance apart that
those of one strip correspond to the two adjacent eyelets, one upon the one
and the other upon the next following of the strips e. Little rings a secure cach
strip to each of the two strips placed under it in such a manner that a
continuous chain. of overlapping: links is formed which from its shape remains fixed

page_text: on the air chamber and constitutes a protecting and also unpuncturable sheath for
the same without impairing its elasticity.
The sharp angles shown in Figure 1 which may become a source of danger to
the air chamber if they are caused by some shock or exterior obstacle to bend
towards the interior, have been rounded in the modification shown in Figures 3
and 4. Also the interior parts of the rings a being forced by the exterior pressure
against the side of the air chamber and in time damaging it, have been in this
modification substituted by hooks or cylindrical eyelets similar to those ordinarily
employed for boots and the like, introduced in a similar manner and fixed in the
holes of the strips by means of small pincers or by a hand-vice in the usual manner.
By this means a continuous sheath is obtained as before, only in this modification
the strips are not placed in two super-posed series like tiles because the adjacent
edges of the strips e¹ can punch and in time cut the side of the air chamber in their
to and fro movement produced by the compression of the part of the chamber
tonching the ground and its expansion immediately afterwards. Consequently, the
strips are here disposed like the scales of a fish in a single series and each one
partly covering the following, hence, although the sheath shown in Figure I can
be displaced on the wheel so as to run in either direction, that shown in Figure 3
can only be placed in the manner shown in the figure, the wheel turning in the
direction of the arrow so as to avoid the shock of the exterior edges of the strips
on paving stones and other obstacles.
In spite of the improved arrangement in the modification shown in Figure 3 there
is nevertheless the danger that the metallic portions of the sheath being in direct
contact with the air chamber will always damage it more or less quickly, I have
shown therefore in the remaining portions of the drawings a new modification in
which the sheath is applied, not directly to the air chamber, but to the envelope or
exterior cover ordinarily made of stout textile fabric, tarred, waxed, or treated with
indiarubber or of other suitable material. In this case strips are employed, not
semi-cylindrical but plane, or slightly curved to the arc of a circle of large
diameter, and with little rise, and in order to better prevent the outside of the tyre
from being touched by the extremities of the steel strips these last are bent to the
inside as shown in Figure 7 with a curvature slightly greater than that of the
transverse circumference of the tyre, thus there is no danger that they will chafe
the fabric. The strips are placed in a manner similar to the scales of a fish, and
they are fixed by hooks as shown by Figures 3 and 4. The same hooks however
also engage with a longitudinal band of fabric which thus forms ono piece with tho
sheath, and acts as a lining for the latter. This band is fixed by indiarubber
solution, or preferably by means of a double seam i, i on each sido to the fabric T
of the envelope or cover of the tyre as shown in Figure 6, and may be either
outside or inside the fabric T and with the strips c either inserted or not between
the band and the fabric T, and in the last case disposed either on the outside
or the inside of the double envelope thus formed. The cover is finally placed on
the air chamber and on the rim of the wheel in any suitable manner.
The arrangement hereinabove described of a lining t, of fabric forming one piece
with the sheath by means of the same hooks and eyelets can also be applied to the
sheath shown in Figure 3, which permits the sheath to be better seuured on the air
chamber by fixing the latter to the lining with indiarubber solution.
Instead of using steel for the strips of the sheath, and brass for the rings and
hooks and eyelets any other metal or material suitable for the purpose may be
employed, without departing from the spirit of the invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what I
claim is :-
1
An elastic sheath for pueumatic tyres of wheels for velosipedes and other vehiclos
characterised:—
By the disposition of small, thin, and narrow hands (of any suitable material but

page_text: preferably of tempered steel) plane or slightly curved, or semi-cylindrical, either
in two continuous series super-posed after the manner of tiles, or preferably in a
single continuous series like tho scales of a fish ;
The said strips of the sheath being secured to each other like the links of a
continuous chain by means of small rings or hooks and eyelets (of any suitable.
material but preferably of brass);
The said sheath mounted either directly with or without the assistance of fabric
treated with indiarubber on the air chamber or on the envelope or exterior cover
of the tyre by means of a lining of fabric held by the saine hooks with the sheath
and sewn or secured by indiarubber solution either to the outside or to the inside of
the fabric of the said cover; in such a manner that the sheath can be placed eithor
on the outside, or inserted between the two fabrics, or on the inside of them; the
whole substantially as described and illustrated and for the purposes specified.
Deted this 23rd dex of October 1895
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
31, High Holborn, London, W.C., Patent Agents for the Applicant.