NEW AUTO TIRE PROCESS INTRODUCED

The New York Times
April 29, 1914

Method of Retreading, Tested Abroad, Has Novel Features—Other Motoring News.

The ordinary method of retreading an automobile tire by applying a band of rubber to the old carcass, semi-cured, and vulcanizing it fast, has been entirely abandoned in the course of a new process which has just made its appearance on this side of the Atlantic, although it has been in use in England and on the Continent for some years.  It is claimed for this new method that tires retreaded by it will give as much mileage as in their original state, and frequently more.  The innovation consists in making the new tread portion—or that part of the tire which comes in contact with the roadway—in the form of a crescent band of interwoven layers of fabric made of Egyptian flax and other substances preserved and hardened by special process.  These bands are so formed that stratification—by which the alternate layers of rubber and fabric used in the usual tread are most frequently destroyed—is eliminated.

In the course of retreading by this new method the process of reconstruction is to remove by special machinery all the rubber from the old tire carcass down to the original fabric or foundation.  After this has been done, the new band is applied in such a manner that it has a grip on the original casing like that of a sphincter muscle.  It is further secured by a pure rubber gum which cures quickly at comparatively low temperatures.  Thus, when the whole is vulcanized, the process of welding carcass and tread into a practically homogenous whole can be accomplished without harming either.  The fabric used in the novel retreading bands is of coarse mesh, woven abroad on special machinery. When permeated by the rubber compound it forms a tough material honeycomb appearance.

To establish this process of reconstruction in this country a company has just been formed here, known as the Motor Tire Reconstruction Company, which plans to let out territory to agents to use the process under its patents.