The beginning of tubeless tyres

• 

Tyres are just black and round, aren’t they? Well, tyre manufacturers think very differently, and they may well be right. As we all know it’s the tyres that are in touch with the road as nothing else does on our beloved cars.

You might like to know then, that it was on the 11th of May 1947 that BF Goodrich Co. announced that, after three years of research and engineering, it had developed a tubeless tyre. An innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient, they said. But tyre manufacturers may say what they want – the public don’t always care.

They did carry on with their campaign, though, eliminated inner tubes, and simply trapping the pressurized air within the tire walls themselves. There was one more hurdle to take, though. BF Goodrich needed approval from the US Patent Office, who put their new tyre under high-speed road testing and fitted them to taxis and state police cars. It took another five (!) years, but then they, too, were convinced of this invention.

BF Goodrich got their much-wanted patents and they ruled within the world of tyre manufacture. Within three years, the tubeless tire had become standard on most new cars. The New York Times wrote in 1954, “If the results of tests prove valid in general use, the owner of a 1955 automobile can count on at least 25 per cent more mileage, easier tire changing if he gets caught on a lonely road with a leaky tire, and almost no blowouts.” Only radials could better that, but that’s another story.

Words editor, picture Goodyear

Aggiunga un commento...