Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1912 — Pointers For the Motorist; The Prevention of Skidding. [ARTICLE]

Pointers For the Motorist; The Prevention of Skidding.

Skidding is so frequent a cause of automobile accidents both slight and serious that every motorist must decide on some form of protection qgainst it. It is, howeVfer, difficult to select from the jnany devices offiered the pne which will be most effective and econpmical. Anti-skid devices may be divided into two main classes, the detachable and the non-detadhable. Steel chains, leather straps and removable steelstudded leather treads are perhaps the best known of the first class. All these are widely used, but tire inanu•facturers are agreed that all detach- ! able anti-skid devices are expensive jin the end because of the wear and j tear which they put on tires and machinery. / \ If chains be fastened tightly to the wheels so that they have no freedom to slip back and forth, it will be quickly noticed that the cross pieces are biting away the tread beneath them and when removed will show the tire marked with deeply gouged cross lines. Experience has proven that the best way to use chains is to attach them as loosely as possible. Attachments such as removable studded leather treads, while not likely to cut or gouge the rubber are generally so cumbersome that they destroy resiliency. In other words the tire, instead of absorbing obstructions, rebounds from them and thus transmits the shock to the chassis, defeating the very purpose for which pneumatic tires were designed. These conditions show the necessity for a satisfactory anti-skid. Many of these depend on some form of rubber elevation to check the skidding of the car. The experience of many motorists is that such rubber non-skids if used with care are satisfactory while they last, but that in some cases the studs or other elevations wear away rather quickly. One set of figures recently compiled showed that after traveling one thousand miles the average non-skids tire was worn perfectly smooth. Since most non-skids are considerably more expensive than those with plain treads, manufacturers everywhere are trying to make the anti-skid feature more durable. Finally there is the original type of anti-skid invented by Michelin in which the rubber tread is reinforced by a tread of steel-studded leather. In the Michelin Anti-Skid the leather tread is an integral part of the tire and thus does not affect its resiliency, while the steel studs naturally wear longer than rubber and grip better on wet or icy roads.