Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1897 — NEW BIKE TIRE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW BIKE TIRE.

Pneumatic Hnb that la Said to'Be NonPuncturable. A device which is intended to supply all the advantages of the pneumatic tire, and a few* more, and do away with all possibility of puncturing, has been invented and patented in this country, England, Germany, France and Canada by a Pennsylvania machinist. The idea involved is to have solid or cushion tires and pneumatic hubs. The new device is described by the inventor as follows: Around the axle, protected by steel thimbles, so that there is absolutely no wear on the rubber, is a pneumatic tube, blown up the same as pneumatic tires. This tube is incased in a nickel-

steel frame, to which the spokes are attached. The frame, hanging on these inflated hubs, causes the rider to rock easily, as though he were sitting in a swing. There is consequently the least possible vibration, jarring and jolting. In running up against a ditch or curbstone, for instance, the pressure of the frame forward is against this Inflated tube in both hubs, so that it simply springs and swings, as it were, instead of jolts, which is the reason it does not throw the rider over the handle bars. Beside making riding easy, it saves the frame from being snapped at the joints or broken by jarring. In other words, the inventor claims to transfer the killing of vibration from the tires to the hub, because at the hub he can have a pneumatic arrangement out of the way of punctures. It is said that Gen. Miles has ordered ten machines built on this plan. “The wheel with a puncturable tire,” Gen. Miles is quoted as saying, “is not adapted for the army. Why, all the enemy would have to do to stop a forward move by the bicycle corps would be for it to scatter carpet tacks along the road and all would blow up.” The same reason is advanced by the District of Columbia authorities in their request to the inventor to turn out a lot of his machines for their police at soon as possible.

NO PUNCTURES WITH THIS.