MUCH study has been given by the author to the history and development of the pneumatic tire in preparation for the writing of this paper. He found in THE JOURNAL of the Society a great wealth of detailed information in papers extending back to 1913 and gives a comprehensive and interesting review of the earliest patent, taken out in England in 1845, and later patents on fundamental ideas. Successive improvements are described, progressively increased section size and reduced inflation-pressures are set forth, truck and motorcoach tire developments and trends are discussed at length and new types of tire that have made their advent in the last two years are described and illustrated.
Among these new tires are the airplane and passenger-car airwheel or super-balloon, the lug-type pneumatic for industrial tractors and road-building machines, the startling development of the airwheel or super-balloon for farm tractors and the pneumatic tire for rail-cars.
Finally, the author tells of some interesting and valuable information gained by his company regarding effects of roads and operating conditions, such as heat, sand and tire load, on the life of tires.