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Tractor: Tractor: THE ADVENT OF PNEUMATIC TYRES
Posted on Tuesday, October 19 @ 12:13:51 CDT by Cars |
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THE ADVENT OF PNEUMATIC TYRES
One of the first men to experiment with pneumatic tyres was Charles Goodyear, a resident o fWoburn, Massachusetts. In 1839 he purchased the patent rights to a sulphur treatment process that helped him in his development of vulcanization, which made rubber both elastic and non-sticking, thus rendering it suitable for use in pneumatic tyres. Goodyear died in 1860, leaving a rich legacy to the auto industry, but also thousands of dollars of debt incurred in the widespread promotion of his product. The first car built by Alexander Winton in 1896 ran on pneumatic tyres made by Benjamin Franklin Goodrich. These were the first pneumatic tyres manufactured in the United States. Eight years earlier, in Ireland, the pneumatic tyre had been rediscovered by John B. Dunlop.
The pneumatic agricultural tyre was the next major advance in improved tractor teclmology. The lack of practical pneumatic tyres had, until the early 1930s, hampered the universal use of tractors: while those with lugged metal wheels suitable for ploughing could not be used on surfaced public roads, solid tyres suitable for road use were inadequate in wet fields. Solid lugged wheels were also unsuitable for cultivation purposes, as they caused too much damage to the roots of crops. In the United States, Goodrich experimented with a zero-pressure tyre while Firestone explored the use of modified aircraft tyres. These had moulded, angled lugs and were inflated to around 15psi, giving them enough flexibility to cope with uneven surfaces. In 1932 Allis-Chalmers Model U tractors fitted with aircraft-type tyres inflated to 15psi were successfully tested on a dairy farm in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The company used the new tyres on a tractor with a four-speed transmission capable of working at ploughing speeds and also achieved 24kph/15mph on the road. It advertised this achievement widely in the fanning press, but also hired racing drivers to display its new tractors with pneumatic tyres at speed, and unveiled a "hot rod" tractor at the Milwaukee State Fair of 1933. The tractor was shown working with a plough then a local racing driver, Frank Brisco, took it to 57kph/35.4mph on a race track. This created a sensation and Allis-Chalmers capitalized on the success by starting a tractor racing team. Valuable publicity was generated and by 1937 around 50 per cent of new tractors sold in the United States were fitted with pneumatic tyres.
Scientific tests on tractors fitted with pneumatic tyres showed that fuel economy improved. University of Iowa tests showed that although rubber tyres added around $200 to the price of a tractor it took as little as 500 hours' work to recover this additional outlay. Rubber tyres enhanced a tractor's versatility, making it more suited to road use, and before long manufacturers offered higher top gear ratios to allow faster highway travel.
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