Tiree

“ A woman once did this in Tiree, and found her own brother was the guilty party. Old people in the east side of Skye remember the bull being put on the top of a suspected witch’s house to bring back their milk to a farmer’s cows. The more brutal method of scoring, or drawing blood from, the witch above [15] her breath—the object of which could only be to make clowns strike poor old women on the face with their fists—was unknown in the Highlands. The plant mōthan, pearlwort, put in the milk-pail, was a more gentle but quite as sure a method of restoring its virtue to the milk. ”

“ There is still shewn the hillock called the Bank of the Gallows (Bac na Croiche) , where the man who came in last with his rent at collection time was hanged. A party of strong men called ‘MacLean’s attributes’ (buaidheanan Mhic-’illeathain) but more correctly oppressors and bullies, were kept in the island to overawe the people.
This wife of Dowart, with her galley and men, was at Croig in Mull, awaiting for a passage across to Tiree. When the men were getting the galley in order, a big strong man was observed making his way to the boat. ”

“ Are there many states of the road in which a wide tire is of considerable advantage to the road!--Yes. In the majority of cases do you think the superior width of the tire which the Steam Carriage has over a Carriage drawn by horses, is altogether an advantage or a disadvantage?—A wide tire has the advantage upon the average. ”

“ The tire of a wheel is the outer circumferential portion that rolls on the ground or the track prepared for it. When the track is smooth and level, as in a railway, the principal functions of the tire are to provide a hard, durable surface for the wheel, and to reduce to a minimum the resistance to rolling. ”

“ Do you not infer, from the action of the horse's hoof upon the road, that the injury would be great in proportion?—I think that the action of the horse's foot on the ground is more destructive to the road: there is more tear and wear to the road by the horse's shoe than by the tire. In rolling two tons along the ground, on four wheels, there will be less damage done than by driving four horses without drawing any thing after them along the same ground. ”

“ In bicycles, motor-cars, and other road vehicles in which freedom from vibration and shock from uneven road surface is desired, rubber or pneumatic tires are employed. These elastic tires are capable of absorbing small irregularities in the road surface without transmitting much vibration to the frame of the vehicle. ”

“ And finally tires may get rim-cut, which means that the steel rim which fastens them on wears them through by rubbing. The result of these things is what is known as a flat tire with all the air gone out, and the automobile bumps on the hard rim.
Boys and girls have tire-troubles, too. I have seen boys and girls get so vexed about things that they just exploded in a burst of temper like a blow-out in a tire. I have known them to run up against something sharp and difficult which took all the buoyancy out of them, just like a nail causing a puncture in a tire. ”

“ May you take the wear of horses' shoes, in proportion to that of the tire of the wheels, as a fair test of the proportionate wear of the road by each?—No, by no means, because the pressure which the wheels exert, and which wears away the tire, is, under certain conditions, very beneficial to the road; whereas the pressure occasioned by the horses' feet is in all cases pernicious. ”

“ The breadth of tire of Mail Coaches is two inches and a quarter; the four-horse Vans, which travel about six miles an hour, weigh on an average four tons and a quarter, including the Carriage; the breadth of tire of one which I measured was two inches and a half, but I am not prepared to say that this is the general size of such wheels; the horses used in these Carriages are of the very best and largest description, which added to so great a weight on narrow wheels, probably renders this Carriage more injurious to the public roads than any other description of vehicle at present employed. ”

“ The outside of the tire is covered with a thick layer of rubber, which protects the fabric from injury by contact with the rough road surfaces. In full roadster tires this outer layer of rubber is thinner at the sides than at the tread (the part which actually rolls on the ground) , but still completely covers the fabric. In light roadster and racing tires the sides are not covered, and an appreciable gain in speed or ease of driving is due to the greater flexibility of the cover thus obtained. ”

“ The foundation of a tire as every motorist knows consists of alternative layers of rubber, fabric, or cord, covered with a tread and breaker strip of rubber. The tread and breaker strip, however, are not worth the space they occupy if they are placed over a poorly constructed foundation of cheaply made fabric. Therefore, great care should be exercised in choosing a tire of standard make which has been tested, inspected, and guaranteed to be in perfect condition, and gives a mileage guarantee. ”

“ My audience was small at first—Captain Godfrey, Hogge, Adam, and the two chauffeurs, working away, and having more trouble with the tire than they had thought at first they would—which is the way of tires, as every man knows who owns a car. ”

“ Railway vehicle wheels usually have hard steel tires, this combination with the hard steel rail giving the maximum endurance and the minimum rolling resistance. For road vehicles also, in which durability is the prime consideration, the tires are usually rings of iron or steel shrunk on the wooden wheels. ”

“ Now, having the car ready for the grind, we will consider some suggestions touching on the actual work of handling it on desert roads. When you come to the point where your road map tells you that you will encounter several miles of deep, fine sand, you should deflate your tires to fifteen to twenty-five pounds pressure, according to your load and tire size. Four and one-half inch tires should carry twenty-five pounds ”

“ The tire with a thousand claws will hold you.
Stop as quickly as you will—
Those thousand claws grip the road like a vise.
Turn as sharply as you will—
Those thousand claws take a steel-prong grip on the road to prevent a side skid.
You're safe—safer than anything else will make you—
Safe as you would be on a perfectly dry street.
And those thousand claws are mileage insurance, too. ”

“ Tire Cloth.—A fabric made from strong slackly folded yarns of good-quality cotton used in the lining of tires. The warp threads are very closely set, so as best to withstand strain. The weft threads are very openly set, so as to prevent undue pressure on the warp threads, which should lie straight and so avoid friction or cutting which might arise from the action of the inflated inner tube and the tire whilst in use. ”

“ If either of these seemingly small details is out of order it may be impossible to pump the tires hard enough ; the bicycle being ridden, the tires may be nipped in many places between the rim and sharp edges on the road surface, and practically ruined. _ Tires for Motor Cars. — In the cost of upkeep of a motor car the tires are the most expensive item. For a slow speed vehicle an ordinary steel tire, shrunk or hydrauhcally pressed on a wooden wheel, is cheap and durable. ”

“ Curious things can happen in a brief absence. We returned to the car to find one of the back tires perfectly flat, the head of the family sitting serenely unconscious of her misfortune. We had picked up one of those flat-headed boot nails that Europeans love so well, and the tire had slowly and softly settled. There are cleaner, pleasanter things than taking off a tire and putting it on again in the rain, but I utilized a deep doorway on the corner for the dry work, and Narcissa held the umbrella while I pulled and pushed and grunted and pumped, during the more strenuous [Pg 167] moments. ”

“ He estimates that the feet of horses drawing a fast Coach, are more injurious to the road than the wheels, in the proportion of three to one nearly; that this proportion will increase with the velocity; that by increasing the breadth of the tires of the wheels, the injury done to roads by great weights may be counteracted. He considers that on a good road, one ton may be safely carried on each inch of width of tire of the wheels. ”

“ Every automobile carriage takes twenty-five pounds of rubber for each tire, or 100 pounds altogether. This great and growing industry, together with the now common use of rubber tires on horse-drawn vehicles, raises the sum total of rubber employed in the arts to an enormous figure. ”

“ In a four-seated car the rear passengers should glance occasionally at the driving-wheel tyres out of consideration for the driver, and if either of them be splayed at the point of contact with the road he should be apprised of the fact at once. ”

“ The cords, tread and beads being all vulcanized together, the tire is practically impervious to moisture, and has therefore less tendency to rot than a canvas tire. Further, the threads, by the process of manufacture, are insulated each from the others by a layer of rubber, and there is thus less tendency for them to fray or saw each other as the tire yields during continuous running. ”

“ When driving on a muddy road, your truck is apt to slide into the ruts and you might not be able to get it out. But on a snowy road, your truck is more than apt to slide off the ruts and you might not be able to get it back up on them. And if you get your front wheels off the ruts to the right and your hind wheels off to the left, you have just about had it, especially a truck with solid rubber tires. ”

“ It was the hind wheel of a wagon. The wagon itself was standing in front of the shop, with one end of the hind axletree supported by a block.
"What do they heat the tire for?" asked Marco.
"To swell it," replied Forester. "It is necessary to have the tire go on very tight, so as to hold the wheel together with all the force of the iron. Now when iron is heated it swells, and then shrinks again when it cools. So they heat the tire hot, and put it upon the wheel in that state. Then when it cools it shrinks, and binds the whole wheel together with a very strong grip." ”

“ To give one some idea in an exaggerated form of the power exerted by a deflated tyre we will give a personal experience. When travelling on a big racing carriage over seventy miles per hour, the front tyre was cut by a broken piece of bottle, and in a second the tyre burst. ”

“ Will you state more definitely the nature of the injury you have seen in regard to the effect of the horses' feet, in comparison to that of the wheels of Carriages?—First of all they displace at every blow, they tear up, and throw the surface behind them; whereas the wheel only rolls as it goes, and throws some portion on both sides of it, if the road is soft. ”

“ It is a much faster vehicle, especially uphill, than a small car of equal price. The rear tire, however, is subject to severer working conditions than the two driving wheel tires of a small car, and must be of adequate strength, or trouble will be frequent. ”

“ One comes through forming in each tire hundreds of large rubber rivets. One compels us to vulcanize in each tire base 126 braided piano wires.
One comes through our double-thick All-Weather tread, with its sharp, tough, resistless grips. These things together mean a super-tire. ”

“ In shrinking the tires on the wheels, the practice usually followed at present is to turn the wheel-centre, bore the tire in a cylindrical form, and rely solely upon the contraction of the tire by cooling to retain it upon the wheel. ”

“ A vehicle wheel having a metallic rim with angularly propelling flanges to form a channel or groove with tapered or inclined sides, a rubber tire, the inner portion of which is adapted to fit in said groove or channel, and the outer portion having sides at an angle to the inner portion, the angle or corner between the outer and inner portions being located within the outer periphery of the flanges, and independent retaining wires passing entirely through the inner portions of said tire and also within the outer peripheries of the flanges, substantially as described. ”

“ To detach the tire after deflation, one part of the edge of the outer cover is depressed into the bottom of the rim, the opposite part then projects slightly beyond the edge of the rim and is pulled outside; one portion being got outside, the rest easily follows. ”

“ Didn't you ever see a wheel with the spokes bent out of shape?"
"I don't know," said Marco. "I never noticed wheels much."
"They do get bent, sometimes," said Forester. "It requires great care to put on a tire in such a manner, as to give it just the right degree of force to bind the wheel strongly together, without straining it."
The Tire.
As soon as the tire became of the right temperature, the men took it up again with the pairs of tongs--taking hold with them at different sides of it--and then they put it down carefully over the wheel. The wheel immediately began to smoke on all sides. ”

“ In the early years of the motor-car, when a tire was punctured or otherwise defective, the operator was obliged to make a repair on the spot, or at least remove the tire cover, insert a new tube, replace the cover and inflate the tire anew. This was always an unpleasant interruption of a pleasure drive and a most aggravating occurrence in the case of an urgent business trip. The difficulty was overcome by the adoption of the demountable wheel in Europe and the demountable rim in America. ”

“ May I slightly alter the ancient prophet's word, and say, a propos of the pneumatic tyre, that 'man is born to trouble as the ' dust 'flies upwards'? The autocarist who runs on pneumatic tyres has atra cura ever sitting behind him in his chariot. ”