Tire.
1. (Vehicle.) An iron band around the fellies of a wheel. The circular continuous tire is of American origin. In Europe tires were, until lately, generally made in sections arranged to break joint with the fellies. The rim-tire is expanded by heating, and then shrunk on so as to tightly compress the wheel, and bolted; in the sectional tire, bolts only are relied on to hold the parts together. Steel railway-tires are always of the former kind. Theocritus, the Greek poet, describes the chariot-maker bending a slat rived from the limb of a wild fig-tree and rendered pliable by roasting in the fire, “in order to form the circumference of a wheel.” The same agent, fire, was used in early times to supple the planks of vessels. See wood-bending. India-rubber wheel-tires are used for the purpose of decreasing the jar on the vehicle, and as a means of increasing the tractive adherence. In the Thomson road steamer a thick rubber tire, capable of yielding to the inequalities of the ground, and protected by an endless band of steel slats, is employed. In 1852, a patent was granted to Marcus Davis in England, for forming locomotive tires of a soft material, covered with india-rubber protected by an exterior sheet of steel. In the same year Thomas Allan obtained a patent for encircling wheels with an outer tire of vulcanized india-rubber, solid or tubular, or other elastic substance. The advantages of this arrangement for road locomotives were particularly set forth. At the same time Mr. Dunlop patented a tire of annealed cast-iron, grooved to receive an india-rubber band. Various other patents followed, embracing india-rubber as a material to be used in constructing tires. A source of trouble with continuous tires on wooden wheels is the shrinkage of the timber, particularly when green, rendering cutting and resetting the tires necessary. To obviate this it is recommended to use only seasoned timbers for the fellies, and soak them in boiling linseed-oil. See also tire-bender; tire-Shrinker.
2. (Railway.) The rim of a driving-wheel, shrunk on to the other portion.
