In article ,
Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Randy Replogle wrote:

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:10:17 -0400, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

...the process of treating rubber with sulfur and heat to

make it more durable.



I remember seeing my dad patch tire inner tubes back in the early
60's. The patch was a thin metal "piece" with the patch on one side
and a flammable material on the other. It was clamped over the hole
with the patch side against the inner tube and the flamable material
was ignited with a match. This adhered the patch to the tube and was
called "vulcanizing".
Randy


I remeber those too, and I don't think they're around any more.

I also remember when tire blowouts were far more commonplace than they
are now.

My dad's idea of heaven was a place where as you entered one of St.
Peter's flunkeys handed you a set of four brand new "Goodyear Lifeguard"
tires and tubes.

Those beasts had a second inner tube so that if the main one blew out
the backup one kept you from swerving into oblivion.

Here's a radio commercial for them, probably from near the end or just
after WWII:

http://www3.telus.net/public/xerog/goodyear.mp3

The references to "today's maximum speeds of 35 MPH" and "not rationed"
sound like holdovers from WWII. IIRC petroleum supply wasn't the major
reason for gas rationing then. Rather it was because we hadn't much of a
synthetic rubber capability and the Japanese had occupied the places we
got much of out natural rubber from. Rationing gas had the direct effect
of reducing the number of tires needed for civilian autos.

Makes sense, sort of... Until you consider that both gas AND tires were
rationed.

When she died, one of the many interesting tidbits that my grandmother
was found to have collected over the years was a partially used up,
clearly WWII-vintage booklet of ration tickets. Among the items I can
remember it containing tickets for were sugar, nylons, gasoline, tires,
coffee, and a box of .30-30 shells.

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