NON-SLIPPING TYRES
A tyre which has become popular in France for town and winter work is the Gallus. Its use in England is impracticable for the present, both by reason of patent rights and the fact that it contravenes the stipulations of the Local Government Board as to projections being 'of the same material as that of the tyre itself, or of some other soft and elastic material.' The Gallus, nevertheless, possesses several interesting features, and
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Fig. 18
may ultimately find its way into the United Kingdom. From fig. 18 it will be noticed that the tread is covered with parallel armatures of metal set in close series. Except for remotely possible penetrations between the plates the cover is unpuncturable; but the Gallus is chiefly valued in Paris because of its non-slipping properties. It is employed even on 20-h.-p. cars, and within the speed limitations imposed by town use the armatures do not easily become detached.
Curiously enough, only one Gallus cover is fitted to each car, namely, on the near side driving wheel, the object being to prevent the skid towards the gutter to which a car is liable on greasy thoroughfares. In this country, of course, where the rule of the road is reversed, the safety tyre would need to be used on the off side. The Gallus is somewhat more expensive than the ordinary cover; it is also slower, and on hard surfaces is more vibratory; on snow, too, it is ineffective as a non-slipper, owing to the clogging of the apertures. Nevertheless, its advantages are held to outweigh these disadvantages, and during last winter it was largely adopted by leading chauffeurs in Paris.
The Falconnet.—A method of wiring the tread of a pneumatic tyre in order to prevent non-slipping was introduced in
