away the retaining cover and bang went the air tube. In those days that meant the assistance of the railway to reach one's destination and oft times a long walk.
Experimenters had, however, been at work and an inventor named Welch brought out a tyre the principle of which is the one still mostly used on modern bicycles. This is now termed the “wired on” to distinguish
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Fig. 18
A "TRIUMPH" ROADSTER BICYCLE WITH OIL BATH GEAR CASE
it from the “beaded edge” or Clincher tyre which was Bartlett’s patent.
The "wired on" cover is now made of vulcanized rubber and fabric moulded, under Doughty’s process, on to inextensible wires which slip over the rim by reason of the diameter of the wires being so arranged in respect to the rim diameter that when one side of the cover is placed in the well of the rim the other side rises above the opposite edge and will pass over. Then inflation of the air tube draws the two wires, one up and the
