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Goodyear’s Long-Forgotten Illuminated Tires
odditycentral ^

Posted on 05/28/2021 7:25:15 AM PDT by mylife

American tire manufacturer Goodyear once created tired illuminated car tires that glowed from the inside thanks to multiple lightbulbs.

In the early 1960s, Goodyear employees William Larson and Anthony Finelli worked together to create the world’s first neothane automobile tires. Neothane was just a fancier name for urethane, the chemical compound invented three decades earlier by German chemist Otto Bayer. Unlike traditional tires, which required multiple layers of rubber as well as fabric and a laborious process to manufacture, neothane tires were grippy, squishy, responsive and easy to make. But the advantages didn’t end there. Neothane tires were also translucent, could be dyed in various colors, and, as Goodyear demonstrated, they could even be fitted with lights for a unique visual effect.

The versatile material allowed Goodyear to build a tubeless, cordless tire that was supposed to revolutionize the industry, and to show just how revolutionary it really was, they even put lightbulbs inside the tires to make them glow. The wheel well of the tire housed 18 tiny bulbs the driver could activate by pressing a button, and they were powered by the battery through visible wires.

(Excerpt) Read more at odditycentral.com ...


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To: Larry Lucido

The ocean called. They’re running out of shrimp.


21 posted on 05/28/2021 7:56:31 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Sans-Culotte

That looks like a traffic social distancing thing.


22 posted on 05/28/2021 7:57:40 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: PeterPrinciple

“history of white wall tires”

Once again institutional racism rears its ugly head.


23 posted on 05/28/2021 8:00:02 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: bigbob

For those who want proof:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISeA8ppZwlo

Persistence of vision...it’s science.


24 posted on 05/28/2021 8:53:19 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: bigbob
"Now with LEDs and wireless power transfer we can not only illuminate the tires but display messages and graphics."

WOW! That works for me I wouldn't have to lift my finger so much when I drive
25 posted on 05/28/2021 9:27:23 AM PDT by Kartographer ("We mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor." )
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To: mylife
...we can not only illuminate the tires but display messages and graphics.

Not good. Consider which political demographic is obsessed with bumper stickers now. Now visualize "Love Lives Here" and "Arms Are For Hugging" and "Black Lives Matter" in eye-crushing LEDs. Everywhere.

26 posted on 05/28/2021 9:36:14 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: chrisser

Tire operating temp depends on several factors. The vehicle and weight rating. The compound it’s self. The tire design because thicker tread areas and sidewalls retain the heat more. Tread design and efficiency of acting as cooling fins. Air pressure...

On a loaded big rig the temps run an average of about 200 degrees in 90 degree ambient temps. The ones in the sun a little more than those on the shady side. But in the hot desert if it is 120 degrees ambient in the shade, they can reach 250 degrees or more. In this environment a tire 15 pounds low can reach 350 degrees and fail because that is hotter than the compound was melted to make the tire.

The main issue with heat are the steel plies. They are what hold the heat and get hot enough to actually melt the rubber next to them which causes the de-lamination. So the moral is even if a compound is designed to withstand temps of 250 degrees, all these other factors and variables can change that once a tire is constructed and put into service.


27 posted on 05/28/2021 9:38:32 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: Openurmind

Thank you for sharing that knowledge.


28 posted on 05/28/2021 10:04:31 AM PDT by chrisser
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To: chrisser

And thank you for raising the technical curiosity, because I think urethane or a urethane hybrid compound would be great for tires. Urethane ages much much better compared to current tire compounds.

But maybe this is part of the plan. Tire manufacturers love that tires rot away and fall apart in just a few years even if they do not have many miles on them. But our disposal requirements and issues do not. :)

What I am still wondering is why the cost of urethane has not dropped very much since it was invented. They still charge far too much for urethane products than they should actually cost.

Can’t be much more to mass produce than similar Silicon products I would think? Unless there is a more costlier process I don’t know about. I think there is a greed factor on both counts...


29 posted on 05/28/2021 10:26:26 AM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: bigbob; Billthedrill

The tire light/displays exist!!

Fully Programmable - Display your favorite images/photos on wheel
Feel safer at night - To be seen in the dark
Show off in the streets
Extraordinary visuals!

https://www.amazon.com/Fantasma-Spoke-Lights-Programmable-Larger/dp/B00M20RYFK


30 posted on 05/28/2021 10:46:02 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: mylife
...fitted with lights...

"Hon, can you be a dear and change that burned out bulb in the tire?"

And that's when the fight started...

31 posted on 05/28/2021 1:38:31 PM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Openurmind

I have a little bit of personal interest.

Partially due to my Dad teaching me how, I change my own tires. Sometimes I get them spin balanced, other times I static balance them myself. Saves me a bundle.

The county takes 8 or 10 tires a year and that generally works out to get rid of what we use.

Except last year, Covid interrupted the tire collection. And this year, it looks to be the same deal so far (usually it starts in May and so far, nothing)

So now I have about a dozen tires stacked up and four more are ready to come off my DD. Been looking into how I an get rid of the darned things other than paying $10 a pop.

The carcasses are perfectly fine - they’re just worn out. And it’s most of the original material of the tires getting tossed. It’s a ginormous waste.

I’ve tried standard retreads with unimpressive results (they’re really heavy) so that doesn’t seem like the solution.

But I think about it every time I pass my growing pile of used tires. I can’t throw them away. I can’t burn them. It’s like buying a loaf of bread, eating the ends, and tossing the middle.


32 posted on 05/28/2021 4:18:27 PM PDT by chrisser
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To: chrisser

Been there... It is a personal issue with us too. I was a wholesale/retail tire dealer in Ca for 40 years. I was over regulated right out of business and had to leave Ca with nothing but the shirt on our backs as a family. Had to get a new start in Az basically camping out in a tent and cooking over an open fire with my wife and two teenage daughters off grid.

Fortunately because Az was business friendly at that time we were back on our feet and climbing again one year later. Ended up doing very well the next 20 years and to the point where we are now self retired.

The wrongfully thought out tire disposal regulations are killing the industry, and if they do not change these and make it easier to dispose of tires, pretty soon tires will be completely affordable to but without taking out a loan. Low income folks already have to do this now so that they can have transportation to keep a job.

Tires are a huge problem... the greed has created a huge problem for this country. And the liberals have some idea that when you take off a tire it is supposed to just dissipate and disappear into thin air. They have made it so hard to legally dispose of tires that they are now ending up out in every ravine and freeway offramp folks can find.

The exact extreme opposite of what the laws were intended to prevent. Ironic right? They have absolutely no common sense at all. Nutz...


33 posted on 05/28/2021 7:36:14 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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