Tire Trouble

The synthetic-rubber situation, which seemed well in hand when Rubber Czar William M. Jeffers resigned last month, was somewhat out of hand again last week. Five major tire makers warned of a possible breakdown in tire making, chiefly because of shortages in manpower and rayon cord. The total tire reserve was down to less than 3,000,000. The manufacturers doubted that they could meet the goal of 30,000,000 new tires next year. And some disappointed motorists began to raise doubts about the quality of synthetic-rubber tires.

Rubber Director Bradley Dewey, Jeffers' successor, promptly retorted that these were needless worries. He said steps were being taken to supply the needed manpower and cord, declared his tests showed the new tires would be good enough. Officials pooh-poohed an Associated Press report that Indiana highway police had found synthetic tires faulty and had to discard a third of them after 1,500 miles because they developed heat blisters. The Indiana tires, said the officials, were defective early products. Said Dewey: "We are now producing synthetic passenger-car tires which, if driven at legal speed, will stand up so well that the average driver won't be able to tell the difference from natural rubber. They ought to be good for 20,000 miles."*

Nonetheless, tire makers admitted last week that they had not completely solved the problem of synthetic tire making. There was plenty of synthetic rubber. But converting it into usable tires was something else again. Rubber chemists of the American Chemical Society, convened in Manhattan, found several synthetic-tire woes to talk about:

> Less elastic and flexible than natural rubber, synthetic treads crack, chip and separate more quickly, have poor resistance to heat. In truck tires, even when mixed with 20-30% of natural rubber, synthetic rubber heats up badly, has a record of frequent blowouts.

> Tire makers have found, after much fumbling, that synthetic tire making requires an entirely new technique, new machines. Processing synthetic rubber to get it in proper condition for fabricating takes 25% longer than natural rubber.

> Tire quality is spotty, varies a good deal according to the skill of the maker.

U.S. motorists last week had better reason than ever to heed Rubberman Dewey's advice: "Conserve the tires you now have."

* The Chicago Tribune has been conducting a cross-country test of synthetic "Tribuna" tires (made of butadiene derived from waste sulfite liquor from the Tribune's paper mills). Driven by a Tribune reporter, the tires survived go-mile-an-hour driving in 150-degree heat in California's Death Valley, finally blew out the first shoe after 7,800 miles when the car hit a ditch across a mountain road.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.