How to Lick the Tire Shortage?

Thiokol can retread over 1,000,000 civilian tires a month.--Industrial experts.

With luck, Thiokol can retread 160,000 civilian tires a month.--Government experts.

But both parties to the argument agree that Thiokol, the new retread material, can do a lot of retreading, can substantially ease the civilian tire shortage.

Thiokol is an elastic plastic made by Dow Chemical Co. Its merits as a retread material, hitherto overlooked, were enthusiastically presented to WPB last week by an authoritative group of experts from the rubber, chemical and automotive industries, headed by famed Research Engineer Charles Kettering of General Motors. They told the Government that Thiokol:

> Is cheap. Retreads would cost an estimated $6 to $8 per tire--i.e., no more than retreading with the conventional "camelback," which is no longer available for civilian tires.

> Will wear at least 5,000, probably 10,000 miles on cars driven no more than 40 m.p.h. Though Thiokol is not quite so strong or wear-resistant as natural rubber, it does not deteriorate with age or from exposure to air, sunlight, oil.

> Can be made with industrial equipment largely built of plentiful wood and cast iron.

> Is made of relatively abundant materials: 1) caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), 2) sulfur, 3) chlorine, 4) ethylene (a gas sometimes used as an anesthetic).

> Can be applied by anybody, by brushing it on a worn tire, waiting until the first coat dries, brushing on some more (though it is best applied mechanically).

Thiokol itself is not brand-new. It was accidentally discovered in 1929 by a chemist who was trying to concoct an antifreeze. Since 1930 it has been manufactured as a substitute for rubber, leather, cork. Typical uses: barrage balloon coatings, gas masks, gasoline hoses, washers, cable sheathing.

But nobody thought of Thiokol as a retread material until Kettering and the Society of Automotive Engineers last April set out to explore every possible form of rubber synthetic and substitute. They pried into the deepest competitive secrets of U.S. rubber processors without finding a quick, cheap answer to the tire problem. Then they called in the U.S. chemical manufacturers, again examined every possibility. Only one appeared good: Thiokol. To test its usefulness, they crowded a year's research into the last two months.

Thiokol advocates were sure that big-scale production could begin at once. Said jubilant President Willard Dow of Dow Chemical Co.: "The caustic soda we shall derive from salt. Texas alone can supply all the sulfur we shall ever need. Chlorine at present is being allocated, but we can step up production to meet all requirements. Ethylene we can get from oil or from corn, wheat or any other agricultural waste or surplus by first converting it into alcohol."

WPB did not take quite so rosy a view, but assigned priority-guarded materials for erection of a small Thiokol plant which will turn out 40,000 retreads a month. If all goes well, more priorities will be forthcoming to increase production to 160.000 retreads a month, or some 2,000,000 a year. (U.S. civilian traffic moves on some 150,000,000 tires.)

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