The olden times were wild; we had supersonic passenger jets, smoking indoors was allowed and the prospect of owning a house was realistic for most people. But did you know the 20th century also had fiery tire patch kits?
I didn’t until this clip popped up while I was doom-scrolling last night, and it is fascinating. The patch kits were brought to our attention by Instagrammer Phil Cook, who goes by the name ChemTeacherPhil and shares all kinds of fascinating science clips across their page.
In their latest post, Cook has unearthed some vintage tire patches, which use the power of fire to fix your flat tire. They work on old inner tubes and look wildly simple to operate. All Cook has to do is locate the hole, strap the patch down and set it aflame. The heat from the fire then melts the rubber patch onto the inner tube, forming a permanent seal around the gash. As Cook explains:
Rubber tires are essentially composed of a single molecule of cross-linked polyisoprene.
The old tire patches I use in this video are little more than metal discs filled with a combustible mixture with a thin rubber patch on the underside. When the mixture is ignited, it gets hot enough to cause the rubber in the patch to vulcanize with the rubber in the tube, creating a strong airtight patch, in spite of the fact that these patches are more than 75 years old!
Now could you find a 75-year-old stick of patch glue that still works today? Or what about a sticky-backed rubber patch that hasn’t perished beyond use in the seven decades since it was made? I don’t think so.
Sure, we stopped using inner tubes in car tires more than 60 years ago, after tubeless tires were standardized in the US in 1955. And while their improved reliability can’t be overstated, it is a shame we can’t whip a lighter out every time we need a fix.
Then again, I guess people setting fire to inner tubes at garages and service stations across america can’t have been the best idea anyone ever had. Still, they’re a very nifty little way to get you back on the road.