Static Electric Problems in Tires

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Abstract
Since its advent about thirty years ago, the pneumatic tire has been remarkably improved to meet increasingly severe requirements. Improvements in motor vehicles, increased speed of travel and, in general, a more and more critical attitude on the part of the consumer, have introduced difficult problems for the rubber technologist. One of the more recent and unusual of these problems, introduced in part by the popularization of the automobile radio, has been the accumulation of static electrical charges on a moving car. At first difficulty was experienced mainly with radios in passenger cars. In some cases when the auto was stationary and the motor running, the program reception was clear and uninterrupted but, when the car was set in motion and driven for some distance, reception was seriously impaired by loud, intermittent static noises. Later, reports began to circulate of toll-bridge collectors receiving severe electrical shocks on touching any part of a car which had just pulled to a stop after a sustained drive. Similar phenomena reportedly took place when motorcycle police touched cars they had pursued and stopped. Recently, passengers on commercial busses, especially on those operating in hot, dry regions, have experienced electrical shocks on entering or leaving. The object of this paper is to describe some of the methods employed in measuring, and some of the means developed for controlling, the observed effects.

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