Portable Tire X-Rayer Shows Nails and Cuts (May, 1939)

Portable Tire X-Rayer Shows Nails and Cuts

AUTOMOBILE tires are X-rayed for hidden nails, bruises, and similar dangers by the novel portable apparatus pictured at the left. Introduced by Firestone engineers, the X-ray unit is rolled under a jacked-up wheel, and the tire is viewed section by section, just as a physician examines the body of a patient with a fluoroscope. In an experimental test of 2,000 automobile tires with the apparatus, experts discovered 2,049 nails and tacks, 2,099 pieces of glass, and 2,197 rocks and pebbles lodged in the tread or body.