Here's Why Tires Are Black
November 16, 2018 10:03 AM   Subscribe

Tire technology has come a long way since the Ford Model T first rolled out of the factory in 1908. Modern tires are not only different in dimension, compound, and overall structure, but they’re also a different color. That’s because early tires were white, and only around World War I did they turn black. Here’s why.

By Jalopnik's David Tracy, owner of a $500 postal jeep.
posted by Monday, stony Monday (20 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
So to recap, Binney and Smith, the company that founded crayon-maker Crayola, became a big carbon black producer for inks and pigments, a chemist at a British tire company put the material into tires and possibly determined that carbon black could replace Zinc Oxide (which was used as a reinforcing agent in the early 1900s), then B.F. caught wind of these tires and ended up bringing the technology into the mainstream thanks to a huge order of Carbon Black from Binney and Smith.

Fascinating to learn that the color's got an advantage for tire wear and reliability. I now have two more questions: would we be able to get any of the same benefits by using other Crayola colors (I'm thinking Periwinkle, or maybe Burnt Sienna)? And does the use of carbon black in tire composition increase particulate air pollution?
posted by asperity at 10:16 AM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


Okay, that was pretty fascinating. A deep dive on something I never even thought about thinking about before.
posted by Samizdata at 10:17 AM on November 16, 2018 [5 favorites]


> asperity:
"Fascinating to learn that the color's got an advantage for tire wear and reliability. I now have two more questions: would we be able to get any of the same benefits by using other Crayola colors (I'm thinking Periwinkle, or maybe Burnt Sienna)? And does the use of carbon black in tire composition increase particulate air pollution?"

No, I do NOT want umber tires...
posted by Samizdata at 10:18 AM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Carbon granules were also used in the earliest telephone microphones and Bell not only had the patent but apparently they had exclusive rights to some natural source of carbon that made the best mics, and for decades one of the reasons they were the only supplier of telephones was that they were the only supplier of carbon microphones for phones. I read this somewhere once and I can't find a reference for it now.

Anyway, carbon granules, great for both tires and telephones.
posted by GuyZero at 10:23 AM on November 16, 2018 [6 favorites]


I thought it would have been all the deaths and that we were rolling around on the souls of those killed in the Wars, but I guess not.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:47 AM on November 16, 2018 [5 favorites]


> I now have two more questions: would we be able to get any of the same benefits by using other Crayola colors

There are occasional trends to make bicycle tires in a variety of colors. The tires tend to wear out more quickly and tend to have poorer traction. So it’s kind of like: it’s not a bad idea, it’s just not a good enough idea, and there is a better idea conveniently available already.
posted by ardgedee at 10:52 AM on November 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


In my volunteer gig fixing up bikes I see a lot of bicycle tires with natural rubber sidewalls that are delaminating from UV damage. They really don't hold up nearly as well as the carbon rubber part of the tire.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:54 AM on November 16, 2018 [7 favorites]


I never understood where the whitewall tire came from, this helps make more sense of it all.

Still, whitewalls were a luxury add-on for a long time and then, suddenly, nobody wanted them anymore. Why was that?
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:40 AM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Why was that?

I don't really know but I think it's partly esthetic/what people are use to. Back when passenger car tires all had white walls or a stripe at least, all black tires looked too stark or industrial. Eventually people got used to all-black tires.
posted by GuyZero at 11:50 AM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


If you look at the picture of those thin, white tires on the Model T it becomes clear why Bibendum (aka Michelin Man)'s body is the way it is. Less clear is why he has flesh hands and a visibly hollow head.
posted by ckape at 12:03 PM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]


I was fascinated by the near miss possibility of Neothane Illuminated Tires Goodyear once pitched back in the 60's.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:19 PM on November 16, 2018 [7 favorites]


I was fascinated by the near miss possibility of Neothane Illuminated Tires Goodyear once pitched back in the 60's.

From TFA:
Initial testing showed that the Neothane tires rode smoothly and quietly. But they didn’t perform well in wet weather and melted under heavy braking.
OK so hard pass from me on that
posted by GuyZero at 2:01 PM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


Carbon black from tyres is also a large source of particulate air pollution. It also allowed manufacturers to make the tyres much more cheaply. It may also have helped the tyres release more easily from the moulds, so it allowed faster production.

I ran all-white Schwalbe tyres on my bike for many years. They wore and gripped very well, but sidewall minor cracks — almost invisible with black on black tyres — started to look ugly.
posted by scruss at 2:50 PM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


If you look at the picture of those thin, white tires on the Model T it becomes clear why Bibendum (aka Michelin Man)'s body is the way it is. Less clear is why he has flesh hands and a visibly hollow head.

To traumatise customers in general and Cayce Pollard in particular
posted by Merus at 3:59 AM on November 17, 2018 [6 favorites]


David Tracy, owner of a $500 postal jeep. set of tires, some assorted scraps of dimensional lumber, (possibly) one DIN stereo head unit, and a crate motor for some other project.
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 8:56 AM on November 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


I had always heard that carbon black from tires adds to particulate pollution, but this article explains the difference between carbon black and black carbon (combustion by-products such as from diesel engines), and they basically say that carbon black is getting a bad rap, and isn't a cause of particulate pollution.
posted by eye of newt at 9:22 AM on November 17, 2018 [4 favorites]


Is it anything like the reason pizza crusts are now black?
posted by flug at 11:24 AM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


ardgedee: "There are occasional trends to make bicycle tires in a variety of colors."

Can confirm: the bike I had in elementary school (so, maybe circa 1982) had blue tires.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:42 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


I asked a painter
why tires are colored black.
He said, “Steve,
it's because people leave,
and no highway can bring them back.”

posted by Phssthpok at 12:09 AM on November 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


(Wasn’t expecting references to both Pattern Recognition and American Water in this thread!)
posted by chappell, ambrose at 9:54 AM on November 18, 2018


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