 In a recent post on early Wolseley racers a device was visible on one of the photos, which is nowadays generally known as a nail catcher. Horseshoe nails, next to glass or pieces of barbed wire, were among the most important enemies of a pleasant road trip during the early years of automobilism. Horses were far more abundant than cars in that time and horses tended to lose these nails on a rather regular basis. And even the Michelin tires, which were advertised as 'ating the obstacles' could have problems with these little devils. Already in use on bicycles for a long time, Michelin therefore designed in 1901 especially for cars a device to remove these obstacles, before they could do any harm: it was called an 'arrache-clou' or nail extractor. A bracket was bolted to the chassis holding the device, which was held lightly against the tire by rubber bands, attached to either the mudguard or (if these were absent) another bracket. These devices would extract the nails before they would do any further harm. It was shown at the Paris Salon end of 1901 and came into general use for both private and racing cars. In the years to follow more simple devices were designed for cars, which used chains or a metal grid. These were mounted on the mudguards and were hanging down on the tires. Apparently they were effective enough, as they were offered more or less unchanged up to the First World War. After that the tires had become stronger and more resistant and besides automotive power was winning the battle against the horse, making these devices superfluous. A special mention deserves the device, designed by a Mr. Hickley in 1903 to deal with the nail threat in an even more vigorous way. His device was connected to the electrical system of the car. A nail present in the tire would brake a thread, held closely to the tire, causing a short-circuit by which a fuse was blown, cutting off the current and bringing the car to an immediate standstill. Though very effective indeed, one can only hope that this would not happen too often: the continuous stopping as well as time consuming changing of fuses and threads could hardly be considered an improvement! Words and pictures: Ariejan Bos |
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Enemies of the road
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