Uncommon Knowledge Is Not Very Common

I'm one of those people that since birth is on that eternal quest for knowledge and it could be because I am a Sagittarian by birth, driven to constantly learn. Learning new things with a healthy curiosity can over a long period of time enlighten ones scope of the world. It seems to me that common knowledge is not all that common because most people are not paying attention, to anything. Then we have the other problem in an information filled internet world where a lot of people put out incorrect and deliberate bad information. On the other hand uncommon knowledge is very well hidden from most of us.

Quoting the great philosopher Mark Twain: "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed."

We can bring that thought up to date reading this way: "If you don't surf the internet (or watch the news), you're uninformed. If you surf the internet (or watch the news) you're mis-informed." This makes finding true information a real chore.

No truer words were ever spoken, they rang true back then, they ring true today and will ring true in the future. It is just the way that humans operate. So if you aren't paying attention you will not notice anything. I come from a long line of thinkers, problem solvers and "Who would have ever thought of that family."

In the early 40's my Dad lived on the farm with his widowed mom and he was deferred from World War II because he was the sole provider to run the farm. He also had 4 F flat feet. Back then rubber tires and inner tubes were only available to Doctors, Police and Fire Departments. That resource was limited because of the war effort and very understandable. If you are wondering, most of farm equipment had steel wheels back then so they did not need rubber tires or inner tubes.

They did have an old vehicle for the infrequent trips to get farm supplies and groceries. At that time patching an inner tube was not the easiest thing to accomplish and this one would not repair. Still needing the tire inflated to make the vehicle useful my Dad had an idea. He understood that all the inner tube did was to make the rubber tire firm enough to run on by holding air inside of it.

He took an old inner tube and cut the valve stem off leaving a circular base of inner tube on it. He then took the rim and sanded it smooth so the tire would seal against the rim without leaking any air. He then glued that valve stem over the hole in the rim made for the inner tube valve stem so it would stay in place when inflated. When it was all ready he carefully inflated the tire to enough pressure so it could be driven on slowly. It worked, but he understood it's limitations. There is your uncommon knowledge known only to me.

The side story here is also worth note. His mother, my grandmother, was extremely upset when he did this because she was absolutely convinced that it was a fool's errand and that it would not work. It was crude for its time but it worked and in today's world there are few rubber tires that use inner tubes, bicycles being the main exception, so there are no less than billions of tubeless tires easily running down the road.

The phrase, "Necessity is the mother of invention," is taken from Plato who said, "Our need will be the real creator." So my Dad thought about it, tried it and out of necessity created it but there were no thoughts about going to the next level and being known as the inventor of the tubeless tire. The tubeless tire was invented a few years later by Frank Herzegh who worked for BF Goodrich and patented in 1946. So while my Dad had great insight to solve the problem, he had no foresight in his creation and let possible millions of dollars slip through his hands. It was a different time and place. He created what he needed to get the job done.

William O'Neal Stringer