This appeared to be the ultimatum, but a shrewd American inventor has “gone him one better” and proposes to confine the shock and vertical thrust to a mere part of the rim. This invention was patented in the United States in 1889, and, if practical, would simply cause the wheel to roll over the obstruction almost as a man would step over in walking,—an ideal state of affairs, to be sure! Such a wheel would not only aid man in his transmigration over smooth roads, as claimed for the solid wheel in the fore part of this book, but would be available on the cross-ties of the poorly-ballasted railroad; and let the wheel be but tall enough, and he may yet go over that old-time impediment to cross-country locomotion, the rail fence, as unwittingly as though it had not been there at all. [Illustration: English spring rim.] [Illustration: American patent flexible rim.] One of the grandest ideas in the way of anti-vibration is suggested by the following from the _American Athlete_: “An inventor of Belfast, Ireland, has made what he calls a ‘Pneumatic Safety,’ the tires of which are two inches in diameter, and of _hollow_ rubber, so that they contain air, which vastly increases their elasticity. The result is most favorably regarded by Irish wheelmen, and at the recent races at Belfast a rider on a ‘Pneumatic’ won all the four first prizes, the hollow rubber being described as phenomenally successful on the rough grass track.” If the liability of cutting and collapsing were not so apparent in this device, I would be inclined to think it would have a great future.