Jan has it quite right.
These came in all valve types, Presta, Schrader, and the Woods/Dunlop type
that had the rubber sleeve insert, and I'm sure all other styles too.
They were used for some years after the war and then discontinued as the
vulcanising was much better and the the cost factor also.
I remember the tubes, sew-ups included, had the valve section reinforced
with a fabric on/to/with rubber so that when one tightened the nut to
compress the plate to the valve base it wouldn't squish out the tube rubber
and compromise the seal.
We always put rubber cement on all the surfaces to stick it nicely together
while tightening.
Those were days when one repaired instead of replaced everything and mess
production wasn't yet in the command position.
We even replaced some on vulcanised tubes, ground down the thick vulcanising
to a flattter thickness leaving enough meat on to seal the pressure joint of
the replacement valve.
The old American 1-1/2 single tube tires often had two oval bases with a
separate valve stem.
To keep from losing the base in the tire, we knotted a thin string and put
the knot under the base plate and inserted it into the tire.
Then we took out the schrader valve core and fed the valve tubing over the
string, inserted the valve into the tire and while squeezing the tire
screwed the valve into the oval base plate inside the tire. The oval
couldn't rotate because we were holding it tight.
Everything got some cement on it and the outside plate was tightened and the
tire had a new valve. The oval allowed the piece to go into the thick tire
easier and was holdable to keep it from rotating while being tightened.
We heated a cut off spoke on the gas stove nice and hot and burned the
string out of the valve and bottom plate so air could go in nicely.
It was rather important not to push the spoke in too fast or far so the
spoke wouldn't poke thru the tire. Then you had to patch that with a plug or
rubberband shooter.
Good bike riders always had a way out of the hole.
Screw in the valve core and tire was good as new.
Remember, you are the keepers of cycling arts not to be lost.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
<jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>; <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:27 AM Subject: Re: [CR] Mystery Bolts - What the heck are these??
> At 11:13 AM -0500 11/12/09, Andrew R Stewart wrote:
>>Jerry- Those bolts look similar to current tubeless valves. But I have no
>>real idea what they're for, as you can tell.
>
> That is what they are: Valves. It used to be that the valves were separate
> from the tubes, rather than vulcanized in. The two washers at one end
> sandwich the tube, and when they nut squeezes tight, you get an airtight
> connection. The rest is a standard Presta valve, with the little nut to
> hold it on the rim, and then some metal valve caps. When I was a kid,
> those were considered superior, because you could tighten them with
> pliers, making them theft-proof. Yes, the plastic caps always got stolen
> from our communal bike garage. Little did we know that you didn't need
> them at all. (Nor did the thieves know that they were stealing a useless
> piece of equipment.)
>
> I remember my consternation when I took my broken valve to a bike shop in
> the early 1980s, to be told that I had to buy a brand-new tube, with valve
> attached. (Don't ask me how I managed to break a valve - I was 12 at the
> time.)
>
> Jan Heine
> Editor
> Bicycle Quarterly
> 2116 Western Ave.
> Seattle WA 98121
> http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com