White Tires on Camels - 148th Aero, 1918

[crawf]

Greetings all. My question concerns the color of the tires on Field Kindley's Sopwith Camel of the 148th Aero Squadron.

If you look at the cover of the book "War Bird Ace" about Kindley, it shows a picture of Kindley standing in front of his Camel, and the tires appear to be white, or at least light colored. (Link to book on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/War-Bird-Ace-...=field+kindley

https://www.amazon.com/War-Bird-Ace-...=field+kindley

So......in the book, there is also a picture of another pilot standing in front of a 148th Camel, and it too shows what seems to be white tires.

But when I check my various Camel books, I can't find any white tires.

So, the question: Are white tires correct for Kindley's Camel?

Is this yet another incident of WW1 photography playing strange tricks? Or did somebody make tires without graphite/carbon?

I have built a 1/4 scale RC model of Kindley's Camel, and I am working on final details. I haven't painted the tires....yet.

[Ransom E. Olds]

Down to about 1918 zinc oxide was an important constituent of vulcanized natural rubber, and as a result, early pneumatic tires were light-colored, seemingly running from a medium gray to almost "off white." The zinc oxide was replaced by carbon black, which was cheaper, and tires took on their well-known blackness by the end of the second decade of the twentieth century. That said, it looks to me like the tires in the attached pics may have been painted. Ransom

[Piotr]

Aircraft regulation from 1918/19 say that tyres should be painted by "anti sun cover", made from lime and wood (bone) glue mix.
So looks like there is nothing unusual...
Piotr

[crawf]

Thanks for the input.

I was able to find video footage of Camels from the 148th:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPKUIrGaJpk

...and they seem to have white/light-colored tires. Good stuff. (I recognize Field Kindley in the video.)