Italian bike literature of all description still uses the term ' 28" Palmer ' interchangeably with ' tubolari '. Same usage of ' 28" Palmer ' continues, less frequently, in Germany, Netherlands, Denmark. Not commonly referenced in France or UK but does occur. Palmer is John Palmer, an American. He created the tire and the standard in June 1892, together with his friend B.F. Goodrich. Goodrich was not selling a whole lot of auto tires in 1892. That is the origin.

Singletube was always made to fit on a Palmer rim. There have been other sizes, it is not hard to do. Mark Mattei has thousands of original singletube tires in his collection and tells me he has only very rarely seen one that does not fit well on any tubular rim of any era. The exceptions will usually be 26" Palmer, which is identical to 26" tubular, or 571 clincher. For that matter in my own memory I knew half a dozen riders who were still using singletube on their daily riders into the 1970s. Some of those tires were then thirty and forty years old. They fit on wood rims or metal rims, French rims or American rims or Italian rims. Chicago Cycle Supply still had the singletube patch kits in the early 70s. The French preferred to call the size ' 700 ', it was always 28" Palmer.