John Boyd Dunlop, an Irish veterinary surgeon reinvented the pneumatic tyre, which absorbed shocks.
The reasons given by Dunlop for the reinvention of this type of tyre was an effort to soften the journey when sick animal were being transported over cobbled streets by bicycle trailer.
Using pneumatic tires for bicycle, it creating a much smoother ride.
Another reason was that his son was a delicate health and the pneumatic tyre cushioned the effect of the cobbled streets on his son’s tricycle.
Within six months, Dunlop’s new invention was being used on the cycling track at Queen’s University in Belfast and it began to attract widespread interest.
The gain in performance was so marked that a local team of Belfast cyclist beat a team from Dublin in every race.
In 1889, with help from the bicycle makers Eldin and Sinclair, he produced the first commercial bicycle tyre.
By 1890 the pneumatic tire business was in full swing in Ireland. In 1896 Dunlop founded Byrne Brothers India Company Limited and then changed the name to Dunlop Rubber Company Ltd in 1900. He began to make tyres for the automotive industry six years later.
Origin of Dunlop tyre
