Inventor of bicycle tires

 John Dunlop (1840 - 1921), inventor of bicycle tires, on his bicycle; 1915 photo...

Dunlop made the invention that changed the automotive industry in 1867. 

Dunlop, who emerged from his mother's womb in the seventh month, lived to be eighty-one years old without health problems. Dunlop, who worked as a veterinarian in Ireland, became a prominent brand name in the tire industry, but he had already sold the rights to his invention. 

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1812 - 1878), a blacksmith in Scotland, had already invented the bicycle (early 1840s).  The first evidence of the bicycle was a local newspaper report in 1842 of a gentleman who had to pay a five-shilling fine for hitting a passerby. That 'gentleman' was Macmillan. 

The earliest bicycles were wooden wheels with iron rims. Over time, steel wheels came into being. Riding such bicycles was very difficult. Pneumatic tires were invented by John Dunlop as a solution to this. 

The truth is that John Dunlop did not actually invent rubber tires. In 1893, the American Charles Goodyear invented the process of vulcanization, which is the addition of certain chemicals to the bark of the rubber tree found in South America, making it strong and durable. Scotsman Robert William Thomson developed this technology a little further and invented pneumatic tires.  Bicycles were not popular at that time. Therefore, the world did not understand the use of Thomson's invention. Over time, the world forgot about that invention. Later, Dunlop's invention was a re-invention. 

Dunlop's invention was quickly applied to motor vehicles. In 1885, a German company called Daimler-Reitwagen invented a gasoline-powered motorcycle. In 1894, rubber tires were used for the first time in Germany on a motorcycle. 

A German engineer named Karl Friedrich Benz also launched the first motor car on the road in 1885. Benz used gasoline mixed with ethanol as the fuel. The Benz car has a history of losing control and crashing into a wall during its first demonstration run. The car's 'top speed' was sixteen kilometers per hour. 

Ten years later, rubber tires for cars came to the world's attention through a car race held in Paris. 

The method of filling rubber tubes with air, wrapping them around an iron wheel, and then securing them with a rubber ring was introduced by Philip Strauss in 1911.