Dunlop, John Boyd

Dunlop, John Boyd (1840-1921), inventor, b. Dreghorn, Ayrshire, Scotland.

John Boyd Dunlop was a veterinary surgeon living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

At this time the bicycle was growing popular. It had solid rubber tyres which made riding uncomfortable and Dunlop began looking for some means of improving this.

He bent two strips of elm wood into hoops of about 3 feet in diameter and fastened the ends together. Around these he placed a small rubber tube containing air and he covered this with a strip of rubber over a strip of canvas. Then he fixed the cover to the hoop with rubber solution and he had produced the first pneumatic tyre.

On 28 February, 1888, Dunlop put the wheels he had made on the back of his son's tricycle and ten-year-old Johnnie Dunlop went out at ten o'clock at night to test them. They were a success.

In partnership, Dunlop started a company to produce the new tyres at first for bicycles and later for motor cars as well. Within a few years the company was worth millions.

When he invented the pneumatic tyre, Dunlop had never ridden a bicycle. For travelling he used a horse-drawn gig. But he learned to ride a bicycle at the age of fifty.