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• Tyre History

Tyre History

The earliest tires were bands of iron (later steel) placed on wooden wheels and used on carts and wagons. The tyre would be heated in a forge fire, placed over the wheel and quenched, causing the metal to contract and fit tightly on the wheel. A skilled worker, known as a wheelwright, carried out this work.

The outer ring served to "attire" the wheel for use, providing a wear-resistant surface to the perimeter of the wheel. The word "tire" thus emerged as a variant spelling to refer to the metal bands used to dress wheels.

Tire is an older spelling than tyre, but both were used in the 15th and 16th centuries for a metal tire; tire became the settled spelling in the 17th century. In the UK, tyre was revived in the 19th century for pneumatic tires, possibly because it was used in some patent documents, though many continued to use tire for the iron variety. The Times newspaper was still using tire as late as 1905.

The first practical pneumatic tyre was made by the Scot, John Boyd Dunlop, in 1887 for his son's bicycle, in an effort to prevent the headaches his son had while riding on rough roads (Dunlop's patent was later declared invalid because of prior art by fellow Scot Robert William Thomson). Dunlop, however, is credited with "realising rubber could withstand the wear and tear of being a tyre while retaining its resilience". Pneumatic tyres are made of a flexible elastomer material, such as rubber, with reinforcing materials such as fabric and wire. Tyre companies were first started in the early 20th century and grew in tandem with the auto industry. Today, over 1 billion tyres are produced annually, in more than 400 tyre factories, with the three top tyre makers commanding a 60% global market share.

Chronology
1843 – Charles Goodyear announces vulcanization
1846 – Robert William Thomson invented and patented the pneumatic tyre
1888 – First commercial pneumatic bicycle tyre produced by Dunlop
1889 – John Boyd Dunlop patented the pneumatic tyre in the UK
1890 – Dunlop, and William Harvey Du Cros began production of pneumatic tyres in Ireland
1890 – Bartlett Clincher rim introduced
1891 – Dunlop's patent invalidated in favor of Thomson’s patent
1892 – Beaded edge tyres introduced in the U.S.
1894 – E.J. Pennington invents the first balloon tyre
1895 – Michelin introduced pneumatic automobile tyres
1898 – Schrader valve stem patented
1900 – Cord Tyres introduced by Palmer (England) and BFGoodrich (U.S.)
1903 – Goodyear Tyre Company patented the first tubeless tyre, however it was not introduced until 1954
1904 – Goodyear and Firestone started producing cord reinforced tyres
1904 – Mountable rims were introduced that allowed drivers to fix their own flats
1906 – First pneumatic aircraft tyre
1908 – Frank Seiberling invented grooved tyres with improved road traction
1910 – BFGoodrich Company invented longer life tyres by adding carbon black to the rubber
1919 – Goodyear and Dunlop announced pneumatic truck tyres
1938 – Goodyear introduced the rayon cord tyre
1940 – BFGoodrich introduced the first commercial synthetic rubber tyre
1946 – Michelin introduced the radial tyre
1947 – Goodyear introduced first nylon tyres
1947 – BFGoodrich introduced the tubeless tyre
1950 – Vacu-Lug start to retread tyres in the United Kingdom
1963 – Use of polyester cord introduced by Goodyear
1965 – Armstrong Rubber introduced the bias belted fiberglass tyre
1965 – BFGoodrich offered the first radial available in North America
1967 – Poly/glass tyres introduced by Firestone and Goodyear
1968 – United States Department of Transportation (DOT) numbers required on new tyres in USA
1974 – Pirelli introduced the wide radial tyre