The Scottish veterinarian John Dunlop, who lived in Belfast, was constantly concerned about the accidents his son had riding his tricycle, with its metal wheels, over the rough cobblestone streets. The wheels would bump, tip the bike, send the lad sprawling. Determined to make the tricycle ride more smoothly, Dunlop got hold of rubber tubes, filled them with compressed air, fitted them on the wheels of the tricycle. Thereafter, the lad found himself ‘riding on air’.
By 1891, the pneumatic tyre was being produced by the George R. Bidwell Cycle Company of New York City. A year later, Alexander T. Brown and George F. Stillman of Syracuse, New York patented a pneumatic automobile tyre for horseless carriages. In 1895, the pneumatic tyre was being manufactured by Hartford (Conn.) Rubber Works, and in that year a Duryea race car rode the tyres to their 1st victory.
