Rubber tires came on scene in the middle of the 1800′s. They were not your standard discount tire of today, they were solid rubber not filled with air, and the rubber was the only thing that absorbed the shock of the roads, bore the weight of the vehicle and resisted damage through puncture–they could not be punctured as the had no air–and they could stand up to the abrasions and cuts that the road would sometimes cause. The light truck tires that are now filled with air are known as pneumatic tires. These came about in the early part of 1845.
At the time the solid rubber tires were preferred because of how durable they were. And so the pneumatic, or air-filled tires fell by the wayside. What brought the air-filled tire back into the public eye was not car or truck wheels, but bicycle wheels. By the end of the 1800′s, the bicycle was an extremely popular mode of transportation. During this time, John Boyd Dunlop, a veterinarian from Belfast, took out a patent for the air-filled tires for bicycles. The Michelin brothers, of the now famous tire manufacturing company, pioneered the use of pneumatic tires on vehicles and by 1895 the first car, driven by the brothers, was equipped with tires such as these, raced in the Paris-Bordeaux competition in France.
And although they did not win, they succeeded in creating an interest in their air-filled car tires. They created their first company in France, at a time that was perfectly coinciding with the solid rubber tires being banned, as they tended to wreak havoc on the roadways themselves. Again in Europe, the first steel belted radial tires were introduced to the public in 1948. These steel belts gave a bit more structure and strength to the pneumatic tires, making them more durable and extending the life of the tires. Now tires are such a common place item, but for a few hundred years, they were on the forefront of invention and creativity.
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