Michelin and Dunlop – Separated by Birth, Intertwined by Fate!
We all know what tyres are. It’s so commonplace that you see dozens, if not hundreds of them every single day.
You see them on cars, bikes, cycles, trucks and every other transport conceivable. Even aeroplanes have it!
It’s easy to take such things for granted and never give them a second thought.
But if we did, we’d see that the story of tyres is a fascinating one as any other. It has been developed over hundreds of years filled with dazzling advances as well as gut-wrenching setbacks.
When you buy new tyres in Sandy from the vast inventory of Sandy Auto Centre tyres, there is a long legacy behind how it came to be.
Let’s have a look at that legacy.
Early Years!
The wheel was invented in around 3500 B.C. That’s almost 5500 years ago. The earliest wheels used solid wood or metal.
Of course, tyres are much younger. The first step towards making them came when Charles Goodyear vulcanised rubber in 1839 to make it much more firm and durable. You might recognise the name as there is a major tyre company named after him.
A few years later, Robert William Thompson created the first pneumatic tyre in 1847. However, the design was so costly that it wasn’t practical to mass-produce it.
The Beginning of the Modern Tyre…
The year was 1888. The place, Belfast. John Boyd Dunlop was watching his son struggle on his tricycle as he tried to negotiate the rough pavements of the city. This led the way for him to develop the first pneumatic tyre that was both practical and cost-effective.
These tyres became extremely popular. However, initially, Dunlop never thought of applying these tyres on anything else but bicycles.
Enter Andre Michelin. Yes, the same Michelin from Michelin tyres! He has the enviable record of applying pneumatic wheels on automobiles for the first time in 1895. This just paved the way for modern car tyres as we know them.
Later Innovations
Like most inventions, tyres have been updated and modified multiple times over the years. Tubeless tyres came into existence in 1903.
Between 1908 and 1937, there were many minor alterations to the tyre such as the invention of grooved tyres, the addition of carbon in rubber to make it last longer and the first synthetic rubber tyre.
The next breakthrough came in 1946 when Michelin developed the radial tyre. It had a much longer lifespan and a host of other advantages that made it the prevalent tyre of that time. Michelin had also developed the run-flat tyres in 1934, but they became popular much later. Nowadays, most people opt for the run-flat ones when they Buy Tyres Sandy and all across the UK.
Latest Developments
Researchers continued to modify the tyre throughout the second half of the last century. More recently, non-pneumatic tyres (NPE) have come into existence. These tyres are airless and mostly fit in smaller automobiles such as electric cars. There is substantial research going on in this field from various tyre companies, and the future of tyres looks satisfactory at this moment.
Did you know that the humble tyre had such a long and colourful history? Remember it the next time you buy new tyres at Sandy.
You see them on cars, bikes, cycles, trucks and every other transport conceivable. Even aeroplanes have it!
It’s easy to take such things for granted and never give them a second thought.
But if we did, we’d see that the story of tyres is a fascinating one as any other. It has been developed over hundreds of years filled with dazzling advances as well as gut-wrenching setbacks.
When you buy new tyres in Sandy from the vast inventory of Sandy Auto Centre tyres, there is a long legacy behind how it came to be.
Let’s have a look at that legacy.
Early Years!
The wheel was invented in around 3500 B.C. That’s almost 5500 years ago. The earliest wheels used solid wood or metal.
Of course, tyres are much younger. The first step towards making them came when Charles Goodyear vulcanised rubber in 1839 to make it much more firm and durable. You might recognise the name as there is a major tyre company named after him.
A few years later, Robert William Thompson created the first pneumatic tyre in 1847. However, the design was so costly that it wasn’t practical to mass-produce it.
The Beginning of the Modern Tyre…
The year was 1888. The place, Belfast. John Boyd Dunlop was watching his son struggle on his tricycle as he tried to negotiate the rough pavements of the city. This led the way for him to develop the first pneumatic tyre that was both practical and cost-effective.
These tyres became extremely popular. However, initially, Dunlop never thought of applying these tyres on anything else but bicycles.
Enter Andre Michelin. Yes, the same Michelin from Michelin tyres! He has the enviable record of applying pneumatic wheels on automobiles for the first time in 1895. This just paved the way for modern car tyres as we know them.
Later Innovations
Like most inventions, tyres have been updated and modified multiple times over the years. Tubeless tyres came into existence in 1903.
Between 1908 and 1937, there were many minor alterations to the tyre such as the invention of grooved tyres, the addition of carbon in rubber to make it last longer and the first synthetic rubber tyre.
The next breakthrough came in 1946 when Michelin developed the radial tyre. It had a much longer lifespan and a host of other advantages that made it the prevalent tyre of that time. Michelin had also developed the run-flat tyres in 1934, but they became popular much later. Nowadays, most people opt for the run-flat ones when they Buy Tyres Sandy and all across the UK.
Latest Developments
Researchers continued to modify the tyre throughout the second half of the last century. More recently, non-pneumatic tyres (NPE) have come into existence. These tyres are airless and mostly fit in smaller automobiles such as electric cars. There is substantial research going on in this field from various tyre companies, and the future of tyres looks satisfactory at this moment.
Did you know that the humble tyre had such a long and colourful history? Remember it the next time you buy new tyres at Sandy.
Comments
Post a Comment