John Boyd Dunlop

Tyres as we know them have been around for well over 100 years, it started in 1845 when Scotsman Robert Thompson first came up with the idea of an air filled chamber mounted on the outside of a wheel.

Unfortunately with few practical applications to drive it forwards and limited funds the idea faded away. Then in December 1887, another Scotsman, John Boyd Dunlop was watching his son ride his tricycle across an uneven stone cobbled yard and thought how much easier it would be if the wheels were soft and could absorb the bumps. He made a wooden disk and mounted an air filled rubber tube covered with linen cloth on the outside and the tyre industry was born.



Beaded edge tyres

Many different methods were thought of to mount the tyre onto a wheel and many patents were lodged with claims and counter claims from various companies. However, the most popular tyre design to come out was the beaded edge system (popular between 1890-1925), the tyre had a groove on its side which corresponded with a ridge or clinch on the wheel rim and was held in place with the pressure of air within it, which had to be maintained at sometimes up to 100 psi.
In Europe these tyres were measured in millimetres, in America they were measured in inches and were called Clincher tyres. The measurements referred to the overall tyre dimension and bore no reference to the wheel rim diameter. This system was widely used on both cars and motorcycles up to the mid 1920's when they were superseded by the wired-on system.