MEMORIAL TABLET

Hawera Star, Volume L, 14 February 1931, Page 13

MEMORIAL TABLET

THE PNEUMATIC TYRE. EARLY RIDICULE RECALLED. On December 9, .at Belfast, Sir William Coates, Lord Mayor of Belfast, unveiled a memorial tablet on the wall of the premises where the first pneumatic tyre to secure, commercial adoption was made by the late Air. John Boyd Dunlop. Air. Dunlop was a veterinary surgeon, credited with the largest practice in Ireland. In 1888 he took out a patent for his invention.

Mr. Dunlop had always been interested in problems of transport, and had often thought- of various types of “spring” wheels, with flexible rims. But he became convinced that no steel rim could long stand the bending and flexing strains that would be involved. Then it dawned on him that rubber was the material for the job. It was a complaint by bis nine-year-old son of the difficulty of riding over the uneven stone sets in some of the Belfast streets that turned Air. Dunlop’s idea into definite .shape, and the first experiment was made in the -business yard of the premises on which the memorial tablet has been placed. From sheet rubber one thirty-second of an inch thick he made an air tube and fixed it to a wooden disc with a

thin strap or cover of linen. Then he removed the front solid tyred wheel of his .son’s tricycle, and after inflating the air tube with a football pump lie carried the two wheels into his yard, in a casual tone he asked (his assistant which of the he I thought would travel furthest. “Ihe tricycle tyre, of course,” lie said. Mr. (Dunlop threw it along the yard, but it did not go the full length. Then he threw the air-tyred disc. It went the whole length of the yard and rebounded on the gate. His assistant looked puzzled and said lie could not have thrown them with equal force. So Mr. Dunlop gave him both the wheels and told him to throw them himself. He did, with the same result. The pneumatic tyre rolled to the end of the yard and rebounded backj a considerable distance. The pneumatic tyre had come into being. When the pneumatic tyre was firstintroduced on the English racing tracks it met with strenuous opposition. It was boycotted also by many cycle manufacturers. Its appearance on the racing tracks evoked ridicule. It was called a ‘‘steam roller” and was a source of unbounded merriment to the spectators. The opposition, however, merely had the effect of advertising the superlative qualities of the- pneumatic tyre, with the result that the cycle manufacturers were compelled to adopt it and in a very short time it was the universal equipment for all machines.