We take some parts of the car for granted. For example, tires, which we pay attention to twice a year when changing shoes. Or when the traffic police warn that the tread is too low. And we no longer realize that tires have played a key role in the development of motoring.
In the beginning, it was the wheel. It took another few thousand years before the wheel was applied to cars and began to resemble the tire as we know it today. During that long time, several important moments had to enter its development. For example, natural rubber obtained by Spanish conquerors from the natives of the Amazon rainforest or the dwarf experienced by the American businessman Charles Goodyear. He was fiddling with rubber spreading when a piece fell on a hot stove. He quickly threw it to the ground and, after cooling, found that the mass was extremely flexible. Vulcanization was born.
It was just a step towards the birth of something like a tire. The Englishman Robert William Thomson filed a patent application in 1845 stating that the invention was characterized by the use of elastic bandages on the wheel arches, which were designed to reduce the force required to ride and make it calmer and less noisy. He inflated waterproof strips of sulfur rubber with air. Although he received the patent, in practice the novelty did not catch on.
John Boyd Dunlop was five years old at the time. Born in Dreghorn, Scotland, he studied the veterinary practice in Belfast. He married and soon his son John was born. The restless child had quite a big influence on the development of the tire. She rode her tricycle through the garden, which Mrs Dunlop carefully maintained. However, the narrow wheels left significant marks in the flowerbeds and lawns, so she vigorously asked her husband to do something about it.
However, the kind-hearted Scot did not want to ban his son from having fun, so it occurred to him that it was enough to extend the wheels in some way so that the grooves would not be so deep. He cut his rubber apron and glued the hose together, which he filled with air. He sealed the hole to keep the cartridge from leaking. The creature then wrapped it in canvas and held it on the bike with bandages. The veterinarian was satisfied, his wife would no longer be angry, he thought.
But that was not the end of the story, on the contrary, it all started. Charlie Edlin's older friend laughed at little Johnny's unusually decorated tricycle, but only until he raced with him. Dunlop Jr. won all the way. However, Edlin was the son of a local bicycle dealer who wondered how his descendant had lost. He went to the Dunlops to find out the cause. And when he saw what the wheels were covered with, it immediately set him on fire. Bicycles were experiencing a time of abundance, but riding them was not very comfortable. It could change air cushion travel. He persuaded the inventor veterinarian to file a patent application. The year was 1888.
New things are usually accepted with distrust, as has air-filled tires. It wasn't until May of the following year that they received compensation - during a cycling race, an outsider on a bicycle equipped with Dunlop's invention gave a tail to all the racers. One of the losers was the son of the president of the Irish Cyclists' Association, which, of course, was hard on the parent. However, he acknowledged that the novelty had a future, so he bought the patent from Scotland.
In 1890, new bicycle shoes began to be mass-produced in Dublin, and three years later the company opened a factory in Hanau, Germany. However, there was still a dispute between them, because Thomson's patent from 1845 came to the public. Patent protection has ceased to apply. However, the official championship belongs to Dunlop.
The Michelin brothers come on stage. In 1891, a Dunlop business branch was established in Paris. André and Édouard Michelin, who focused on bicycles, sensed an opportunity to improve interest in the sale item. The younger Édouard tried the novelty and said about it that "riding in the air is miraculous".
But they didn't like the tire sticking to the rim, so they bought technology that allowed it to be removed and possibly repaired. The growing popularity of carriages without horses, ie cars, did not leave them alone, so they began trying to develop air-filled tires for cars. It was a great success.
The Michelin brothers originally inherited an agricultural machinery factory in Clermont-Ferrand. And although they originally had other interests, they proved to be capable traders and visionaries. It occurred to them that they would need a symbol for their business, something to characterize them.
So they turned to Marius Roussillon at his home, who used the name O'Galop in the art world to come up with something. He was inspired by his fraternal activities and created a character from tires, which was named Bibendum. Its first version from 1898 would be more of a horror movie at the moment, but over the past 120 years, it has turned into a nice figure and, for example, was voted the best logo of all time by The Financial Times. But that's a different story.