Ever wonder how your wheel and tire package came to be? Here is a rundown or brief chronology of the major influences made on wheels and tires to date:
* 1843 – Charles Goodyear announces vulcanization
* 1846 – Robert William Thomson invented and patented the pneumatic tire
* 1888 – First commercial pneumatic bicycle tire produced by Dunlop
* 1889 – John Boyd Dunlop patented the pneumatic tire in the UK
* 1890 – Dunlop, and William Harvey Du Cros began production of pneumatic tires in Ireland
* 1890 – Bartlett Clincher rim introduced
* 1891 – Dunlop’s patent invalidated in favor of Thomson’s patent
* 1892 – Beaded edge tires introduced in the U.S.
* 1894 – E.J. Pennington invents the first balloon tire
* 1895 – Michelin introduced pneumatic automobile tires
* 1898 – Schrader valve stem patented
* 1900 – Cord Tires introduced by Palmer (England) and BFGoodrich (U.S.)
* 1903 – Goodyear Tire Company patented the first tubeless tire, however it was not introduced until 1954
* 1904 – Goodyear and Firestone started producing cord reinforced tires
* 1904 – Mountable rims were introduced that allowed drivers to fix their own flats
* 1906 – First pneumatic aircraft tire
* 1908 – Frank Seiberling invented grooved tires with improved road traction
* 1910 – BFGoodrich Company invented longer life tires by adding carbon black to the rubber
* 1919 – Goodyear and Dunlop announced pneumatic truck tires
* 1938 – Goodyear introduced the rayon cord tire
* 1940 – BFGoodrich introduced the first commercial synthetic rubber tire
* 1946 – Michelin introduced the radial tire
* 1947 – Goodyear introduced first nylon tires
* 1947 – BFGoodrich introduced the tubeless tire
* 1963 – Use of polyester cord introduced by Goodyear
* 1965 – Armstrong Rubber introduced the bias belted fiberglass tire
* 1965 – BFGoodrich offered the first radial available in North America
* 1967 – Poly/glass tires introduced by Firestone and Goodyear
* 1968 – United States Department of Transportation (DOT) numbers required on new tires in USA
* 1974 – Pirelli introduced the wide radial tire
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