A Brief History of Tires: Solid Rubber to Steel Bands
Tires have come a long way and they weren’t even credited to the correct inventor due to a lack of demand. The story of what we consider the modern tire began over 175 years ago in Scotland.
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Early beginnings
The first tires were made of solid rubber and appeared in the mid-1800s. Unfortunately, the solid rubber would not absorb shocks very well, resulting in a bumpy and unpleasant ride. John Boyd Dunlop is credited by some with creating the first air-filled, or pneumatic, tires in 1888. However, pneumatic tires were actually invented in 1845 by a Scotsman named Robert William Thomson.
Thomson’s tire, which he called “Aerial Wheels,” consisted of a rubber tube filled with air inside a leather sleeve. Unfortunately for Thompson, this invention came about too early, as bicycles weren’t yet popular enough to create high demand. That coupled with high production costs caused them to fall into obscurity. When John Dunlop “reinvented” tires in 1888 with canvas and rubber pieces instead of leather, they were a success.
Photo: Clem Rutter via CC
The first tires for cars
The first pneumatic car tires, which were made with diagonal rubber cords, were pioneered by the Michelin brothers. They equipped a racecar called L’Éclair with them and drove it in the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux race. Although they didn’t win, their new tires generated great interest and pneumatic tires soon became the norm for cars. This was helped along by legislation that discouraged solid rubber tires, which were bad for the quality of roads.
Fun fact: The word “tire” is a shortened version of “attire” because a tire was considered a dressed wheel.
New kinds of tires
In 1946, Michelin came out with a steel-belted radial tire in Europe. These new tires were made using nylon, rayon, or polyester along with rubber that was reinforced with steel fabric. These tires lasted longer, were easier to steer with, had less road resistance, and increased gas mileage. However, they were more expensive to make and required an entirely different suspension. Despite the difficulties, these new tires were successful outside of the U.S. In America, car manufacturers saw the new tires as too expensive to make for a market that they thought wouldn’t be willing to buy them, so they stuck with the older tires.
Photo: Alden Jewell via CC
Crisis and change
In the late 1960s, Goodyear decided to try and break into the market with a tire that added a fiberglass belt to the older, diagonal-cord tires, increasing their life by several thousands of miles. However, when the gasoline crisis hit in 1973, Americans started buying more and more imported cars, equipped with the newer steel fabric tires. The demand for the new tires rose even higher when people found out that they increased fuel efficiency.
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While there are many different varieties of tires available — light-medium duty, heavy-duty, all-terrain, off-road, winter, etc. — those steel fabric tires are the basic blueprint of what we know today.
Ben never thought he’d be writing about cars for a living, but here he is, knowing more about the Kia Stinger than he’d care to admit. When he’s not devoting his time to researching engine specs and other oh-so-exciting car details, he can be found enjoying time with his wife and dogs. See more articles by Ben.