Travelling In Comfort John
Boyd Dunlop was born into a farming family in Dreghorn in Ayrshire in
1840. He was a veterinary surgeon by profession. He qualified at
Edinburgh Veterinary College when he was only 19 years old. After
working in Edinburgh for ten years, he moved to Belfast.
Dunlop
built up a large practise in Ireland but he found the rough roads and
the wood, iron or solid rubber wheels a decidedly uncomfortable way to
travel. He decided to experiment with his son's tricycle to try and
remedy the problem. He discovered a design based on an inflated rubber
tube in 1887 and patented it the following year.
Unbeknownst to
Dunlop, another Scotsman called Robert William Thomson had patented the
idea in 1845. But he went ahead and established the Dunlop Rubber
Company. He soon had to fight and win a legal battle with Thomson.
He
didn't benefit financially from his invention as he sold the patent and
company name early on. Despite Thomson's earlier work, Dunlop is still
credited with the invention of the modern rubber tyre. Dunlop retired
to Dublin and died there in 1921.
