HISTORY OF A TIRE

About 5,500 years ago the wheel was invented. The first wheels were solid. Man’s use of the wheel changed a whole way of life. The earliest tires were bands of iron, placed on wooden wheels, used on carts and wagons. Wider and smoother trucks were needed because the carts could not travel through forests or over rough ground. The first roads were made. The man then began to use the wheel in other ways and simple machines were invented.

The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the word TIRE derives from "ATTIRE" because people started dressing up (attire) wheels by putting iron and or rubber bands on them, while other sources suggest a connection with the verb "TO TIE".

From the 15th to the 17th centuries the spellings tire and tyre were used without distinction, but by 1700 tyre had become obsolete and tire remained as the settled spelling. In the UK, the spelling tyre was revived in the 19th century for pneumatic tires, though many continued to use the tire for the iron variety. The Times newspaper in Britain was still using tire as late as 1905. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica states that " the spelling 'tyre' is not now accepted by the best English authorities, and is unrecognized in the US", while Fowler's Modern English Usage of 1926 says that "there is nothing to be said for 'tyre', which is etymologically wrong, as well as needlessly divergent from our own British older and the present American usage.

The fundamental materials of modern tires are rubber, fabric, and steel along with other compound chemicals. They consist of a tread and a body held by beads (wire bundles). The tread provides traction while the body ensures support. Before rubber was invented, the first versions of tires were simply bands of metal that fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Today, the vast majority of tires are pneumatic, comprising a doughnut-shaped body of cords and wires encased in rubber and generally filled with compressed air to form an inflatable cushion. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, such as bicycles, motorcycles, cars, trucks, earthmovers, and aircraft.

The function of the Tire

A tire forms the juncture between the vehicle and the road. In that sense, it is no more than a component, but usually, one component carries out one function. However, it carries out four main functions:

1. Supports the weight of the car, people, and luggage
2. Absorbs shocks from the road
3. Transmit traction and braking force to the road
4. Help change and maintain the direction of travel

?To carry out the above main functions it has to be constructed as a resilient vessel of air.

IMPORTANT DATES:

??1843 – Charles Goodyear announces vulcanization which was later used for tire

??1846 – Robert William Thomson invents and patents the pneumatic tire

??The 1880s – John Boyd Dunlop begins taping pneumatic tires to bicycle wheels

??1888 – First commercial pneumatic bicycle tire produced by John Dunlop

??1889 – Dunlop patents the pneumatic tire in the UK

??1889 - Adolphe Clément sees a Dunlop pneumatic tire in London and acquires the French ????????????????manufacturing rights for 50,000 francs

??1890 – Dunlop, and William Harvey Du Cros begin production of pneumatic tires in Ireland; thickened beads, wire retainers, and shaped rims make taping tires to rims unnecessary

??1890 – Bartlett Clincher rim introduced

??1891 – Dunlop's patent invalidated in favor of Thomson’s

??1891 - The Michelin brothers patent a removable pneumatic tire, used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long-distance cycle race, Paris-Brest-Paris.

??1892 – Beaded edge tires introduced in the U.S.

??1893 – Cotton reinforcing cords have appeared

??1894 – E.J. Pennington invents the first balloon tire

??1895 – Michelin introduces pneumatic automobile tires, however, not successful; André Michelin uses corded tires in Paris-Bordeaux-Paris rally by 1897, they are standard racing tires

??1898 – Schrader valve stem patented

??1900 – Cord tires introduced by Palmer (England) and BFGoodrich (U.S.)

??1903 – P.W. Litchfield of the Goodyear Tire Company patents the first tubeless tire, which was introduced in 1954 by Goodyear on Packards

??1904 – Goodyear and Firestone start producing cord-reinforced tires

??1904 – Mountable rims introduced, allowing drivers to fix their flats

??1906 – First pneumatic aircraft tire

??1908 – Frank Seiberling invents grooved tires with improved road traction

??The 1900s – tire companies experiment with adding leather, wood, and steel to improve durability

??1910 – Silvertown Rubber Company (London) adds carbon black to white rubber, increasing durability

??1911 – Philip Strauss invented the first successful tire, which was a combination tire and air-filled inner tube. Strauss' company the Hardman Tire & Rubber Company marketed the tires.?

??1919 – Goodyear and Dunlop announce pneumatic truck tires

??1923 – first balloon tire, named for larger cross-section and lower pressure, introduced by Firestone: debut on the first Chrysler, the 70, in 1924

??1929 – solid automobile tires cease to be used

??1938 – Goodyear introduces the rayon cord tire

??1940 – BFGoodrich introduces the first commercial synthetic rubber tire

??1946 – Michelin introduces the radial tire

??1947 – Goodyear introduces first nylon belted tires

??1947 – BFGoodrich announces the tubeless tire

??1963 – Use of polyester cord introduced by Goodyear

??1965 – Armstrong Rubber introduces the bias-belted fiberglass tire

??1965 – BFGoodrich offers 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 the USA

??1974 – Pirelli introduces the wide (low aspect ratio) radial tire