From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
WHEELS FOR THE WORLD: At the end of October 1887, John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish-born veterinarian with successful practices at Belfast and Downpatrick, having invented a number of rubber appliances for use in connection with his veterinary work, began to consider how he might overcome some of the vibration caused by the solid-tyred carriages and dogcarts in which he travelled about for his work. Intuitively, he felt that the answer lay in a new type of wheel, and that it might be possible to create a tyre which would also be fast on all kinds of surfaces encountered.
He mentioned the problem he had set himself to his nine-year old son, Johnnie, who rode a solid-tyred tricycle, often in the People's Park, Belfast, where he would race his companions on the smooth bicycle track which had been built there. But on the way home, Johnnie would encounter all sorts of other rough and uneven surfaces as well as the stone setts laid between tram lines.
Dunlop conceived a wooden disc 16-inches in diameter, and then made a tube from sheet rubber which he attached to the circumference of the disc with a layer of linen tacked down around the edges. Having inflated the tube and tied its opening, he brought it and the front wheel from Johnnie's tricycle into the covered yard of his Belfast practice.
He asked his assistant, John Cadwell, which he thought would be the faster. Without hesitation, Cadwell replied that it must be the smaller tricycle wheel.Dunlop said nothing but rolled the tricycle wheel down the yard. It failed to go the full length of the yard. Dunlop then threw the air-tyred disc. It travelled the entire length of the yard, hit the gateat the far end, and rebounded some distance.
Cadwell was sure that Dunlop was not applying equal force to both tyres, and tried for himself with similar results.
Excited by what he had just seen, Johnnie pleaded with his father to make similar tyres for his tricycle. Dunlop produced two tyres, now considerably refined in their detail, for the large rear wheels of the tricycle and affixed these to the rims on the night of January 28th 1888.
It was 10 p.m. before they were ready and, despite the late hour, Johnnie was sent out to try them under a clear sky and a full moon. At around 11 p.m. there was an eclipse of the moon, and Johnnie returned before this, very excited by the speed and comfort of the new tyres. Once the eclipse had ended, he went out again for a second longer run, returning home before midnight delighted and excited by the performance of the new tyres.
A detailed examinationof the tyres the next day showed no sign of scratches or any other damage. Thus was reborn the pneumatic tyre. Reborn because John Boyd Dunlop had to endure a rapid acceptance of his invention, followed by the discovery that it had been anticipated by a patent awarded to a William Thompson for an air tyre in 1845.
Despite this, it was clear that Dunlop had not been aware of the earlier patent. The Dunlop tyre continued in production, and was improved by various secondary inventions such as the two-way valve. Production was initially centred on Oriel House at 35Westland Row, Dublin (still visible today) but following prosecution by Dublin Corporation against the company for odious smells, manufacturewas moved from Dublin to Coventry.
Say it with Flowers: A popular competition on the continent in the early days of motoring was the decoration of cars with flowers, often called the "Battle of the Flowers". These events did not, apparently, catch the imagination of either motorists or the public in Ireland, and there are few records of them taking place. However, one such event was held in conjunction with the fête run by the Royal Horticultural Society at the RDS in Ballsbridge in 1904. As things turned out, the contest was something of a disappointment to the organisers, with only two cars turning up suitably decorated. The first prize was presented to a Mrs Westby, whose Argyll was decorated with arum lilies, azaleas and daffodils. The other competitor was Lady Valentine Grace, whose car was covered entirely with daffodils. The winner received a silver cup given by the Wolseley Car Company.