Dunlop, John Boyd

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Dunlop, John Boyd (1840–1921). Inventor. Dunlop was a vet from Ayrshire, who moved to Belfast and established a good practice. In 1887 he fixed air tubes to his son's tricycle and the production of tricycles with pneumatic tyres began in 1889. In 1892 he moved to Dublin but the development of his patent, which revolutionized cycling and greatly assisted motor transport, was left largely to others. The Dunlop Rubber Company became one of the industrial giants of the 20th cent. A patent similar to Dunlop's had been claimed in 1846: the key to Dunlop's extraordinary and rapid success was the use of rubber and the fact that cheap mass transport was urgently needed.

J. A. Cannon